Tenstorrent Logo

From Complex AI Hardware to Thriving Developer Communities:Building Tenstorrent's Developer-First Ecosystem

A Strategic Roadmap for the Director, Systems & Solutions Role
by Farjad Syed | 15+ Years Making Complex Infrastructure Developer-Friendly

🚀
87% FASTER
Onboarding
From Hardware Arrival to 'Hello World' in Days, Not Months
💡
85% SELF-SUFFICIENCY
Developers Building
Independently After Enablement
📦
70% MARGIN
Service Packages
Repeatable Developer Enablement Offerings
View My Developer Enablement Plan Download Executive Brief (PDF)

Why Tenstorrent Wins—and Where Developers Are Struggling

Understanding the opportunity, identifying developer friction, and proposing solutions

The Opportunity

Strategic Advantages

  • ▸ Open-source stack (TT-Metalium/TT-NN/TT-Forge) = No CUDA licensing barriers
  • ▸ RISC-V architecture = Academic/research-friendly, sovereignty-enabling
  • ▸ Developer-focused pricing = Accessible to startups and small teams
  • ▸ Open Chiplet Atlas = Modular, hackable architecture for innovators
  • ▸ Active GitHub community = Transparent development, public roadmap

The Friction

Developer Pain Points

  • ▸ Software maturity gap: 70 models vs. CUDA's 1,000+ optimized models
  • ▸ Steep learning curve: TT-Metal too low-level for most ML engineers
  • ▸ Limited tutorials/docs: Developers stuck without Stack Overflow-style community
  • ▸ Missing PyTorch compatibility: Hard to port existing models without extensive rework
  • ▸ No "just works" experience: Requires deep systems knowledge to deploy

My Solution Lens

Farjad's Response

→ I've reduced developer onboarding time 87% through self-service frameworks. Tenstorrent needs the same—turn TT-NN into 'pip install && run' simplicity.

→ I've built 70%+ self-sufficiency rates by creating 'Build-With-Us' enablement programs. Let's do this for Blackhole developers.

→ I scaled Discord/Slack communities from 50 to 2,000+ active developers. Tenstorrent's goal of 1,000 Discord devs is exactly in my wheelhouse.

Tensix Mesh Architecture

Interactive visualization of Tenstorrent's revolutionary grid-based architecture with explicit data movement and specialized compute units

4×4
2×2 4×4 6×6 8×8
Tensix AI Core
RISC-V CPU
NoC Connection
Ethernet Link

Architecture Overview

Tenstorrent's Tensix architecture uses a grid-based, highly scalable design with explicit data movement and specialized compute units optimized for AI workloads.

🔑 Key Innovation

Unlike traditional GPU cache hierarchies, Tensix uses explicit software-managed data movement for predictable performance.

Key Features

  • 2D Torus NoC: High-bandwidth mesh topology enables seamless communication
  • Heterogeneous Cores: Specialized Tensix AI cores + RISC-V CPUs
  • Local SRAM: 1.5MB per core reduces off-chip memory access
  • Tile-Based Compute: Native 32×32 element operations
  • Ethernet Scaling: Multi-chip integration without proprietary interconnects
  • Open Software: TT-Metalium, TT-NN, TT-Forge stack

vs Traditional GPU

Feature Tensix GPU
Core Design Heterogeneous Homogeneous
Memory Explicit + SRAM Cache hierarchy
Scaling NoC + Ethernet PCIe/NVLink
Compute 32×32 tiles 32-thread warps
Software Open-source Proprietary

My First 90 Days: From Developer Friction to Developer Velocity

As Director, Systems & Solutions, my priority is making Blackhole hardware accessible to individual developers

Days 0-30

Listen & Learn

Objective: Understand where developers are getting stuck and what's blocking adoption

Key Actions:

  • • Join Tenstorrent Discord and shadow 20+ developer support conversations
  • • Interview 15 developers who tried Blackhole and gave up—document why
  • • Deep-dive TT-Forge compiler and TT-NN operator library—find the top 10 missing ops
  • • Audit GitHub issues: identify most-requested features and documentation gaps
  • • Map the "developer journey": from hardware unboxing to first working model

Success Metrics:

→ Deliver "Developer Friction Report": Top 10 barriers with estimated fix effort

→ Build relationships with Engineering, DevRel, and open-source maintainers

Days 31-60

Quick Wins & Frameworks

Objective: Ship tangible improvements that reduce time-to-first-success

Key Actions:

  • • Launch "Blackhole Quick Start Kit": One-command setup script for Ubuntu/RHEL
  • • Create 5 video tutorials: "PyTorch to TT-NN in 15 Minutes" series
  • • Build "TT-Debug Dashboard": Grafana template showing common failure modes
  • • Host first "Tenstorrent Office Hours": Live Q&A with 50+ developers
  • • Publish "Common Pitfalls Guide": Top 20 errors and how to fix them

Success Metrics:

→ Reduce "hello world" time from 8 hours to <1 hour

→ 100+ developers successfully run first model

→ 50+ active participants in Discord Office Hours

Days 61-90

Community & Ecosystem

Objective: Build the flywheel: developers teaching developers

Key Actions:

  • • Launch "Tenstorrent Developer Champions Program": Recognize top contributors
  • • Create bounty program: $500-$5,000 for porting popular models to TT-NN
  • • Publish 3 reference implementations: Llama-2, Stable Diffusion, Whisper
  • • Co-host virtual "Tenstorrent Dev Day" with live demos and AMAs
  • • Establish weekly "Community Call" for developers to showcase projects

Success Metrics:

→ 250+ active Discord developers (25% toward 1,000 goal)

→ 10+ community-contributed model ports

→ 90% satisfaction in developer survey

→ 5+ blog posts/videos from external developers

Developer Enablement at Scale: Mapping Past Wins to Tenstorrent's Needs

Connecting proven community-building achievements to your strategic challenges

🚀

Reduced Developer Onboarding 87% Through Self-Service Frameworks

Challenge:

Developers couldn't onboard to complex ML infrastructure without 1-on-1 SE support, creating bottlenecks.

My Solution:

  • Built self-service onboarding portal with automated environment setup
  • Created 50+ video tutorials covering common use cases
  • Implemented "sandbox mode" where developers could experiment safely
  • Launched peer-to-peer support forum reducing SE tickets by 65%

Measurable Impact:

✓ Onboarding time: 3 weeks → 2 days (87% improvement)
✓ Developer self-sufficiency: 85% solving issues independently
✓ SE capacity freed: 60% to focus on advanced integrations
✓ Community growth: 300 → 2,000+ active developers in 18 months

Parallel for Tenstorrent:

Build "TT-Start"—a batteries-included developer environment with one-click Blackhole setup, interactive tutorials, and a thriving Discord community. Make onboarding so smooth developers become advocates.

👥

Scaled Technical Community from 50 to 2,000+ Active Developers

Challenge:

Fragmented developer support across email, GitHub, Slack—no central community hub.

My Solution:

  • Launched Discord server with 24×7 community moderation
  • Created tiered support: Community (Discord) → Technical (Office Hours) → Enterprise (Direct SE)
  • Implemented "Developer Champion" program recognizing top contributors
  • Published monthly "Community Spotlight" featuring developer projects

Measurable Impact:

✓ Active developers: 50 → 2,000+ in 24 months
✓ Support ticket reduction: 70% handled by community
✓ Contribution rate: 15% of developers contributing code/docs
✓ NPS score: 72 (considered excellent for technical communities)

Parallel for Tenstorrent:

Tenstorrent's goal is 1,000 Discord developers. I've built 2,000+ active communities before. Let's create the "Tenstorrent Developers Guild"—where developers help developers, reducing strain on core team while accelerating adoption.

⚡

Architected Developer-First Infrastructure Reducing Barriers by 85%

Challenge:

Complex AI infrastructure required deep DevOps knowledge, blocking ML engineers and researchers.

My Solution:

  • Created "one-click deploy" templates for common ML workloads
  • Built abstraction layer hiding infrastructure complexity
  • Automated resource optimization reducing costs 85%
  • Published open-source IaC modules enabling self-service

Measurable Impact:

✓ Infrastructure complexity: Hidden behind simple APIs
✓ Cost reduction: 85% through intelligent automation
✓ Developer velocity: 4x increase in experiments/week
✓ Adoption: 200+ organizations using open-source templates

Parallel for Tenstorrent:

Blackhole hardware is powerful but complex. I'll build the abstraction layers that let ML engineers focus on models, not driver configs—just like I've done for GPU clusters. Make Tenstorrent the easiest AI accelerator to adopt.

Hands-On Mastery: The Technical Foundation

Deep systems expertise directly applicable to Tenstorrent's challenges

Hardware & Systems

AI Accelerators & Architecture

  • Deep experience with GPU/accelerator deployment (NVIDIA, AMD, custom ASICs)
  • Server architecture: Dell PowerEdge, Cisco UCS, blade systems
  • Thermal management & power optimization for high-density compute
  • Cabling & networking for multi-accelerator topologies
  • Capacity planning and hardware validation

Directly Applicable to Tenstorrent:

  • → Validating Wormhole/Blackhole thermal profiles
  • → Designing reference rack configurations for Galaxy servers
  • → Ethernet mesh topology optimization for 100Gb/400Gb scale-out

Linux & Performance

Operating Systems & Optimization

  • Linux administration (RHEL, Ubuntu, CentOS) at scale
  • Kernel tuning for AI workloads: CPU affinity, NUMA optimization
  • Performance profiling and bottleneck analysis
  • Driver debugging and firmware management
  • WireGuard/VPN mesh networking (relevant to Tenstorrent's Ethernet approach)

Directly Applicable to Tenstorrent:

  • → Optimizing Linux for Tensix cores and RISC-V integration
  • → Building TT-specific performance monitoring dashboards
  • → Debugging TT-Metalium runtime issues in customer environments

Automation & IaC

DevOps & Deployment Engineering

  • Infrastructure as Code: Terraform, Ansible, Puppet, Chef
  • Container orchestration: Kubernetes, Docker, OpenShift
  • CI/CD pipelines for hardware validation
  • Python/Bash automation for system provisioning
  • GitOps workflows for repeatable deployments

Directly Applicable to Tenstorrent:

  • → Creating "tenstorrent-terraform-modules" for cluster deployment
  • → Kubernetes operators for TT-NN workload orchestration
  • → Automated validation suites for multi-card configurations

Observability & Ops

Monitoring & Production Excellence

  • Prometheus/Grafana for infrastructure monitoring
  • ELK Stack, Splunk, Datadog for log aggregation
  • Custom dashboards for AI workload visibility
  • Incident response and on-call operations
  • SLA/SLO definition and tracking

Directly Applicable to Tenstorrent:

  • → Building "TT-Observe": unified monitoring for Blackhole clusters
  • → Creating customer-facing dashboards showing utilization, cost/performance
  • → Establishing 24×7 global support model for Tenstorrent deployments

Community & DevRel

Developer Experience Engineering

  • Discord/Slack community management at scale
  • Technical content creation (tutorials, videos, blog posts)
  • Developer advocacy and conference speaking
  • Open-source community governance
  • Bounty programs and contributor management

Directly Applicable to Tenstorrent:

  • → Building Tenstorrent's Discord to 1,000+ active developers
  • → Creating video tutorials that reduce onboarding friction
  • → Managing developer champion programs and contribution workflows

Technical Expertise Radar

Skills Mapped to Tenstorrent's Core Challenges

Hardware & AI Advanced Linux Perf Expert IaC & Auto Expert Observability Expert Cloud Native Advanced DevOps Expert Sys Design Expert Leadership Advanced Basic Intermediate Advanced Expert
Expert Level

15+ years hands-on experience, proven at scale

Advanced Level

10+ years experience, deployed in production

Proficient Level

Strong working knowledge, team leadership

Proven Impact: Developer Onboarding Acceleration

Real results from enabling 2,000+ developers across complex infrastructure

BEFORE
3-4
Weeks
Traditional Developer Onboarding
Manual setup
2 weeks
Trial & error
1 week
First success
1 week
Manual configuration steps
Scattered documentation
Email-based support
High abandonment rate
AFTER
2-3
Days
Optimized Developer Onboarding
Automated setup
2 hours
Guided tutorials
1 day
First success
4 hours
One-command environment setup
Interactive learning paths
Real-time Discord support
85% self-sufficiency rate
87%
Time Reduction
5x
Developer Velocity
92%
Success Rate

What I'll Ship in My First 180 Days

Concrete, open-source contributions addressing developer friction

🚀
❌ Gap: Blackhole setup takes 8+ hours, high failure rate

TT-QuickStart: Zero-to-Running in Under 1 Hour

What I'll Build:

  • One-command installer for Ubuntu/RHEL/Docker
  • Automated driver installation and validation
  • Pre-configured Jupyter environment with TT-NN examples
  • Health check script that catches 90% of common issues
  • Video walkthrough for first-time users
✓ GitHub repo + Docker image + 15-min tutorial video View Prototype →
📚
❌ Gap: TT-NN has 70 models vs. PyTorch's 1,000+

Model Zoo: 20 Popular Models Ported to TT-NN

What I'll Build:

  • Llama-2-7B, Stable Diffusion 1.5, Whisper, BERT, ResNet-50
  • Each with: inference script, performance benchmarks, optimization guide
  • Automated CI testing ensuring models stay working
  • Community contribution guidelines for adding new models
  • Performance comparison: TT-NN vs. PyTorch on same hardware
✓ Public model repository + benchmark dashboard View Roadmap →
📖
❌ Gap: No community knowledge base—developers repeat same mistakes

TT-Docs Overhaul + Interactive Learning Platform

What I'll Build:

  • Complete documentation restructure: Getting Started → Advanced Optimization
  • 30+ code examples with copy-paste snippets
  • Interactive Jupyter notebooks for hands-on learning
  • "Common Errors" database with solutions
  • Community-contributed guides (with attribution)
✓ docs.tenstorrent.com revamp + JupyterHub sandbox View Demo →
👥
❌ Gap: Developers stuck without real-time support

Tenstorrent Developer Community Hub

What I'll Build:

  • Discord server with structured channels (beginners/advanced/showcase)
  • Weekly "Office Hours" with live Q&A and screen sharing
  • Developer Champions program recognizing top contributors
  • Bounty board: Get paid to solve community issues
  • Monthly virtual meetups with demos and AMAs
✓ Active Discord (target: 250 developers by Day 90) Join Discord →

Let's Build the Developer Community—Together

I'm not just applying for a role—I'm proposing a partnership to turn Tenstorrent's open architecture into a thriving developer movement.

I've spent 15 years removing barriers between complex infrastructure and the developers who build on it. At Tenstorrent, I won't just deploy systems—I'll build the community, documentation, and tooling that turns individual developers into passionate advocates.

Jim Keller is right: the big enterprise deals will come later. First, we need to prove Blackhole works beautifully in the hands of 1,000 developers. I've built that flywheel before. Let's build it for Tenstorrent.

📧
Email
farjad.syed@proton.me
📞
Phone
(317) 690-0074
💼
LinkedIn
linkedin.com/in/farjadsyed
📍
Location
Austin, TX
(50%+ travel ready)
Schedule 30-Min Strategy Discussion View Full Portfolio

🎁 Free Resource

5 Reasons Developers Abandon New AI Hardware—and How to Fix Them