Have you ever been in a developer collective that tried to do everything without suits?
No managers.
No PMs.
No meetings (hallelujah).
No email threads that start with “Hi All,” and end with 19 “+1” replies.
It felt glorious. It felt like freedom. Until… it didn’t.
In theory:
“If we just focus on the code, the product will speak for itself.”
In practice:
“Who’s doing contracts?”
“Did anyone file taxes?”
“What’s our pitch deck look like?”
“Wait, we needed insurance?”
“Why is the logo a GIF of a dancing frog?”
The code-only utopia is like a perfectly architected system with zero user onboarding, no error logs, and an unreachable support email.
It works… until the first human shows up. Then you need other humans to interact with those humans.
Let’s drop the stereotype: suits are not just salespeople with shiny shoes and buzzwords.
The "suit" is a layer. And that layer comes in many forms:
Lawyers who keep you from building the next FTX by accident.
Accountants who stop the collective from being a tax nightmare.
HR pros who ensure your “flat structure” doesn’t flatline from internal conflict.
Brand people who make sure your site doesn’t look like it was designed in Notepad.
Marketers who know how to actually talk to users (in human, not regex).
Strategists who tell you that your “revolutionary” app already exists and is called WhatsApp.
A Project Manager to figure out what process is first and last.
An Account Manager, someone the client puts a shoulder on to weep and someone to celebrate the big wins.
Event organizers, is there enough food, should those two sworn enemies sit together? what color of table clothes much the Gold of brand X.
Without these layers, your collective turns into a rogue Git repo with 5 README files and no product-market fit.
Developers are kings of automation.
We dream in scripts. We deploy bots like medieval armies. We write ourselves out of jobs for fun.
But here's the punchline no one talks about:
Automation will eat everyone — including the suits, the devs, and the docs.
The future isn’t human vs. AI.
It’s humans managing, fixing, and wrangling AI — while trying not to be replaced by it.
All the "brain jobs" — writing, marketing, accounting, even coding — are getting splintered into micro-gigs.
Welcome to the Gigaverse: where everyone is a plug-in.
Not the devs building the AI.
Not the marketers running campaigns.
Not even the suits closing deals on yachts.
Not the Event Managers, Account Managers or any other Manager.
The biggest winners?
The ones in overalls.
The ones with spanners.
The people who fix the robots when they go weird at 3am.
The ones who keep the machine running — and bill hourly.
Plumbers for AI.
Mechanics for Systems.
Full-stack, full-brain, full-hustle operators.
Because as it turns out:
The machine doesn't replace everyone.
It still needs oil.
And someone’s gotta show up when the smart fridge starts mining crypto, using up so much energy nothing else in the house lights up.
The future isn’t about replacing suits.
It’s about building a system where each person — from code poet to compliance ninja — has a slot.
A DAO?
Automated DAO?
A smart organization with layers, not ladders. Yes please.
A system that:
Pays fairly.
Tracks value contribution.
Allocates resources by effort + impact, not just talk time on Zoom.
Stores all promises made on chain, hakuna kuruka.
A system that understands:
We’re all gig workers now — unless we build a collective that makes gigs worth doing.
Developers are brilliant.
Suits are necessary.
Everyone else is essential.
And if you're not the one designing the system,
You're probably just a plug-in.
It’s time for a reckoning.
Let bygones be bygones. The future demands collaboration over ego and systems over sentiment.
Let’s start using blockchain for trust, AI for accountability, and build a layered model of working together — one that respects skills, measures contribution, and ensures everyone gets their due.
Making money isn’t about friendships.
But trust is non-negotiable.
Let’s build systems where your word, your work, and your worth are aligned — openly, transparently, and on-chain.
Fabian Owuor
