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  Anthropic Just Bought a Dev Tools Startup for $300M. Here's What Its Founder
  Told Me.
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  If your MCP server has dozens of tools, it's probably built wrong. You need
  tools that are specific and clear for each use case—but you also can't have
  too many. This creates an almost impossible tradeoff that most companies don't
  know how to solve. That's why we interviewed Alex Rattray, the founder and CEO
  of Stainless. Stainless builds APIs, SDKs, and MCP servers for companies like
  OpenAI and Anthropic. Alex has spent years mastering how to make software talk
  to software, and he came on the show to share what he knows. We get into MCP
  and the future of the AI-native internet. [Disclosure: Dan is a small investor
  in Stainless.] If you found this episode interesting, please like, subscribe,
  comment, and share. To hear more from Dan Shipper: Subscribe to Every:
  https://every.to/subscribe Follow him on X: https://twitter.com/danshipper Get
  started with Braintrust at https://www.braintrust.dev/ Timestamps: 00:01:15 -
  Introduction 00:05:09 - APIs and MCP, the connectors of the new internet
  00:11:00 - Why MCP exists 00:17:15 - Why MCP servers are hard to get right
  00:20:24 - Design principles for reliable MCP servers 00:25:06 - Using MCP for
  business ops at Stainless 00:40:57 - Alex's take on the security model for MCP
  00:44:42 - How one-off AI actions become permanent production software Links
  to resources mentioned in the episode: Alex Rattray: Alex Rattray
  (@RattrayAlex), Alex Rattray Stainless: https://www.stainless.com/
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updated: '2026-10-24T01:08:07.670Z'
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# Anthropic Just Bought a Dev Tools Startup for $300M. Here's What Its Founder Told Me.

If your MCP server has dozens of tools, it's probably built wrong. You need tools that are specific and clear for each use case—but you also can't have too many. This creates an almost impossible tradeoff that most companies don't know how to solve. That's why we interviewed Alex Rattray, the founder and CEO of Stainless. Stainless builds APIs, SDKs, and MCP servers for companies like OpenAI and Anthropic. Alex has spent years mastering how to make software talk to software, and he came on the show to share what he knows. We get into MCP and the future of the AI-native internet. \[Disclosure: Dan is a small investor in Stainless.] If you found this episode interesting, please like, subscribe, comment, and share. To hear more from Dan Shipper: Subscribe to Every: https://every.to/subscribe Follow him on X: https://twitter.com/danshipper Get started with Braintrust at https://www.braintrust.dev/ Timestamps: 00:01:15 - Introduction 00:05:09 - APIs and MCP, the connectors of the new internet 00:11:00 - Why MCP exists 00:17:15 - Why MCP servers are hard to get right 00:20:24 - Design principles for reliable MCP servers 00:25:06 - Using MCP for business ops at Stainless 00:40:57 - Alex's take on the security model for MCP 00:44:42 - How one-off AI actions become permanent production software Links to resources mentioned in the episode: Alex Rattray: Alex Rattray (@RattrayAlex), Alex Rattray Stainless: https://www.stainless.com/

Canonical: https://liquidgold.cc/watch/diXNk8ibJVk · Channel: [Every](https://liquidgold.cc/channel/everyinc.md)

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