The Changelog · Tuesday, August 25, 2026
Buildkite's CTO, Lockland Donald, discussed how the company thrives by serving the fastest-moving tech companies, such as those in the Shopify or Uber class, that prioritize rapid iteration. He explained that Buildkite's approach involves providing well-engineered 'Lego blocks' that users assemble to meet their specific needs, offering superior scalability and performance compared to off-the-shelf solutions.
“The area that Buildkite has always thrived in is, is like this, like fastest-moving tech companies of the world's. Like, we've been disproportionately successful in that small niche.”
“And so, we've tended historically towards building like well-engineered Lego blocks that scale like orders of magnitude more than what our competitors does.”
“So, I think we've started from a position of like, really well-engineered Lego blocks, and then are kind of working backwards towards, kind of creating the thing that scales down to a startup that starts with one person and 10 agents next week.”