If 50,000 people stood shoulder to shoulder, that line would be over 15 miles long. They would require approximately 150 jumbo jets to transport to a conference. Or, assuming three seconds per handshake, that’s almost two solid days, without sleep, of shaking hands.
In other words, that's a lot of people. This week the Tailscale YouTube channel crossed the 50,000 subscriber mark. That’s astonishing. If you’re one of them, thank you. You’re the reason this whole experiment works. It's wild that so many of you have chosen to invite these videos into your days.
Why our channel exists at all
Given that Tailscale is a commercial entity, we’re in the unusual position of not needing the channel to pay for itself. This means we don't need sponsors or in-line ads. It gives us freedom to focus on creating useful, interesting content. Content that isn't algorithm-friendly or "optimized" in the usual YouTube sense. No clickbait!
Instead of thinking in terms of ad revenue or watch-time curves, we get to ask questions like:
- What would actually help people understand networking better?
- What sorts of videos would I want to watch from a company like Tailscale?
- How do we make this a useful resource, not an ad?
That freedom, and your willingness to engage with it, makes the channel what it is.
How's it been?
So far the channel has been built in a very scrappy way. Me, a camera, a stack of coffee mugs, some dodgy Final Cut Pro skills, and more retakes than I care to admit. It’s been a one-person practice, with many late-edits and middle of the night ideation sessions, but it's never felt solitary.
What you see on the channel is just the tip of the iceberg. I'd like to acknowledge the incredible Tailscale team I get to work with - it sounds cliched but what makes Tailscale great are its people and I truly am standing on the shoulders of giants.
I've always felt a deep connection to our community too, and they have been in the room every step of the way. Your comments and questions have guided the direction far more than any strategy deck could. In many ways, my job has simply been to curate, translate, and educate.
In the last 2.5 years the channel has grown from 1,500 to 50,000 subscribers, and from 6,000 to over 500,000 monthly views. And that growth has changed the question from “Can we make this work?” to “What should this become?”. It’s also a clear sign that people value this kind of thoughtful, technical, “Slow YouTube” approach—something deeper and more deliberate than typical tech content.
Where’s it going?
From here, the goal is to mature and broaden what the channel can do. That means expanding formats, tightening production, and making room for more voices and perspectives, which means scaling up the audience collaboration that’s already happening. More ambitious labs, clearer demos, richer behind-the-scenes explainers, improved visual polish (including animations), and more topics guided by your questions.
To make that possible, we’re actively thinking about hiring people who love teaching networking and want to help shape whatever this becomes next.
If you’re someone who enjoys explaining complex systems simply, thrives on curiosity, and wants to help build something educational and genuinely useful for the networking world, we’d love to hear from you. Whether your background is in teaching, content, networking, animation, editing, or devrel-adjacent roles—get in touch. We’re still shaping exactly what these roles will become, and the right people will help define them, so don’t hesitate to reach out, even if you’re earlier in your career or coming from an unconventional path. The Tailscale Discord server is a great place to chat with us.
Thank you for being part of the first 50,000. It’s been an incredible journey so far, and we’re only just scratching the surface of what this channel can become. Here’s to the next chapter, and to building it together.
Alex Kretzschmar
