Orchestras, Not Factories: How the Fastest Builders Work — Charlie Holtz, Conductor

"I honestly kind of hate the term 'software factory.'" Charlie Holtz, co-founder and CEO of Conductor, the desktop app for running many coding agents at once, has watched many of the best builders up close. He shares the principles they have in common. Stay near the frontier, but don't try to beat the market: if a workflow works for everyone, the big labs will build it into the default. Create "slop-free zones," like migrations, docs and skill files, that always get careful human review. Feed the beast by putting every Slack message, bug report and meeting into one database your agents can query. And give agents free range, with cloud sandboxes where they keep running after you close your laptop. Holtz demos a new version of Conductor that adds real-time collaboration and agents you can start from your phone. He closes with his case for orchestras over factories: humans at the center, conducting teams of people and agents instead of managing an assembly line. Speaker info: X/Twitter: @charlieholtz (https://x.com/charlieholtz) Related links: Conductor: https://www.conductor.build Timestamps: 0:00 Intro 1:05 What Conductor is 1:40 Principles from the best builders 2:00 1. Stay near the frontier 3:25 2. Don't try to beat the market 5:25 3. Create slop-free zones 7:25 4. Feed the beast 8:40 5. Free-range agents 9:55 Demo: Conductor in the cloud 10:45 Real-time collaboration 13:25 Starting agents from your phone 14:40 6. Orchestras, not factories 16:50 Recap