Andrea Vargas wasn’t thinking about developers when she first encountered blockchain. As a trained actuary in Mexico, Vargas spent years studying distributed systems and how they could make industries like insurance more efficient. But it wasn’t until she stumbled into a talk by Avalanche co-founder Kevin Sekniqi in 2019 that everything clicked. Avalanche’s unique approach to consensus fascinated her; not only because it was new–it was different.

That talk changed the trajectory of her professional life. She launched into crypto, which eventually led to her current position on the Ava Labs Developer Relations (DevRel) team. “I was so impressed by the consensus model,” she recalls. “It wasn’t just about blockchain. It felt like something bigger…something for all distributed systems.”

The start of her career underscored a fascination with the technical challenges of the technology. She began answering questions in early Avalanche Telegram groups and offering technical explanations to strangers. She wasn’t even an employee at this stage. She was just a fan who had done her homework.

Eventually, Vargas’ curiosity turned into a thesis and that turned into a grant, which finally turned into a job. Today, she spends a lot of time thinking not just about technology but about the people who use it–specifically the gap between developers and builders. 

Speaking both languages

Vargas sees her role as a translator between two crucial groups in the blockchain ecosystem. There are the developers writing code and building tools. And there is a more diverse group of  builders that includes everyone from entrepreneurs to product managers. These are the people who create things but may not write the code themselves. “They get used interchangeably, but they’re not the same,” Vargas explains. “A developer can be a builder, but a builder isn’t always a developer.”

In a complex ecosystem like Avalanche that difference matters. For developers, Avalanche offers a deep stack of options. They can build dApps, deploy smart contracts, or even create their own interoperable, purpose-driven chains. However, variety can feel overwhelming. Without the right guidance, many see the complexity before the value.“In other ecosystems, there are only a few ways to build,” Vargas says. “With Avalanche, there are many. That’s great, but it can also be intimidating.”

Builders, meanwhile, might come to Avalanche with a vision but lack the technical skills to bring it to life. They might be focused on user acquisition or a go-to-market strategy. Vargas and her team help both groups find the right tools and, perhaps most importantly, each other.

Crypto’s approachability gap 

Vargas believes Web3’s biggest challenge isn’t technology. It’s making the technology feel approachable. “It’s not that it’s hard,” she says. “It’s that it’s intimidating.” Crypto comes with its own language and culture. For newcomers, even simple things like saying “good morning” can feel like deciphering code. That lack of belonging is one of the biggest obstacles to adoption and drives Vargas to find creative ways to break down these barriers to entry. 

Through workshops, tutorials, and the Avalanche Academy, her team aims to make the technology feel accessible. Their outreach includes content for both builders and developers, because Vargas knows the onboarding journey looks different for each. It also means creating spaces where people feel comfortable asking any question they might have without judgment. She encourages newcomers to ignore the fear of sounding naive. The biggest mistake in technology is pretending you understand when you don’t.

“I love talking to people who don’t use Avalanche,” Vargas says. “It helps me understand what message they are actually hearing, not just what we think they should hear.” Listening to critics is an important but often overlooked part of the work of translation. Without that feedback, attempts to bridge the gap between perception and reality would continue to fall painfully short. 

Data and the builder journey

Another aspect of Vargas’s multi-faceted approach to building bridges involves helping Avalanche better understand its community. The recently launched Builder Hub is a step in that direction. Designed to capture not just developer activity but the entire builder journey, from learning about Avalanche for the first time to joining an incubator or raising capital, Vargas wants the ecosystem to support people at every stage.

“You can’t just look at how many contracts were deployed and say that’s your developer base,” she says. “That’s not the full picture.” Indeed, part of the picture that’s invariably shadowed is where people drop off in the process. Determining the reasons for this drop is critical for crafting meaningful updates that will keep stakeholders engaged. Sometimes people drop because documentation is unclear. Other times, it’s because people feel isolated. If builders can’t see a path from learning to launching, they leave.

That’s where Vargas’s background in community management comes in. Before moving into DevRel, she led Avalanche community efforts across Latin America and Spain. That experience taught her that people often stick with an ecosystem not just because of the tech but because of the people around them. “Sometimes people stay because they feel seen,” she says. “Not because they understand every line of code.” That’s why she believes community is not a side activity for technical teams. It’s an essential part of their product experience.

If it’s not clear by now, this work has a deeply personal connection for Vargas. She’s the first to admit that when she started in blockchain, she thought she knew more than she did. “I had to unlearn and relearn a lot,” she says. “I thought consensus was just proof of work and proof of stake.”

That early experience shapes how she approaches developer education today. Start with the basics. Question assumptions. Make it okay to ask what seem like simple questions. She often attends beginner-level conferences just to see what she might have missed. Sometimes, she says, it’s the missing piece that helps the puzzle make sense. Crypto is full of myths and it’s easy to get stuck in narratives that oversimplify complex systems. The crux is reminding yourself that it’s okay to go back to the beginning. That’s when the real learning can start. 

Beyond industry buzzwords

Vargas tries to keep things grounded in an industry full of jargon and hype cycles. She’s not a fan of meme coins. She rolls her eyes at buzzwords like “data availability.” And she worries that too many people feel they have to stick to the narrative or risk being seen as outsiders.

Her bigger concern is that narratives often overshadow the fundamentals. Do we really understand the basics or are we getting lost in a sea of buzzwords? The answers aren’t always so clear. She sees this tension happen every time a new wave of hype takes over the conversation. “They try to put AI everywhere now,” she says, laughing. “Before, it was tokens. Everywhere, even where they didn’t belong.”

A better approach is to focus on user experience. Vargas believes blockchain will hit mainstream adoption only when products are so good people forget they’re on blockchain at all. If the industry can focus more on utility over ideology at this stage, deep adoption can take shape. 

What comes next

Looking ahead, Vargas is focused on smoothing the path for builders of all kinds. That includes simplifying tooling and expanding mentorship programs. She also wants to build a more inclusive space for people outside the typical developer profile. “Not everyone is a 25-year-old engineer from Silicon Valley,” she says. “We need to make room for different backgrounds and different ways of thinking.”

The Builder Hub is a vital part of that strategy. But Vargas sees it as part of something bigger. It’s a living system that will evolve based on community needs. That feedback loop, she says, is what separates a good DevRel team from a great one. The real work isn’t just about building exceptional tech. It’s about building real bridges between all sectors of the sector.