What is Gun.io?

Y’all ever had to interview your boss? I’m totally fine, no pressure at all here. You might know him and you’re sure to love him— today we’re talking to the CEO of Gun.io, Teja Yenamandra. We’re covering the full origin story of the company paired with a little commentary on bringing humanity and empathy to the tech space.

If you want to hear everything said more eloquently than I could ever put it, tune in here.

If you want to read my best attempt:

What the hell is Gun.io? Well, in short, it’s a platform of collaboration. Developers are provided a platform to land new gigs and keep a steady flow of work while companies are handed a short stack of vetted developers customized to their needs. I’d call that a win-win situation. Devs— are you listening? No more working with recruiters or AI technicalities or interview processes that make you jump through 100 hoops and still leave you crossing your fingers. You’ll be working with a team of Technical Talent Advocates who understand how difficult the job can be because they’re developers themselves. Companies, you’ll be able to fast-track your entire process and have the opportunity to work with hand-selected world-class developers.

So here’s the speed date version of Gun.io's inception. It started as a platform with the sole purpose of getting hackers paid. But at the time, the price of work for software labor wasn’t exactly approaching the market rates that we now know. No one is out here wanting to do 20 hours of labor for $100, no matter what field you’re in. So they transitioned to cold calling AngelList companies and figuring out freelance jobs. Probably awkward, but it worked. Maybe I’m partial, but I think the pivotal point of this story is their determination to follow through and always make sure that things go well for both sides of the connection. Fast forward to a bigger talent pool, some added funding, and a track record with a large number of companies— Gun.io and Teja still hold on to the same value of empathy while understanding the balance of human and business needs. In an industry littered with billion-dollar tech companies who treat their developers like disposable commodities, we’re out here trying to do something different.

Yeah, I work there. But I truly believe that what we’re doing and the way we’re approaching the market is rare. Plus, he’s been able to build a great team. In the words of Teja, “Building a company is like building a really productive friend group.” The vibes can’t be off. And more importantly, you have to work on building a personal connection with the people you work with. And I’m not talking about sending an obligatory, “Hope everyone had a great weekend” message on Monday morning. I’m talking about building a strong enough connection that people feel safe to try new things and fail. It’s really hard to grow if no one ever makes any mistakes. So he’s made it a priority to lay the groundwork for a culture of experimentation.

Speaking of mistakes (aka corporate nightmare fuel), one of the biggest ones you can make is not going after something aggressively. There’s always a chance of failure no matter what you do, but is that good enough justification to live in a place of fear and missed opportunities forever? And that might be motivation for some people and a gentle reminder for others, but just go do the thing. Start a business. Quit your job. Propose that new idea to your boss. One day you might be having an employee write a newsletter about you.