Ep 61: High School Dropout to Billion-Dollar Startup; the Story of Guillermo Rauch & Vercel

How did a high school dropout from Argentina build a multi-billion dollar web infrastructure company that supports many of the world's largest companies and brands? This is the story of Guillermo Rauch, CEO of Vercel.
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At an early age, Guillermo developed a passion for open-source projects and began building websites and products for clients around the world at only 13 years old. He dropped out of high school to program full-time and eventually made his way to the U.S. where he's now leading one of the world's fastest-growing internet infrastructure companies. Walmart, Facebook, Mr. Beast, and many other industry leaders build and deploy products online using Vercel because of its superior reliability, functionality, and speed. If you want to learn more, check out this helpful explainer.
In this episode, Guillermo details his entrepreneurial journey, the origins of Vercel, and how he cultivates top engineering talent. We also dive into what precipitated Argentina's fall from global power, and why pessimism and political dysfunction may go hand-in-hand.
NOTE: This conversation was originally recorded in October 2022.

[@mithatercan]

His accomplishments serve as a profound source of inspiration and offer a wealth of knowledge to be acquired. The extent of his achievements is unequivocal and undeniable!

[@aridutilh]

great interview, I could listen to Rauch all day! the pessimism/optimism conversation was getting particularly interesting

[@AmericanOptimist]

Thanks for listening!

[@ShunKakinoki]

My personal hero for open source software & startups. He truly has accelerated the web and transformed many others. Truly a GOAT.

[@AmericanOptimist]

🐐

[@CardinalHijack]

It would be really interesting to know more about Guillermo's VISA process to the USA. It seems close to impossible to get a VISA into the USA without a job/sponsorship - which it sounds like he didn't have at the time. Having an open source portfolio is great but the USA wants to know how they can make money from you (Tax) - understanding Guillermo's approach and steps to this would be so interesting. It would also be interesting to know why he picked the USA over Europe when it seems like he had more connections there and was working with people there from 13 - or at the very least why he went straight to the USA and not europe as a stepping stone to the US.

[@swyxTV]

big admirer of what G has done with Vercel and consolidating the js ecosystem. you’ll probably never see this, but congrats!

[@AmericanOptimist]

Thanks! We'll pass it on to him :)

[@meenaagrawal747]

Tgd

[@jbridger9]

Wow this is great, love hearing Guillermo's backstory

[@AmericanOptimist]

Thanks for watching!

[@MarceloLCelio]

la visión que tiene! un genio!

[@RollingTree2]

Excellent interview.

[@AhmadAwais]

Y'all are doing amzing work! And man the good old days of phpbb, I used to write mod scripts for it. Could be more excited about the future of the web platform. ✨

[@silvestredelbosque]

Guillermo es lo mejor que hay ❤

[@JohnnyUtah269]

Never heard of this podcast but the guest I'm interested in

[@AmericanOptimist]

Thanks for checking it out.

[@spldrong]

Around 41:00 :
I often think how terrible it is that so many capable, motivated people waste their lives (and ours) being socialists

[@federicomolina4313]

Un crack

[@santiagomanuelgonzalez9894]

GOAT

[@1val]

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