Channel
Interviewed Person
Guillermo Rauch
Child prodigy is a phrase that’s often overused. Some youngsters are indeed talented, but to classify them as prodigious is, in so many cases, a reach, to say the least. Prodigies are once-in-a-lifetime talents who grow their gift in unimaginable and seemingly unreasonable ways. And while they can’t always be defined or understood, when the world sits back and marvels at the blossoming of their gifts, it is truly something to behold. What’s even more incredible is the many ways they apply themselves and their special talents to change those around them and, to a larger degree, the entire world for the better. My guest today is a man who checks every box if you’re looking to define a prodigy. Guillermo Rauch is the founder of Vercel and an amazing technology talent who began his entrepreneurship journey when he was a pre-teen. Since then, his contributions to the tech world have been legendary, and he continues to be a true champion for innovation while pioneering new solutions, philosophies, and application theories. Today, he joins us to discuss his amazing path, looking back and looking forward while giving us a glimpse into the incredible work he and his organization are focused on. If you’ve decided the time is right to begin making your mark, this is the discussion you’ve got to be a part of. In this episode: (1:12) – Guillermo discusses how his journey began. (1:54) – Guillermo has always been obsessed with how and why things work. (3:21) – Guillermo dives deep into his fascination with learning and coding on games. (5:40) – At the age of ten, Guillermo was a Visual Basic whiz. (6:14) – Migrating to Linux as it becomes his obsession. (6:38) – Linux was the so-called Final Boss. (7:29) – Code competition drives his interest and skill development. (8:24) – The sky is the limit with Open Source. (9:40) – At age 11, he becomes obsessed with becoming a hacker. (11:16) – Guillermo begins making money for his knowledge. (11:59) – Contributing to the household finances at age 12. (13:00) – Entrepreneurship and the cost/benefit analysis. (13:40) – The competing dynamics of business and school. (16:01) – Falling in love with JavaScript. (17:07) – Open Source and MooTools expertise have jobs chasing Guillermo. (18:38) – Guillermo expands on the beauty of Open Source. (19:52) – Working on React with social media leader Facebook. (21:10) – Working for startups at the age of 17. (22:14) – Web 2.0 enters the mix and his mindset. (24:12) - Guillermo becomes an angel investor. (26:02) – The birth of Vercel. (27:38) – The public iteration happens, and Guillermo has no regrets. (31:25) – Real-time breakthrough is what Guillermo is chasing. (32:07) – Where Vercel sits today and the difference they’re making. (33:49) – The next steps for Vercel. (34:33) – Vercel and AI. (35:04) – The burden of Legacy software. (35:30) – Modernizing software is the next frontier for Vercel and Guillermo. (36:04) – There is no shortcut to success. Our Guest Guillermo Rauch is a Software Engineer and CEO of Vercel. A native of Lanus, Buenos Aires, Argentina, he made his name and career via the web and Open Source. His early teens were spent advocating for and teaching others how to use solutions like Linux before later moving on to work with JavaScript and other forms of web development. Guillermo later joined MooTools core team and got his first full-time job at the age of 18 after relocating to the United States. A serial entrepreneur, his first company was Cloudup which was later acquired by Automattic, the company that powers WordPress. After several high-profile opportunities, he founded Vercel where he currently guides their corporate vision servicing companies like The Washington Post, Porsche, Under Armour, and Nintendo. Resources and Links Hawke Media https://www.linkedin.com/company/hawkemedia/ https://www.instagram.com/hawkemedia/?hl=en https://hawkemedia.com/ https://twitter.com/hawkemedia https://www.facebook.com/hawkemedia/ Guillermo Rauch https://vercel.com/ https://rauchg.com/about https://twitter.com/rauchg https://www.linkedin.com/in/rauchg https://www.instagram.com/guillermorauch/
[Music] all right you're listening to Hawk talk I'm here today with G Mo Rous how are you doing great thanks for having me Eric thank you for coming on love the background too by the way that's cool thank you San Francisco so to Dive Right In I assume you you're born you're in the delivery room and then you immediately start discussing technical capabilities of the hospital and start expanding off of what they're doing and
like from the beginning you were into technology correct you're not too far off not like from the hospital but really since a very very early age I think I've always gravitated towards like how do things work how do re how do I reverse engineer things and and so to take it back where did that come from like did you have engineering parents or like what what was it that brought you into that yeah both my parents were engineers uh one a chemical engineer my mom and my dad an industrial engineer my dad has specifically developed an interest in software kind of reluctantly
wanting to uh go back in time and change his career kind of thing and uh a lot of that engineering background rubbed off in me got it and when you like sincerely like what age were you when you started wanting to see how things work were you like two years old taking apart the radio or like yeah yeah my parents always tell me stories of like everything I was obsessed with like how how do things work and why why was like my most common question all the time like why do things work a certain way but I would say my oldest memory really
is I think what like really blew my mind was when we first got a computer at home and I remember even the first day and I must have been like six or seven years old I remember seeing that thing seeing the monor come online and just like breaking out and it was a oneway street and what did you like when you got that computer what were were you playing games on it like how did you start in terms of engaging with it yeah it was totally about playing video games first
but I remember my dad said one day cash like oh yeah and people create this games and you could create a game like this and that's that thought like really opened up it dis loded something in my brain in in a way because just the idea that you could also create the things on the machine not just use them really resonated with me another early memories was just like the idea of installing software the idea of doing more with what we had even and this is pre- internet right like the idea of just like getting a floppy disc or getting a CD and somehow
augment the functionality of the computer was something that yeah really blew my mind and then any way of extending the the systems where whether it was discovering a new capability cheat codes in video games to go further I remember like with uh early games like Duke Nukem like just like being able to type in a code and like do more with a video game and then you know being from Argentina like we we didn't always have
access to the latest and greatest so like finding ways to get new software was an exciting thing in and out of its own and how did you do that what were some ways you got access to that there would always be some neighbor or somebody that we knew that also had a computer which at that time was very few people in my neighborhood and just like exchanging floppy discs in first and then CDs and trying to get like something to work uh a lot of um demo Weare and trials like would always like
try to find like a 15-day free or 30-day free of some video game or some application figure I had to install it figure out I had to run it until we started like getting software that could build other software and that's what really set it all off and how old were you when you started like going from cheat codes and video games to actually building your own and start like you had that seed planted from your dad but when did you start doing yeah it wasn't probably too much later than us getting the computer to begin with like I would say probably like a year year later like I was I must have been seven or eight years old when I had my first uh you