Here’s an account of life at AccelerEyes from Vish, the first full-time employee at the company. Over the past 3 months, our company has doubled in size and Vish recently wrote the following to the new employees. We share here on the blog too to give a peek into our culture. If you are a great GPU programmer, you might be interested in joining our team too.
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Hello Everyone,
When I joined in early 2009, AccelerEyes was barely occupying a full cubicle. “Could this be a company?”, was my first thought. And yet, here we are, growing in size, reputation, and revenue!
I will always cherish those early days for the complete uncertainty as to the future – both mine and the company’s. We were just beginning to take shape, and I guess we all felt that the only way to move was forward. And I am glad that we – and I – have only been moving forward for the four awesome years I have been here.
The past four years have raced by at breakneck pace. I have dived into so many technologies, got a chance to speak to so many customers, fiddled around with so many systems, and learned more than I ever did in all my professional life. Its fair to say that AccelerEyes made me what I am today.
I’d like to say that I have tried my best to give back to AccelerEyes as good as I got. And yet, I can tell you that 4 years is barely enough to scratch the surface on what you can accomplish at AccelerEyes.
In fact, I sincerely hope that among all of you new hires, we see someone that’s willing to take up the mantle of creating fully automated, hands-off systems that (for once) do not mysteriously fail (Windows 32-bit, I hope you are listening).
I’d like to share some wisdom I have learned – about AccelerEyes, startup life, life in general, to all our new hires:
- Dive in. With all your heart. Ignore the naysayers (of which you will find plenty)
- Get out of your comfort zone, for that’s how you’ll learn!
- Don’t be afraid to say, “I don’t know.”
- But don’t ask for help as a first resort, but find the solution on your own as far as possible. And if you can’t, know when to ask for help.
- “Done is better than perfect” (some of the time).
- Never do something manually if you can automate it.
- Get accomplished at at least one of vim or emacs.
- Always keep our customers at the top of your priority list.
- And lastly, have a blast!
At AccelerEyes, I have opportunities to build real products and processes. I have opportunities to grow as an engineer and a person. And I have wonderful chances to make my mark on what will hopefully become a world leading company.
Sincerely,
Vish
