Sanket Sahu, CEO GeekyAnts: How to Build and Scale a Company to 400+ with Open Source

Links

- Codecrafters (sponsor): https://tej.as/codecrafters

- GeekyAnts: https://geekyants.com

- Sanket on X: https://x.com/sanketsahu

- Tejas on X: https://x.com/tejaskumar_

Summary

Sanket Sahu, founder and CEO of GeekyAnts, built a successful IT consulting company focused on web and mobile app development. Starting as a freelancer, he scaled the company to over 400 people, emphasizing problem-solving and strong culture. GeekyAnts began contributing to open source with NativeBase, transforming from a web shop to a mobile and web shop. This boosted their reputation, leading to global requests and organizing the largest React Native meetup group.

They developed GlueStack, a full-stack framework, and GlueStack UI, a component library prioritizing accessibility and performance. GeekyAnts explores AI for code generation and AI-driven workflows, building an engineering studio with a user-first and AI approach. They emphasize evolving every six months, customer focus, and quarterly OKRs. The future involves productized services, dev tools, and internal products.

In this episode, you will learn how Sanket Sahu built GeekyAnts from freelancing to a 400+ team, contributed to open source with NativeBase, and leveraged AI for growth. Discover their emphasis on problem-solving, culture, evolving every six months, and future plans involving productized services and dev tools.

Takeaways

1. Problem-Solving Attitude: Building a successful IT consulting company requires a problem-solving mindset at every level.

2. Open Source Contributions: Contributing to open source can build your brand and establish credibility, as seen with GeekyAnts' release of NativeBase.

3. Balancing Processes and Speed: Processes are essential for scaling but should not impede speed and innovation.

4. AI Integration: Exploring AI for code generation and AI-driven workflows can positively impact business by increasing efficiency and problem-solving capabilities.

5. Continual Evolution: Regularly evolving and rebuilding your company, as GeekyAnts does every six months, is crucial for sustained growth and adaptation.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Background

05:46 Starting Geeky Ants and Scaling to 400+ People

10:15 Transition from Developer to Founder

13:44 The Importance of Problem-Solving and Culture

19:05 Adapting to Changing Environments and Roles

26:04 The Role of Open Source Contributions

32:01 GeekyAnts' Journey into Open Source and React Native

38:15 The Impact of Open Source on GeekyAnts' Reputation

41:16 GeekyAnts: From Web Shop to Mobile Plus Web Shop

48:03 Solving Fragmentation and Unifying React Native

52:27 Introducing GlueStack: A Framework for Full-Stack Applications

56:15 GlueStack UI: Prioritizing Accessibility and Performance

01:03:59 Focusing on Visual Accessibility and AI

01:05:45 Exploring AI in Code Generation and Workflows

01:08:08 The Impact of AI on Business

01:10:05 Building an Engineering Studio with a User-First and AI Approach

01:20:10 The Importance of Evolving and Rebuilding

01:26:57 Using Quarterly OKRs for Planning and Objectives

01:29:57 The Future of GeekyAnts: Productized Services, Dev Tools, and Internal Products

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