axo team update

Today I'm super excited to announce that Founding Engineer, Aria "Gankra" Beingessner is the new CTO of axodotdev!

When I originally posted the very first job req for axo back in the fall of 2022, Aria was one of the very first applicants. Formally, Aria and I had been acquaintances for more than 8 years- a date I am ball-parking based on a photo in my phone from the 2016 RustBelt Rust conference. But Aria’s reputation easily preceded any consideration I gave our personal relationship in my hiring decision. I’ll admit it was a huge compliment to have someone of her caliber even interested in what I was up to, let alone open to joining. On our first call, I immediately suggested she join as CTO; she very politely turned down the title, but agreed to join “on everyone else’s level”. Today, I’m excited to say she’s finally taken me up on the offer and doubled-down on her commitment to axo by stepping up into the CTO role.

For those unfamiliar with Aria, known to many as Gankra: her engineering work, particularly in Rust, is extensive and admirable, but her writing is truly in a class above. I encourage you to go read (or re-read) one of her classics such as The Rustonomicon or Learn Rust With Entirely Too Many Linked Lists. I also happen to think her post “release engineering is exhausting so here's cargo-dist” is still one of the most empathetic and hilarious articulations of axo’s purpose as a company.

Over the past year or so- my respect for Aria’s top-rate technical and personal skills, curiosity, and care for users has only deepened. She took my vague ramblings and executed on cargo-dist perfectly; it’s become a “household name” in the Rust ecosystem and only continues to grow in community and impact. Beyond cargo-dist, as the company has grown, Aria has increasingly taken on engineering management tasks- allowing me to tackle the long tail of “CEO tasks” on my plate. It’s been fantastic to have Aria to reliably delegate critical tasks to and I think the whole team has benefited tremendously. Aria has been able to navigate the rollercoaster of startup life, balancing a sense of urgency with a strong commitment to user experience and engineering excellence.

I’ve never been a fan of being a lone-wolf, and so starting a company as a solo founder was always something I was unhappy about. I couldn’t be happier to have Aria growing into this new role and I can’t wait to see all the cool stuff we’ll build together.

If you are interested in working with us- either as a teammate or a customer we have a few new job reqs up on our website as well as a new set of service packages. You can also always reach out at [email protected].