First of Kind

What can a dragon painted in a single stroke teach us about software?

Guillermo Rauch is the founder and CEO of Vercel. Growing up in Argentina, he taught himself English in order to teach himself programming, then went on to create Socket.io and other foundational technology for the real-time web. Along the way, he developed a cunning designer’s eye that became the competitive advantage for what is now a multi-billion dollar venture.

In this conversation with Soleio, Guillermo explains why he designed Vercel’s first command line in Sketch before writing any code, why layout shift erodes trust, and why his company won’t commit any “random acts of AI.”

Guillermo makes the case for why he’s not just chief executive. He is also chief designer.

00:00 Human Effort Is Still Underrated
00:44 Chief Executive, Chief Designer
02:33 Two Bets: Software and English
05:15 Gmail Was My Siren Call
11:06 Exposure Hours
14:49 Layout Shift and the One Stroke Dragon
17:10 No Random Acts of Al
25:17 Can Agents Have Taste?
30:15 Software Factories and Agent Customers
34:59 Everything Is Communication
38:04 A New American Story
41:52 Lifemaxxing

S3:E01 Guillermo Rauch: One Stroke Dragon
Hosted by Soleio and produced by Room 3: https://room3nyc.com @room3nyc

Guillermo Rauch: https://x.com/rauchg · https://rauchg.com

First of Kind is powered by
Framer: https://framer.com
Noon: https://noon.design
Grok Bot: https://x.ai/bot
Ramp: https://ramp.com
Vercel: https://vercel.com
Granola: https://granola.ai
Profound: https://tryprofound.com

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What is First of Kind?

The future belongs to designers who build. First of Kind is the story of design and tech told by its pioneers. Hosted by Soleio. Coproduced by Room 3. Sponsored by Framer, Noon, Grok Bot, Ramp, Vercel, Granola and Profound. firstofkind.com