Interesting Data Gigs # 26: Software Engineer, Product Infrastructure at The Browser Company

The team behind Arc Browser, the most interesting thing on the Internet browsers space after Google Chrome

March 11, 2023

If you are not a subscriber of Interesting Data Gigs, join other 2305+ Data geeks (between LinkedIn and this newsletter) that receive it directly in their inbox each week — it’s free.

The best thing I can share about Deel today after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank? 

This message from Deel’s CEO and co-founder Alex Bouaziz:

Basically says that if you use Deel’s payroll system, your company will keep doing business as usual. Many founders today need this peace in their minds. So, using Deel you have it.

Hi Data geek.

There are a lot of things happening right now, and this won’t be a fun weekend for many founders and their respective companies out there. It won’t be easy, but I know you will pass this crisis and your company will go out stronger than ever.

You should know I’m rooting for you and for your team.

But I have to keep my promise to write to you every single week with an interesting perspective about interesting companies.

Today it’s no exception.

Today, I want to talk about The Browser Company (what a cool name for a company!!!) and its product called the Arc Browser.

If you never have heard about this company/product combo, I got you.

Let’s talk about the product first: Arc Browser.

To keep things simple (I love the simplicity), I just found a great video explaining WTF is Arc and why it matters for the future of the Internet:

I have not had the pleasure to use the browser yet, but I know for sure that if I present this product to my boss, he will finish the conversation with his mouth melted.

Why? Because when I see his browser, it gets me anxious about the number of open tabs he always has.

Anthony, I have to share this with you on Monday.

Arc seems so different and useful that I want to use it on a daily basis. Seriously.

Perhaps after this article, I will get a “seat at the table”.

I don’t know.

But, the Million dollar question: Why another browser? Let me explain.

Or even better, use these resources to get a better understanding of the grand vision behind Arc: The Internet Computer

wrote this piece called Internet Computers that definitely you must read

wrote a series about Arc as well:

Packy and Jacob added everything there. So, I don’t have to repeat the same here, and believe me: I won’t do a better job than them explaining this. It’s a must-read for these resources.

UPDATE March 21st, 2023:

You should watch/listen/read this conversation between and Josh Miller.

Josh gave a lot of tips about hiring there that could be very helpful when you will apply for a job at The Browser Company:

I wanted to highlight two things in this issue here: first, the caliber of the team, and then the opportunity to build something big from scratch.

Let’s start with the team.

The A-Team at The Browser Company

The company was co-founded by Josh Miller (CEO) and Hursh Agrawal (CTO), but let me give you just a quick overview of the caliber of the team that The Browser Company has amassed over these years:

  • Vivek Galatage: a veteran in the browser development space, especially WebKit and Chromium.

  • Darin Fisher (former VP of Engineering at Google who helped create Chrome browser and Chrome OS. What??? Yes). You can read about it here

  • Victoria Kirst (a former VP of Engineering at Glitch and Tech Lead for Google Maps at Google)

  • Ellis Hamburger (former Head of Marketing Strategy at Snap)

  • Dolapo Falola (Head of Engineering at The Browser Company): a seasoned Engineering Manager with deep experience in the field after work at Foursquare, Meta, and Slack

  • Brian Michel (another seasoned Engineering Manager with big spots at Tumblr, Twitter, Cash App)

  • Dustin Senos (Head of Design at The Browser Company): former Head of Design at Medium (a product I love, BTW)

  • Connor Montgomery (a former Pinterest Engineer for more than 7 years)

  • Krzysztof Zabłocki (a former Principal Swift Engineer at Apple and author of Sourcery, a well-known code generator for Swift language, built on top of Apple's own SwiftSyntax)

  • Saleem Abdulrasool: Hursh said this about Saleem

When you analyze deeply, you understand that there is something big happening here.

Darin wrote about this in The Brower Company’s Substack called (yes, they are here as well):

One of my favorite parts of the article was this one:

This guy, who was a VP of Engineering at Google; joined The Browser Company as a Software Engineer. And you should be wondering: WTF is going on here? 

It’s very simple from my perspective:

This team wants to build a meaningful product to actually impact people’s lives for the better. They don’t care about titles, they don’t care about engineering levels; they are being sold on the mission of the company and want to build. That’s it. No B.S, no bureaucracy. Just build and build it right. 

It’s not just the members of the team, it’s the caliber of the investors as well.

That’s why I strongly think you should apply to be part of this team. Right now. Just be aware that won’t be easy. It should be challenging, but that’s the idea.

The big opportunity ahead at The Browser Company

If you follow me for a while, you should know that I love talking about financial stuff, profits, or a path to profitability.

The Browser Company is in the early innings here. They haven’t launched Arc to the general public yet. So, my assumption here is that they are not profitable because they are not selling anything yet.

But the interesting thing here is that they are already talking about monetization. And that’s a very good thing.

They want to sell something like “Arc for Teams” and build a SaaS product like Figma, Slack, or Airtable for Enterprises.

I love this idea, but from my understanding here: there will be two lines of business here: one business line just focused on Consumers (harder to scale but it could be a meaningful business in the long run), and one business line for the Enterprise (it’s not easy as well, but very lucrative if you do it right).

Right now, they are in the building phase of the core product, which is divided into two major categories:

  • The desktop version which has a very good base on Chromium. Right now is only available for Mac OS but Windows is coming

  • The mobile version for iOS and Android. Bringing to life the vision of Arc on mobile won’t be an easy task, but they are ready for the challenge

But, let’s talk about my favorite role now

The Role: Software Engineer, Product Infrastructure

This is a foundation role here. This is truly a “build from scratch” role.

Basically, you will be building the layers of the infrastructure for the business here.

And if you read some of the key questions, you will see why:

  • How do we sync files, notes, tabs, and browsing sessions seamlessly and securely so that no matter which device you're on, all your stuff is always instantly there and accessible offline?

  • How should we architect our systems such that security, privacy, and encryption are built-in and require no extra effort to integrate into features?

  • How do we do this all while maintaining a codebase and development environment that is a joy to use, intuitive to extend, and accessible to everyone?

  • How might we package and share code and built objects across operating systems?

  • How could we automagically catch and mitigate performance regressions within all layers of our application?

It’s time for the ideas now to stand out in your job application here.

Let’s discuss two ideas on how to approach this job application (THE REAL MEAT)

Idea # 1: Learn C++, Rust, and Swift or if you know to program on them, remember it

Arc is built on top of Chromium, and Chromium is built on C++. A good idea could be to review the coding style from Google and the Chromium project for it.

Rust will be used in the future of this company, especially for the infra stuff. Rust is becoming the default programming language to build high-performance APIs systems. So, a good idea could revisit your Rust knowledge here.

And in the case of Swift, they hired two of the biggest experts on Swift in the world. So, it should very important for the future of the company.

Idea # 2: Start a beehiiv-based newsletter and send a letter to The Browser Company’s Substack on why you are the one for this role

These guys are building the company in public. So, why not start a beehiiv newsletter and write a letter about it? If you don’t know how to do it, you can read this article about the topic:

Just start a letter exchange with them, and hopefully, you will get a response about it.

Learn more here:

Good luck with your job application my friend.

Interesting Data Gigs Talent Network

Interesting resource of the week

You can find it on Gumroad or Amazon 

Interesting reads for the weekend

Final words

If you’re finding this newsletter valuable, consider sharing it with friends, or subscribing if you haven’t already.

Marcos out.

Interested in starting your own newsletter? Get started with beehiv

Interested in sponsoring this newsletter? Check out here

Reply

or to participate.