Case study · Founding engineer · 2020–2022
Macro
Founding engineer on a four-person team that took a process and checklist tool for technical teams from zero to #1 Product of the Day.
- A founding engineer
- 0 to 1 products
- Backend foundations
- Developer tools
- Company
- Macro Computer Club
- Product
- Process and checklist tool
- Timeline
- Oct 2020 – Jun 2022
- My role
- Founding engineer
- Stack
- Node.js · Koa · TypeScript
- Outcome
- #1 Product of the Day
On this page
The product
Product images from Macro’s website, 2021. Scroll for more.
Problem
A four-person team set out to build Macro, a tool for designing and running team processes as checklists, aimed at technical users. Teams build a process once, such as customer onboarding, then run it as many times as they need. Each run assigns tasks to the right people and tracks progress, so managers can see where work gets stuck.
They needed a product in customers’ hands quickly, and a backend that wouldn’t need rewriting after launch.
What I owned
I was the founding engineer.
- Product backend. The services behind Macro, from early engineering to public launch.
- Engineering foundations. The backend and DevOps practices the team worked from.
- Service template. A Node.js, Koa and TypeScript template that let the team launch three more prototypes, cherrypie, buzz.fm and pirateships, in 6 to 8 months.
- Public SDKs. Next.js, Flask and Rails SDKs for cherrypie, an API-monitoring product.
Results
- Macro launched on Product Hunt on March 26, 2021 and finished #1 Product of the Day.
- Zero to public launch inside a year.
- The shared template carried three more prototypes to launch.
Skills this shows
| If your role needs | Evidence in this project |
|---|---|
| A founding engineer | Founding engineer on a four-person team, from the empty repo to launch. |
| Backend foundations | A reusable Node, Koa and TypeScript service template. |
| Fast prototyping | Three prototypes launched on the same foundation in 6 to 8 months. |
| Developer-facing APIs | SDKs in three ecosystems for an API-monitoring product. |
What this means for your project
- Need a first engineer? I’ve set up the backend, the practices and the release habits a small team grows into, while shipping the product.
- Testing several ideas at once? I build the shared foundation first, so each new prototype starts from something that already works.
- Launching to the public? I’ve taken a product from an empty repository to a public launch inside a year.
On the record
© 2026 Ali Farooq