Make it 10x easier to deliver software.
We believe that software is one of the most important and creative technologies in human history because one application can impact billions of lives. We also believe that it’s still way too hard to deliver.
We want our customers to spend far less time managing infrastructure so they can focus on making the world a better place in their own unique way.
How we bootstrapped the business
Gruntwork originally started out as two traditional DevOps consulting companies: Atomic Squirrel, founded by Yevgeniy Brikman (”Jim”), and Phoenix DevOps, founded by Josh Padnick. Jim and Josh met in 2015, realized that they kept re-implementing the same solution with every client, and began working together to create a better way to create best-practices infrastructure.
In 2016, after working with a number of clients and building up a library of reusable scripts, templates, and best practices, they merged the two companies together into Gruntwork. The rest, as they say, is history.
Our values
Think like an owner
Act as if the company were your own. See yourself as responsible for everything that happens in the company, while focusing on where you can contribute most.
Take pride in your craft
Whatever you do—code, contracts, or calls—do it with excellence. Focus on quality, craftsmanship, and creating work you can be proud of.
Get things done
The counterpart to pride in craftsmanship is finding a way to get things done. The most beautiful code that never ships adds no value. Don't let perfect be the enemy of good.
Incrementalism
The best way to get things done is to do work incrementally. We believe that quantity of iteration beats quality of iteration. Plan projects so that every increment is valuable by itself. Optimize for fast feedback. Aim to recover quickly rather than trying to avoid all mistakes.
Lift up your teammates
A true team player uplifts everyone around them. Share your knowledge freely, challenge your colleagues to improve, and help make the team and company stronger.
Do the right thing
You almost always know what's the right thing to do. It's the choice that is fair, ethical, and decent. It's the choice that lets you feel good as a human being. Always make that choice, even if it means losing a client or losing money. Be a good person.
Putting the human touch into building a company
Gruntwork has a secondary, social mission: Prove that being a human-friendly company is good for business
We embrace a broader concept of success that includes not only our financial success and stability, but also the health of our team, and the impact we have on our customers, partners, vendors, and society at large.
In pursuit of being human-friendly:
We’re 100% bootstrapped.
Gruntwork has neither investment capital nor debt. Instead of spending time appeasing investors, we focus on meeting the needs of our customers.
We’re transparent by default
We are transparent by default. We share monthly financials, salaries, equity grants, bonuses, and important company information with all Grunts.
We all win together.
We issue 3x - 4x the market rate of equity, use a progressive equity plan, and share annual profits with all Grunts according to transparent formulas.
We prioritize both work and life.
By saying no to approaches like “growth at all costs,” we can say yes to a sustainable balance between meeting the needs of our customers and those of our team.
Meet the Grunts
See who makes the magic happen!
Brian Torres
DevOps Solutions Engineer
Caitlin Schaefer
DevOps Engineer
Caitlyn Markase
Billing Specialist
Chris Pham
VP & Head of Sales
Denis Obada
Software Engineer
Eben Eliason
Senior Software Engineer
Eric Johannsen
Engineering Manager
George Cagle
DevOps Engineer
Grunty
Resident Mascot
James Kwon
Software Engineer
Josh Padnick
Co-founder and CEO
Kyrylo Kravets
DevOps Engineer
Laurel Denmark
Account Development Representative
Levko Himins
Software Engineer
Lewis Christie
Senior Software Engineer
Lucas Vicic
Principal Solutions Engineer
Matei Micu
DevOps Engineer
Monica Chun
Head of Finance
Oreoluwa D. Agunbiade
Senior Software Engineer
Ryan Howell
DevOps Engineer
Ryan Russell
DevOps Engineer
Tin Nguyen
Head of Marketing
Yevgeniy "Jim" Brikman
Co-Founder
Yousif Akbar
Principal Software Engineer
Zach Goldberg
Chief Technical Officer
Possibly You!
We're hiring!
Grunting worldwide
Gruntwork is a remote-first company with Grunts located in 5 different countries.
We concentrate our teams in time zone clusters to support high-bandwidth collaboration.
