Index
Omar Elbanby
Software. Business. People.
I am in the intersection of all three.
I build platforms for a living, and I've started businesses of my own. This is where I write down what both are teaching me — including the parts that don't work, which is the half most people leave out.
What I'm building toward
I build and lead the technical foundation a business grows on.
I enjoy the craft of software and the depth needed to really master it, and I also enjoy the business side, where decisions are informed bets towards the future. This path has led me to where technology and business meet, and the joy of building a sustainable foundation for businesses to grow on — that's the thing I want to build and lead.
That's the technical founder's half of it, and it isn't a job I can do alone. It takes a team, it takes someone running the business that I can work closely with, to set its direction and its technical foundation.
Highlights
How I got here
Most of my years have gone into platform engineering and operations — the layer other teams build on. It's the work I know best.
I wanted the call on what gets built, not just how, so I started businesses of my own — three of them. None became the company I hoped for. I don't see them as failures; I see them as my business education. Engineering taught me how to build systems, and entrepreneurship taught me customers, incentives, markets, and why assumptions deserve to be challenged.
That changed how I build. I became goal oriented — if I can't trace it back to a goal, it doesn't get built. And careful about boundaries — every system should have clear red lines. If you never define them yourself, the system sets into glass threads, and pulling those apart is delicate and dangerous.
It holds for more than software: a team, a process, a service all answer the same questions. Who is it for, how will it be used, and what form should it take. I'm always after the simple answer — simple isn't easy, and the simple version is usually the hardest to strive for.
“Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler”
Say hello
I like meeting people who are building things
If you're building something, I'd love to connect — even just to hear what you're working on.