Teo

w2024

Dillon Nys (dillonnys)

Education

Arizona State University MS Environmental Engineering '17–'19

Arizona State University BA Interdisciplinary Studies '13–'17

Work Experience

Amazon Web Services (AWS) — Front-End Engineer May '21–Sep '23
Lead Software Engineer on AWS Amplify Flutter

Medtronic — Software Engineer I - Mobile Apps Jul '20–Apr '21

AIsoft — Mobile App Team Lead May '20–May '21

Brown and Caldwell — Process-Mechanical Engineer May '19–May '20

CEO

50

Yes

During my time at AWS, I wrote, from scratch, an implementation of the AWS SDK for the Dart programming language in 2 months when it had taken other teams 12-18 months. Two senior engineers who had the same task for their languages were dumbfounded.

In the span of 12 months, I made one career change and three job hops to triple my salary. In May of 2020, I was an environmental engineer making $61k, and in May of 2021 I was hired at AWS making $180k. I had never taken a Data Structures and Algorithms course, and I had only built a few Flutter applications by that point.

To prepare for the AWS interview, I read Cracking the Coding Interview, Algorithms Illuminated, and solved as many Leetcode problems as I could. I wrote down 15 stories which aligned with their leadership principles and rehearsed for several hours until they were rote. I pored over Blind, Reddit, and Twitter to scrounge any tips I could. In the end, I was over-prepared and offered a comp package near the top of my band (L4).

Abdallah Shaban (abdallahshaban)

Education

University of San Diego MBA Marketing/ New Venture Management '16–'19

Work Experience

Amazon Web Services (AWS) — Senior Product Manager Oct '21–Nov '23
- Responsible for the open source AWS Amplify JavaScript and Flutter client libraries- Worked cross-functionally with AWS service teams to deliver features such as In-App messaging, Push Notifications, and Improvement to Authentication and Analytics features, driving 30% YoY growth.- Engage with the open source, marketing, and developer advocacy team to grow engagement with relevant developer communities.- Created strategic partnerships and participated in conferences and public speaking engagements to increase awareness with the open source community.- Continuously improved customer facing documentation based on internal and external feedback. Show less

Petco — Senior Product Manager May '21–Oct '21
• Created and led the concept of a centralized store employee cross-platform app for all 1500 stores that streamlined operations, including Omni channel order fulfillment, enabling real-time inventory visibility, and modernized store field communication. Created cost savings of ~3.5MM• Led the implementation of Salesforce Service cloud to help optimize call center tools.• Launched a telephony/IVR pilot for the Callcenter using Amazon Connect that deflected 5% of incoming calls with the help of automations and customer self service call flows. Show less

Petco — Product Manager Jun '17–May '21
• Representing the voice of the customer as the Product Owner on an Agile SCRUM team.• Ensuring aligned UX/UI standards across consumer-facing digital products and touch-points with broader Product Management & UX teams.• Decreased subscription churn for the repeat delivery program by 6% through removing customer pain points with onboarding experience and solving order fulfillment issues.• Reduced OMNI channel order fulfillment cost by 8% by optimizing order sourcing decisions.• Enabled Omni-channel shopping experiences for customers on the Ecomm platform including Buy online Pickup in store (BOPIS), Curbside Pickup, Same Day Delivery, Ship from Store.• Led the team responsible for Supply chain enhancements and improvements, implementing a new Inventory hub that increased overall transactional threshold by 400%. In addition to increasing fill rates for shipping orders from 89% to 91% - and to 93% for Buy online pick up in store. Show less

University of San Diego — Web Technologies Assistant Nov '16–Aug '17
● Developed and maintained products with the support of the engineering and IT departments, based on the requirements provided by marketing and business owners.● Researched, contacted, and acquired partnerships with vendors in order to acquire platforms that satisfy the business needs by the organization.● Documented and preserved information on all of the business team products and services.● Revamped and restructured Zain Jordan’s self-service digital channels, increasing the active base of users by 600%, while increasing revenues through digital channels by 20%.● Operational optimization of different cycles that involve cross-functional teams that directly affects the performance of the marketing team. Show less

USD Center for Restorative Justice — Web Technologies Assistant Nov '16–Aug '17
● Developed and maintained products with the support of the engineering and IT departments, based on the requirements provided by marketing and business owners.● Researched, contacted, and acquired partnerships with vendors in order to acquire platforms that satisfy the business needs by the organization.● Documented and preserved information on all of the business team products and services.● Revamped and restructured Zain Jordan’s self-service digital channels, increasing the active base of users by 600%, while increasing revenues through digital channels by 20%.● Operational optimization of different cycles that involve cross-functional teams that directly affects the performance of the marketing team.

Mind Rockets Inc — Product Manager Oct '16–Aug '17
● Assisted in shaping product design and implementation. Organized business processes and development cycles.● Gather feedback and analysis on the current behavior of users the company’s products and services.

Zain — Technology and Product Development Jun '13–Aug '16
• Developed and maintained Voice/Digital/Connectivity products with the support of the engineering and IT departments.• Researched, contacted, and acquired partnerships with vendors for technology advancement including: - Social CRM - Campaign Management System - Various mobile applications and service providers - IPTV and Digital Content• Assisted in Launching the first 4G/LTE solution provided by a telecom provider in Jordan.● Initiated and led a restructuring effort on Zain Jordan’s self-service digital channels, increasing the active base of users by 600%, while increasing digital channel revenue by 20%.• Responsible for operational optimization of different cycles led by the business excellence team, which involved cross-functional teams that directly affects the performance of the marketing team. Show less

Zain Jordan — Customer Service Technical Advisor Oct '10–Jun '13
● Answered and handled customer complaints through Zain oriented procedures and regulations.● Provided new methods of problem resolution to direct supervisors and team-heads, increasing first call resolution by 15%.● Created periodical customer feedback reports to management that helped introduced new policies with the support of the Marketing and Sales teams.

Product

50

Yes

I created and led and initiative to revamp all the in-store retail systems for a major pet retailer in the US, helping provide bottom line savings of close to 5MM/year purely in process optimization and waste reduction, while also helping increase in-store sales by 3% per year.

I assisted multiple small businesses with optimizing their POS, appointment systems, and their service provider tooling to help them streamline their processes and businesses. I have assisted multiple clients in achieving at least a 20% increase in revenue.

Dillon writes all the code and sources any third-party code used.

Dillon and Abdallah met two years ago when Abdallah joined AWS as a product manager. Dillon was lead engineer on the AWS Amplify Flutter framework and Abdallah was the product manager for the framework.

Not at the moment.

Teo

Reimagining Cloud: The Vercel of Flutter's Era

We're crafting an event-driven, extensible platform tailored to Flutter[1] developers, enabling them to build cloud-connected apps using the programming language and tooling most familiar to them. In today's world, the front-end developer role is rapidly expanding towards full-stack proficiency. But full-stack has failed Flutter developers, and their tooling is at fault.

Flutter developers are demanding more integrated and holistic tooling so they can focus on what matters most--solving their users' problems. While platforms like Vercel[2] empower web developers with a fully-managed cloud offering, Flutter lacks a counterpart. Our platform fills this gap, providing a swift and intuitive experience for this under-served and growing market.

From the first line of code to the final cloud function, we aim to be the Vercel of Flutter's renaissance.

[1]: A cross-platform UI development framework by Google (https://flutter.dev/)
[2]: A managed web development platform (https://vercel.com/)

Current: San Deigo / Phoenix, USA. After: Phoenix, USA

We are very early stage; we are formulating our plan of execution by talking to customers and potential partners.

---
Update (10/22): Added our founding tenets and updated "When will you have a version people can use?" to reflect our time to MVP (previously, time to public beta).

Tenets

1. We focus on foundations

A strong foundation leads to a proper structure. We focus on the primitives of our services and optimize them to perfection. We build products which seamlessly compose so that when new feature requests come, we are well-equipped to deliver them.

2. We dogfood our products

As both a consumer and supplier of infrastructure products, we are the first to incorporate new features into our production workload. We carry the highest expectation of our products.

3. We are not afraid to innovate

We prioritize developer experience above all else. If a product exists which provides the experience we want, we use it. When it doesn’t, we build it. No questions asked.

4. We involve our customers

In every step of the journey, we seek customer feedback and involvement. We build in public. We build with them and for them.

5. We are constantly seeking out the “next big thing”

Technology changes at break-neck pace and we must stay alert to all the developments in our space and adjacent ones. We are constantly experimenting and trying to anticipate where the market is going and what our customers will be asking for in 6 months, even if it’s not directly in our wheelhouse.

6. We follow the beat of our own drum

We believe our product must stand on its own and be great on its own. We do not compare ourselves to others publicly. We focus on building for our users and only loosely keep a pulse on our competitors.

7. We work backwards from the customer

AWS got this one dead right. Every feature is born from a customer pain point or intense desire. We start with the why and reverse engineer the experience that will delight them.

8. We test our products

We are a software company. Our code is our honor and it must work as advertised, no exceptions. If a behavior is expected or anticipated from our product, we have an automated test for it. In that way, our tests bind us to a contract with our customers. There are no guessing games.

9. We speak our truth

We treasure and lead with honesty, even if it hurts. Especially when it hurts.

10. We are boy scouts to our core

We prepare for the worst and hope for the best. When something is broke, we fix it. When someone needs help, we drop everything. We are a team united around this vision. We are not above any task and we do the hard parts so others don’t have to — for our customers and for each other.

Dillon has been working on this part-time for 6 months. As of September 2023, he has left his job and transitioned to full-time.

Abdallah is new to the project and has begun contributing part-time since September 2023.

No

In 2-3 months (MVP)

No

Dillon had applied in 2018 for a self-improvement social network based on personality assessments. He plans to revisit this idea through the lens of AI in the coming years, but it is not on his mind currently. He learned the importance of getting input early and often from a diverse set of perspectives and the difficulty in trying to quantify the human experience.

N/A

We both worked at AWS on the Amplify[1] product (similar to Firebase, Supabase, etc). We believe there is a significant opportunity to build a platform targeted specifically to the Flutter segment.

We have spent the last 4 years interacting with customers using Flutter 1-on-1 through various channels, and have a strong understanding and empathy to their needs. One consistent pain-point we hear; the Flutter ecosystem today forces developers to learn fragmented tools and services, which takes them away from solving actual problems for their users.

[1]: A framework for helping developers build full-stack applications (https://docs.amplify.aws/)

Our main competitors are the current BaaS front runners: Google (Firebase), Appwrite, Supabase, and AWS (Amplify).

Developers using these platforms must familiarize themselves with various new tools and technologies. While these platforms offer power, we provide simplicity; where others demand learning, we maintain familiarity.

Similar to Vercel, we will charge a per-seat license on top of platform usage.

Flutter has ~3.5M users as of early 2023. 5% of the current Flutter market (175k users) at Vercel pricing ($20/user per month) is $42MM ARR.

US

B2B SaaS

Yes

Teo Cloud LLC - Arizona, USA

Dillon Nys CEO/CTO - 50%
Abdallah Shaban CFO/CPO - 50%

Yes

We are working with founders and potential partners in the ecosystem to meet investors.

N/A

A YC alumni convinced us to apply (Eric Seidel - S06). We believe YC presents a unique opportunity to gain exposure and access to the resources necessary to build our venture.

As of today, we have not attended any YC events.

We knew about Y Combinator from being embedded in the tech industry and having interacted with previous alumni.