Resend's Handbook - The TLDR Edition

If “Resend” is a unfamiliar company to you, what they do might not currently apply to your needs. However, recently they shared their handbook which shares the story of who ? why ? and how this company grew into a $3M business, offering valuable insights. I’ve condensed their handbook, which takes ~94 minutes to read, into a concise TL;DR edition in my style

Who are they ?

In August 2022, Zeno Rocha and Bu kinoshita found that existing email tools were not meeting their needs as developers. These tools were primarily designed for marketers, and lacked the functionality and flexibility that developers required. As a result, they decided to create a new tool that would enable developers to craft and send beautiful emails. Once they had a working MVP they shared it with a friend and even got paid for their service which boosted them and gave the confidence to apply to Y Combinator.

In December 2022, they open-sourced **react.email** to address the challenge of creating modern email templates that functioned well across all clients. This initiative garnered significant attention from developers, revealing the potential for growth and innovation. As they dug deeper, they realised that sending emails was a major pain in the butt. So, they decided to tackle the issue and launched Resend in Jan 2023 — a platform that lets you send emails with an API. After completing Y Combinator, they raised $3m seed round on Apr 2023. Fast forwarding to Apr 2024 they hit 100,000 users which is really insane.

How they Work ?

Resend is a remote company that I admire for their effective communication strategies. Despite the challenges of remote work, they have found ways to foster collaboration and open dialogue among team members. Their approach to people management is impressive, encouraging a culture of curiosity and visual communication to ensure everyone is on the same page. I was particularly more interested by their emphasis on showing, rather than telling, and providing opportunities for feedback and discussion. Overall, their approach to communication is truly next-level and impressed by the company’s people section in their handbook and felt confident that I would enjoy working with them.

This part… :chef-kiss

Tech Behind

As a developer, I’m eager to learn about the technical aspects of a company’s operations. The handbook provides a comprehensive overview of the feature development process, including pull requests, reviews, and the entire life cycle of tech projects. It satisfies my curiosity and provides a clear understanding of the processes involved.

If you’re a tech newbie, feel free to skip this paragraph and go straight to the good stuff. But if you’re a programming pro, grab a snack and get ready for some serious geeking out!

Their application’s back-end is built with TypeScript and Node.js, leveraging serverless functions through Next.js API Routes and long-running Express servers for specific concerns like public API and SMTP. The front-end utilises React with Next.js, styled with Tailwind CSS, Radix primitives and colors. They fetch data with Server-side Rendering (SWR) and API routes, parsing responses with Zod. Postgres is their primary database, with Redis for caching. For observability, they use Datadog, Grafana/Prometheus, and AWS CloudWatch. Background jobs are managed with Inngest. Documentation is written in Markdown with Mintifly, and Vitest for unit testing. Code styling is handled by Biome, and pnpm as our package manager and TypeScript by default. Additionally, they use Pino for logging and MDX for content writing, with plans to add UI and E2E tests soon.

They discussed their approach to managing their engineering team’s work cycle. Outlined a weekly planning and execution process that includes identifying potential projects, setting high-level goals, and dividing work into two main categories: “Foundation” for stability & improvements, and “New Projects” for growth & new features. The team holds regular meetings to plan, review progress, and track their work using Linear. They collaborate on problem-solving using RFCs and provide daily progress updates during stand-ups.

And man, am I the only one who loves this RFC concept ? To give you a perspective this company utilises RFCs (Requests for Comments) to guide their projects. These technical documents provide detailed information on new concepts, and they are categorised into three types: Idea Proposal, Complex Bug, and New Feature. The process involves documenting, prioritising, and implementing ideas, logging and tracking user-reported bugs, and understanding and planning the implementation of new features. This collaborative approach helps make informed decisions and ensure a smooth development process.

Here is a template that they use to write a RFC.

    # Purpose
    Describe the specific problem or opportunity for the problem.

    # Background
    Context and detail the current situation and how we've acted on the problem.

    # Proposal
    Outline the proposed solution or change.

    # Technical Details
    Dive into the technical aspects of the proposal. 
    Map the changes we must make in each service, the database changes, and prototypes.

    # Implementation Plan
    We break down into phases, each phase should have a goal for us 
    to release in production incrementally.

    # General Questions
    Answered questions that people may have about the proposal suggestion.

    # Open Questions
    Open questions to everyone to contribute and help evolve the RFC.

Design == Marketing

Resend’s design process emphasises quick software production and collaboration. They view design as a company-wide discipline, encouraging diverse perspectives in problem-solving. The process involves three phases:

1. Concept — where the problem is explored

2. **Implementation **— where solutions are coded and iterated

3. **Polishing **— where feedback is incorporated to refine the solution.

This approach encourages a lean, integrated workflow, with the code serving as the single source of truth. They adhere to three core principles: straightforward, contemporary, and memorable.

“Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works” — Steve Jobs

Their website itself acts as a sales team due to their impressive design and attention to details they have done. For example, dynamically adjusting their website title based on the user’s time zone is a thoughtful and innovative approach.

Their marketing approach, relying solely on word-of-mouth, has resulted in a well-executed and structured design. From crafting customer stories to creating a YouTube video about their company's design, they've excelled. Their swag also reflects a strong brand that aligns with the community lifestyle, emphasising quality above all.

Support

In my view, a strong support system not only addresses customer issues but also ensures their satisfaction. They follow a simple try/catch block

    try {
      product()
      documentation()
      knowledgeBase()
      codeExamples()
    }
    catch() {
      support()
    }

As said in their handbook. Great support is thinking about how to improve the try block so it doesn't go to the catch block as often.

After a marathon-like read-through of the Resend playbook, I'm thrilled to announce that we've crossed the finish line! This handbook is jam-packed with Resend's secret sauce for their workflow. I highly recommend diving into this treasure trove to get a taste of the inner workings of the Resend team. Trust me, you'll be impressed by the attention to detail and the level of expertise that went into crafting this masterpiece!