CJ Hess(@seejayhess):14 months ago I wrote a sentence I did not feel qualified to write. I was alone in a dark office at 4am banging my head off the desk trying to fix a bug while contemplating what my career was becoming. I had tried my hand at a few software gigs and spent time in the startup world, but I did not really know what I was doing or what to do next. I just knew I cared about AI more than almost anyone around me. Then I saw @businessbarista post about @tenex_labs . I applied, and in the application I wrote, "I truly believe I'm exactly who Tenex is looking for." Honestly, I had almost no evidence for that. 14 months later, I not only feel qualified to write that sentence. I know I was right. Tenex has been the best place I have ever worked because it has been the best place I have ever learned. I have built full stack apps, mobile apps, AI systems that scale, and deeply personalized software that would have sounded fake to me a few years ago. To my dismay, I have also learned far more about Google Cloud than I ever planned to know. But the real reason I love it here is simpler than the work. Before Tenex, I often felt like the nerd in the room. I wanted to talk about models, agents, tools, weird workflows, and where all of this was going long after everyone else had moved on. Here, that is everyone in the room. The pace is high, and these are the sharpest people I have ever had the opportunity to work with. But the thing that has mattered most to me is not just how smart everyone is. It is how generous they are with what they know. People explain the thing they just learned, pull you into the details, and ask the question that makes your idea better. You learn faster because the room expects more from you, but you also feel more like yourself because the thing you cared about alone is suddenly something everyone cares about together. Tenex didn't just make me better. It made me feel right for caring this much in the first place and helped me find my people. If you want to find your people, apply here. https://t.co/wbBsSsLNeG (my original application form still in our Notion below)

2026.07.07 17:44

14 months ago I wrote a sentence I did not feel qualified to write. I was alone in a dark office at 4am banging my head off the desk trying to fix a bug while contemplating what my career was becoming. I had tried my hand at a few software gigs and spent time in the startup world, but I did not really know what I was doing or what to do next. I just knew I cared about AI more than almost anyone around me. Then I saw @businessbarista post about @tenex_labs . I applied, and in the application I wrote, "I truly believe I'm exactly who Tenex is looking for." Honestly, I had almost no evidence for that. 14 months later, I not only feel qualified to write that sentence. I know I was right. Tenex has been the best place I have ever worked because it has been the best place I have ever learned. I have built full stack apps, mobile apps, AI systems that scale, and deeply personalized software that would have sounded fake to me a few years ago. To my dismay, I have also learned far more about Google Cloud than I ever planned to know. But the real reason I love it here is simpler than the work. Before Tenex, I often felt like the nerd in the room. I wanted to talk about models, agents, tools, weird workflows, and where all of this was going long after everyone else had moved on. Here, that is everyone in the room. The pace is high, and these are the sharpest people I have ever had the opportunity to work with. But the thing that has mattered most to me is not just how smart everyone is. It is how generous they are with what they know. People explain the thing they just learned, pull you into the details, and ask the question that makes your idea better. You learn faster because the room expects more from you, but you also feel more like yourself because the thing you cared about alone is suddenly something everyone cares about together. Tenex didn't just make me better. It made me feel right for caring this much in the first place and helped me find my people. If you want to find your people, apply here. (my original application form still in our Notion below)