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From Employee #1 to Lead Developer at a Startup

· 4 min read
career startup growth

Day One

September 24, 2021. I walked into a startup in Coimbatore. Just me and the founder. That was the entire company.

I joined as a junior full-stack developer. There was no team, no senior developer to review my code. But I had something valuable — a founder who provided guidance, direction, and mentorship throughout my journey. The product ideas, the vision — that came from him. My job was to build it and make it real.

Building Disbug (2021 - 2022)

The first product I worked on was Disbug — a Chrome extension for bug reporting. The extension already existed, but there was a lot to build and fix.

I worked on:

  • New features — video recording, screenshots, network logs, console logs, event logs, and rrweb session replay
  • Tech stack conversion — converted the frontend to Vue.js
  • Integrations — implemented 2-way sync with Jira, GitLab, and Linear. When a bug is reported through Disbug, it automatically creates an issue in the integrated tool. When the status is updated there, it syncs back. Bidirectional.
  • Widgets — built embeddable widgets for bug reporting

This phase taught me how to work with browser APIs, build Chrome extensions, and think about developer tooling.

Building Bullet.so (2022 - 2024)

From October 2022, I started building a new product: Bullet.so — a platform that turns Notion pages into websites.

This one I built from scratch. Everything. The frontend, the backend, the payment system, the deployment pipeline. Features included:

  • Stripe and Paddle integration for payments
  • Custom domains for users
  • Membership and access control
  • Analytics dashboard
  • Server management and infrastructure

We launched in January 2023, and it started generating revenue. Bullet.so became a success — real users, real monthly revenue.

This product taught me the most. It’s one thing to build features for an existing product. It’s another to architect an entire SaaS from zero and see people pay for it.

Growing Through the Roles

My growth at the company was tied directly to what I shipped:

  • Junior Full Stack Developer (Sep 2021 - Feb 2023) — worked on Disbug, started building Bullet
  • Full Stack Developer (Feb 2023 - Jul 2024) — fully focused on Bullet.so, launched and grew it
  • Senior Full Stack Developer (Jul 2024 - Aug 2025) — maintained Bullet, contributed to new product explorations (some didn’t work out, and that’s fine), managed infrastructure, mentored new team members
  • Lead Developer (Aug 2025 - Present) — currently building BunnyDesk, an AI-powered self-healing documentation platform using LangGraph. Also reviewing and managing Bullet.so

No title was given — each was earned through shipping products and taking on more responsibility.

What I’ve Learned

After 4+ years at this startup, here’s what I know for sure:

  1. Build things. Qualifications follow the work, not the other way around.
  2. Not every product works out, and that’s okay. Some products we explored didn’t succeed. But every attempt taught me something I used in the next one.
  3. Programming is about solving problems. The language and framework are just tools. Understanding the problem is the real skill.
  4. Start small, but start. My first freelance project didn’t pay much. My latest product serves paying customers monthly.
  5. Being employee #1 is a unique experience. You don’t have the luxury of specialization. You build everything, fix everything, and learn everything. It’s the fastest way to grow.
  6. The right mentor makes all the difference. Having a founder who trusted me with ownership while guiding me through decisions accelerated my growth more than any course or tutorial could.

The journey continues. I’m currently building an AI agent that keeps documentation alive — and I’m excited about what comes next.

This is Part 3 of my career journey. Part 1: A Story My Teacher Told covers the beginning. Part 2: The Gap Year That Changed Everything covers the transition period.