Sean Grove
Founder and hacker, on most days
I build tools that make me obsolete - then emerge on the other side as something more useful. It's worked out pretty well so far.
A Journey in Building
From early startups to the frontier of AI, each step has been about making complex things accessible.
Linzumi
Founder & CEO
Nov 2025 - Present
Building clarity at scale. Helping organizations cut through complexity with AI-powered tools for decision making and communication.
OpenAI
Member of Technical Staff
Sep 2023 - Sep 2025
Post-training & Alignment team. Working on making AI systems more helpful, harmless, and honest through human feedback and novel training techniques.
Netlify
Principal Architect
Nov 2021 - Aug 2023
Shaped the future of web infrastructure. Led architectural initiatives for the Jamstack ecosystem and developer experience.
OneGraph
Founder
May 2018 - Nov 2021
Built a unified GraphQL gateway connecting dozens of APIs. Acquired by Netlify. Made complex integrations feel simple.
Earlier
Founder & Engineer
2012 - 2018
PayGarden - Gift card platform. Bushido (YC S11) - Developer tools. Sauce Labs - Cross-browser testing infrastructure.
Ideas Worth Sharing
Conference talks, podcasts, and conversations about building the future.
The New Code
A provocative thesis that code is only 10-20% of a programmer's value-the rest is structured communication. Sean argues that specifications, not code, are the true source artifact we should be versioning and preserving, showing how OpenAI's model spec serves as both a trust anchor for humans and executable training material for AI alignment.
Coverage & Discussion
The Most Valuable Developer Skill in 2025? Writing Code Specifications
Tessl Blog
The New Code - Sean Grove (OpenAI)
Son-U Paik on LinkedIn
OpenAI's Sean Grove: Everything is a Spec
YouTube Short
Sean from OpenAI says specs are the new code
@mattpocockuk on X
Incredible Talk. Must see for every dev
@JonasSiebler on X
This entire keynote talk is worth watching
@JoeChoiGreene on X
Integrated thought clarifier - great talk
@elamadej on X
앞으로의 십년은 개발자라면 문서를 통한 소통 능력을... (13K views, 97 likes)
@jaeholee_dev on X
Thought-provoking talk on communicating intent with precision
@MatousRoskovec on X
To learn more, check out this talk from Sean Grove
@ArjunKalsy on X
Skills scarcity is over. Coding is ending.
@asystemarchitec on X
Stop obsessing over code and do this instead
Tyler Dane on YouTube
El Nuevo Código (Spanish)
The Human In the Loop on YouTube
Vibe Codingの限界と「プロンプト」こそが成果物 (Japanese)
聞くAIニュース on YouTube
65+
Talks Given
11
Years Speaking
13
Countries
1M+
Video Views
ReactiveConf · 2016
The Age of Reason(ML)
An energetic introduction to ReasonML, the new developer experience built on OCaml by the creators of React. Sean demonstrates how Reason's powerful type inference, exhaustive pattern matching, and helpful error messages act like a 'robotic pair programmer' that catches bugs at compile time and even auto-formats your code. The talk showcases Reason's impressive reach-from native OpenGL games to JavaScript via BuckleScript-making it a compelling choice for building reliable applications.
Coverage
ReactiveConf 2016 - The Age of Reason(ML)
cotalks.dev
The best React videos on the web
Awesome React
ReactiveConf 2016 Schedule
ConfPad
This is why JavaScript rules the world
Medium (StarLift)
react-conf-videos: List of React conference talks
GitHub
Watch @sgrove's #ReactiveConf talk 'The Age of ReasonML'
@ReactiveConf on X
totally deserves to take a look and share!
@lex_fr on X
Web Development in the Age of AI
A panel discussion with swyx exploring how AI is transforming web development, from code generation to intelligent tooling. Discusses the practical implications of AI-powered development and what it means for the future of programming.
Simplify & Unify Data Access With Netlify Graph
A hands-on walkthrough of Netlify Graph, showing how to read, write, and subscribe to data from third-party APIs securely without managing auth tokens or complex data fetching. Sean demonstrates the full workflow from setup to deployment, covering authentication integration, GraphQL queries across multiple services, and real-time subscriptions.
Building a Mailing List Unsubscribe App with OneGraph
A live coding demo building a mass email unsubscribe application using OneGraph's unified GraphQL API. Demonstrates how to connect to multiple services like Gmail and manage subscriptions through a single GraphQL endpoint.
ReasonConf · 2019
The Secrets of Polymorphic Variants
An exploration of structural typing in OCaml/Reason through polymorphic variants and objects. Sean demonstrates how to write more reusable functions that operate on structure rather than names-useful for JSON libraries, shared record fields, and summarizing large variant types-while cautioning about the trade-off of significantly worse error messages.
Building at the intersection of craft and technology
I've spent the last decade starting companies and shipping products - from developer tools to AI systems. The through-line has always been the same: making powerful technology accessible.
Currently building Linzumi, where we're tackling one of the hardest problems in organizations: achieving clarity at scale.
When I'm not coding, you'll find me exploring the intersection of design and engineering, or explaining complex systems to anyone who'll listen.
Clarity
Complex problems deserve simple solutions. I believe in cutting through noise to find signal.
Craftsmanship
Details matter. From code architecture to user experience, quality compounds over time.
Levity
The best work happens when we don't take ourselves too seriously. Joy is a feature.