About
Zeno Rocha is a Brazilian programmer and creator who began his software engineering career in 2009 working with Flash. He is the Founder & CEO of Resend, and previously served as VP of Developer Experience at WorkOS and CPO at Liferay Cloud. Earlier in his career in Latin America he built applications, mentored startups, and worked at companies including Globo and Petrobras. He has spoken at more than 110 conferences worldwide and was ranked among the top 20 most active GitHub users at age 22. He now angel invests in developer-first, early-stage B2B SaaS startups.
Zeno Rocha @zenorocha
so much of Resend’s success comes down to pure luck. founders often talk about how incredible their decisions were. but the reality is that luck plays a big part too. if we hadn’t started in 2023, when llms were just taking off, this would be a very different story. chatgpt
Aug 1, 2026 · ♥ 531 · ⇄ 12
Zeno Rocha @zenorocha
your next customer doesn’t need you today. they’ll need you in two weeks when something breaks. the question is whether they’ll remember you exist. that’s why changelogs, social, and newsletters matter. do whatever keeps you in their head until then.
Jul 31, 2026 · ♥ 179 · ⇄ 6
Zeno Rocha @zenorocha
all about him here: https://t.co/Di0X96jt65
Jul 30, 2026 · ♥ 3
Beyond investing
- Founded
- Founded and is CEO of Resend.
- Communities
- Has spoken at over 110 conferences worldwide, traveling to 11 countries and giving more than 128 talks. Hosts a podcast called ByteTalk with Jonni, interviewing productive people in tech. Co-hosted his first podcast, Zone Of Front-Enders (ZOFE), with Daniel about web technologies.
- Awards
- Ranked among the top 20 most active users on GitHub at age 22.
- Hobbies
- Enjoys running, watching movies, and eating cheese. Loves dark mode, open source, and side projects.
- Family
- Lives in San Francisco with his wife and daughter. Originally from Brazil.
- More
- Created the Dracula theme (Dracula PRO).
From Zeno's own website — common ground for a warm intro.
Founder & CEO at ResendYC W23
Intro paths
Zeno went through Y Combinator (Winter 2023) — any YC alum in your network can reach them through the YC community.
Their group partner at YC was Diana Hu, General Partner at Y Combinator — the partner who ran Resend's batch and knows the company first-hand. YC profile ↗
In turn, Zeno can intro founders to Resend's investors below.
Resend's investors · 3
Co-founders at Resend
Podcasts & interviews
featuring Zeno RochaZeno Rocha of Resend: from 0 to a16z by cutting scope ruthlessly and shipping perfect products fast
Evil Martians
Modern emails using React
React Conf
How to build a Developer-First Startup | Supabase Select 2025
Supabase
Como um dev brasileiro conquistou o Vale do Silício com Zeno Rocha da Resend
OFF THE GRID
Writing
All posts ↗Zeno Rocha writes about building startups and products, covering functional versus aesthetic software quality, lessons on maintaining momentum after Y Combinator, and parallels between running a marathon and running a company.
The author compares running his first half marathon to building a startup, covering unfavorable conditions, competing against yourself, increasing difficulty, and the absence of a finish line.
Drawing on his own Winter 2023 batch and other founders' input, the author shares lessons about maintaining momentum, peers pivoting, support groups, and staying in San Francisco after Y Combinator.
Using the Japanese concepts atarimae hinshitsu and miryokuteki hinshitsu, the post distinguishes functional versus aesthetic quality and applies it to software products, marketing, recruiting, and engineering.