Guillermo Rauch

Open-source work

Rauch's early open-source work was in JavaScript: Rauch was a member of the MooTools core team, and Rauch's startup LearnBoost contributed to Node.js ecosystem projects such as Express, Connect, Jade and Stylus. Rauch went on to author Socket.IO, for real-time communication, and Mongoose, for accessing MongoDB data.¹⁴⁵

Rauch also authored the Hyper terminal emulator built on web technologies and collaborated with Shu Ding on the design of the SWR data-fetching library. Rauch wrote one of the early books on Node.js, "Smashing Node.js: JavaScript Everywhere".¹

Vercel and Next.js

Rauch's company, then called ZEIT, started in 2016 with a command-line deployment tool for individual developers, and in October 2016 open-sourced Next.js in a launch post co-written by Naoyuki Kanezawa, Rauch and Tony Kovanen. In April 2020 the company renamed itself Vercel, with Rauch signing as CEO and founder.²⁶⁷

Rauch's 2025 essay "The AI Cloud" describes a shift in the web and the cloud from pages to agents, and the infrastructure Vercel builds for AI apps and agents. Vercel's about page now presents the company as agentic infrastructure for apps and agents.⁸³

Work and contributions

• Next.js Open-source code

  Designed and co-authored the MIT-licensed React framework, which Rauch and colleagues open-sourced in October 2016 as a small framework for server-rendered universal JavaScript web apps.¹⁶⁷

• Socket.IO Open-source code

  Authored this MIT-licensed library, which its repository describes as bidirectional and low-latency communication for every platform.¹⁴

• Mongoose Open-source code

  Authored Mongoose, an MIT-licensed MongoDB object modeling library designed to work in an asynchronous environment.¹⁵

Timeline

1. 2014Published the essay "7 principles of rich web applications" on rauchg.com.⁹
2. 2016Started ZEIT with a deployment tool for individual developers.²
3. Oct 25, 2016Co-wrote the post that open-sourced Next.js, a framework for server-rendered React apps.⁶
4. Apr 21, 2020Announced, as CEO and founder, that ZEIT had been renamed Vercel.²
5. Oct 17, 2025Published "The AI Cloud", an essay on infrastructure for AI agents.⁸⁹

Other documented roles

Roles the sources document that are not confirmed as current.

• Founder of the file-sharing startup, later acquired by Automattic, Cloudup¹
• Earlier startup, an early production adopter of Node.js, LearnBoost¹
• Core team member; led development of the MooTools Forge package repository, MooTools¹

Where they work

• Vercel 3 people in the wiki

Related people

• Lars GrammelAlso at Vercel
• Jared PalmerAlso at Vercel
• Shawn WangDeveloper tools
• Terry Yue ZhuoDeveloper tools
• Kanjun QiuDeveloper tools
• Pierrick HymbertDeveloper tools
• Ben DavisDeveloper tools
• Jay ParikhDeveloper tools
• Clare LiguoriDeveloper tools
• Saoud RizwanDeveloper tools