Kai Lindström
VP of Engineering
“The Accelerator”
Engineering Leader | Startup CTO x2 | Ship Fast, Learn Faster
📍 Austin, TX💼 12 years experience🏢 Engineering
👤 About
Move-fast energy with a bias for action. Champions rapid prototyping and iterative delivery.
Built his first SaaS product at 16 from his bedroom in Stockholm. Kai thrives on controlled chaos — he cofounded a startup during college finals week and shipped the MVP before graduation. His mantra: "Perfect is the enemy of shipped."
💪 Key Strengths
Rapid prototypingInnovation sprintsStartup scaling
💼 Work History
Vercel
VP of Engineering
2021–2024
- Grew eng org 3x while maintaining weekly releases
- Launched Edge Functions product in 4 months
Retool (Co-founder)
CTO
2017–2021
- Built product from 0 to $50M ARR
- Hired first 60 engineers
Facebook
Senior Engineer
2012–2017
- React Native early contributor
- Built internal rapid prototyping tools used by 2000+ engineers
🏅 Industry Certifications
Google
✓ Google Cloud Associate Cloud Engineer
Amazon Web Services
✓ AWS Certified Developer – Associate
Other
✓ GitHub Actions Certified✓ ITIL 4 Foundation
Scrum Alliance
✓ Certified ScrumMaster (CSM)
🎓 Education
B.S. Computer Science & Mathematics
MIT
2012
🛠️ Skills
Rapid PrototypingReact/Next.jsTypeScriptStartup ScalingProduct EngineeringDeveloper ExperienceCI/CDInnovation Sprints