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Rapid API Developers

Ahmad Awais

Ahmad Bilal

Ania Kubów

Catalin Pit

ChatGPT Tutorials

codeSTACKr

Emina

Fajar Un Nisa

H-EDUCATE

Harry

James Q Quick

JavaScript Mastery

Jessica Chan

Maham

Mashhood A.

Max Programming

Midudev

Muhammad Ahsan Ayaz

Naveen Kumar

Nirmalya Ghosh

Oflutter

Omar I.

Pratham

Saad Irfan

Simon Grimm

Siraj Raval

Tiffany

Tomi Tokko

Ushna Ijaz

Weibenfalk

## Who am I?

Hi! I am Yenny. I am the Senior Director of Engineering at Rapid. I am originally from Hong Kong. When I was a kid, I never had any idea about the fact that we could major in Computer Sciences until very late. I was in secondary school, and all they taught in the IT class was Excel which I didn’t have that much interest in. 

Going forward, when it was time for me to go to university, I ended up going to an American one. I see a lot of appeal in that because in Hong Kong, when you get into a university, you need to declare your major. I was 18. I had no work experience. If you ask me to pick a path that determines what I do for the rest of my life, that was the decision I wasn’t ready to make. 

So I went to the U.S., and I studied at Swarthmore College. What appeals to me in the U.S. is mostly that you can go in undeclared. However, I did declare a major as Engineering, but it is quite flexible. You can change it later. I liked Engineering because, in high school, I liked Physics and Maths a lot. And it seemed all good. 

I also started taking a few Computer Science classes. I remember there was a conference that I really enjoyed called the [Grace Hopper](https://ghc.anitab.org/) conference. It was by chance that I got a scholarship to attend it. The conference is for Women in Tech. So there, I saw a lot of career paths and a lot of people who I could look up to. 

So I was like, I should do Computer Sciences, and that was just when I took Computer Science 101. I can actually see a career for myself in CS. I liked problem-solving. The introduction class I had was in Python. It was a good experience, with a lot of problem-solving, and I had a good teacher. So I just gradually got into it. 

![Yenny in Morocco for Rapid Annual Kickoff](https://devrelstack.kinsta.cloud/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/20230127_163220-min-scaled.jpg)

After the [Grace Hopper](https://ghc.anitab.org/) conference, I started paying more attention to how I could improve my skills. So I went to Hackathons. I did some side projects. 

I remember one side project that I did was about rating your dorm room. It was a hackathon project that I did at [Unhackathon](http://unhackathon.org/). In the U.S., room and board for school are very expensive. I did a review website like Yelp but for individual dorm rooms. 

Then after this, there was another review website that I did but this time on course review. The chances are not all professors are great at teaching. Some of them focus on research. Tuition is also very expensive. So we crowd-sourced some data, and we got quite a good adoption. For a university of 1600 students, we had 400 students signing up and actively reviewing. 

<Quote imgSrc="https://devrelstack.kinsta.cloud/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/1597398559724-3.jpeg" altText="Yenny Cheung" position="100% 20%">

So I think what appeals to me to like Computer Science is really solving real-world problems. I think, in general, the theme for me is just problem solving either in Computer Science, programming, product, building apps, etc. 

</Quote>

## Building Communities

I worked at Yelp, and one thing about this company is that it really supports our work in building communities. I think there are two aspects. One is that company supports people from a minority background, and they want to help foster that community. 

So within Yelp, I was leading the Awesome Women in the Engineering group. I was working in Hamburg, Germany, at that time. We did a lot of community events, like going for lunches, etc. In the headquarters, we had a mentorship program, which I was part of first as a mentee and then later as a mentor. It was a great environment, and I learned a lot from that experience. 

My first mentor helped me out the first time I led a project, the first time I had to hire someone, the first time I had to give a conference talk, and more. Afterward, I started speaking at a lot of community events. Mainly I wanted to do this because I have seen the leaders in companies are all very well-spoken. Unfortunately, I was not. Instead, I was a very shy person, and I didn’t do public speaking naturally. But I knew I wanted to get there.

The first conference I spoke at was called Python DE. I submitted the Call for Proposal, and I was accepted. And that [talk](https://talkpython.fm/episodes/show/150/technical-lessons-learned-from-pythonic-refactoring) turned out to be my most-watched talk of all time. Later, I talked at [Talk Python to Me](https://talkpython.fm/). It all started there. 

Developers around the world started inviting me to go and give a talk. Finally, at one point, I was given the keynote of [EuroPython](https://ep2023.europython.eu/), and then I gave a keynote at [PyCon Italia](https://pycon.it/en) and [PyCon Taiwan](https://tw.pycon.org/2023/en-us). 

![Community building and Rapid](https://devrelstack.kinsta.cloud/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/IMG_5652-min-scaled.jpeg)

Later, when I was transitioning to Engineering Management, that’s when I started speaking at more leadership-focused events. I first spoke at [LeadDev Berlin](https://leaddev.com/leaddev-berlin), and then later on, I had a lot of engagements with them that included moderating panels to organizing courses for Engineering managers as well as sharing about how to hire, how to retain, and how to talk about compensation and progression. 

Also, PyLadies Hamburg and PyLadies Berlin are the two communities that are very close to my heart because they have been there every step of the way during my growth as an engineer and an engineering leader.

## Overcoming Personal Obstacles

There are different obstacles that I faced along the journey. First were the challenges I needed to overcome in myself. When I was in university, if I talked for two minutes, I needed to write down a cue card. I just cannot speak comfortably and not even in a crowd. And I've noticed that when I was in meetings when I first started out as an engineer, I was intimidated. I didn’t feel confident expressing my opinion in front of the team.

I think it's like a personal challenge to overcome. However, one thing that I learned was that it was not improv speaking. These are things that you can prepare for and train for, and practice for. Now I feel much more confident in expressing my thoughts. I’m not born with it, but practice makes perfect.

So I just practice ten times, and then, in this case, you can give a really good talk, and you don't have to be afraid. When you practice enough, you know what you're supposed to say. And so gradually, you get better, and you get more confident, and you also get to understand how to come to terms with your emotions when you're on stage.

 You'll realize that your body feels nervous, but you will learn how to deal with it. If you forget your notes, you can drink water, you can take a deep breath, and you'd pause for 10 seconds. People probably wouldn't even notice, and then gradually, you got comfortable. So it's like by practice. So that's one challenge to overcome more personally. 

![Yenny speaking at Rapid + PyLadies meetup](https://devrelstack.kinsta.cloud/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/IMG_6278-min-scaled.jpg)

In terms of community, I'm fortunate that there are a lot of communities that are welcoming to people who might be a bit different and people from a minority background. I have had bad experiences elsewhere. 

As a woman, sometimes people stereotype you. I have experiences where I have gone to a meetup, and I told everyone about some web applications that I was developing. And people were like so you are a designer.

There is a lot of stereotyping and things that are not quite friendly to Women in Tech that goes on. But I'm fortunate to have found communities like PyLadies, Grace Hopper, LeadDev, etc. These are communities that I feel very comfortable with, and they're active in supporting people who are underrepresented in tech.

## Mentoring and Coaching

When it comes to training others, I really like the coaching aspects of things. Early on, when I first became an Engineering Manager, I had a lot of good mentors. But what they taught me was actually some coaching techniques. At one point, I also had a management coach that worked with me. That opened up my eyes to the ways of interacting with people that can really bring out people's potential. 

The coaching techniques focused on the more open-end questions, and you try not to be leading. If you say, what if you do it like this? That's not a real question. So really open that up and ask questions like what is, in this project, that is challenging for you, and prompting them to come up with a solution is a very good way to coach people.

![Mentoring and Coaching](https://devrelstack.kinsta.cloud/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/20230127_154806-min-scaled.jpg)

Coaching is applicable to everyone. However, for more junior folks, I prefer to use a mixture of mentoring and coaching. But as they get more and more senior, turn the questions back to them and provide that guidance to help them find their answers within themselves. I find it much more helpful than just sharing experiences. 

## Transitioning to Rapid: Finding the Perfect Fit

I started at Yelp as a full-stack engineer doing Python. In the beginning, during Python, we used Cheetah as the front-end framework, and I hated it. So I didn't tell anyone I would do the front end, but later on, we were moving to React. I was like, I am all up for it. I actually like doing front-end work. 

So that continued for a while, and at one point, my manager told me that it seemed like I knew how to bring the team together and make them more effective. I like project leading. I like community work. And so he told me that I had shown a lot of leadership work and do I want to transition to management. And I accepted his offer right away. 

At the time, I didn't quite know what I was getting myself into. Usually, when we look at our managers, we only see the part where they manage us. It's like how they handle the team. 

So I thought, being a manager, you do one-on-ones. Later I found out that it is like very more involved than that. Managing up, managing sideways where we have to keep aligned with the stakeholders like PMs and other managers, and managing upright. How do you report to your manager so that they will have enough context of what you're doing to help them be successful at their job? 

There is much to learn, but eventually, what drew me to the job is like caring about people. I think it, for me, it's still a lot of satisfaction to be able to grow someone. It would be like maybe someone's career trajectory could have changed because of several conversations that you've had with them. 

Help them identify what they can do better and really push them towards where they can be.
That is the part that really drew me. That’s how I transitioned into management. And later, I worked at Rasa, which is a conversational AI space.

 Actually, in the beginning, I was more drawn by the people, to be honest, because I think it was just a really good team and culture. But later on, I also got really excited about the technology because it's like AI conversational. It also satisfied my intellectual curiosity, which is still a very important part. 

Last year, there were several changes happening at Rasa, and I decided to move on. Then Tristan, one of our Talent Acquisition directors at Rapid, found me. 

![Yenny Cheung – Senior Director of Engineering at Rapid](https://devrelstack.kinsta.cloud/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/IMG_3436-min.jpeg)

Here at Rapid, we have a huge aspect of developer tools. For example, right now, working with the dev tools team brings me a lot of satisfaction because we're building things for people who are like me. And then building stuff for people like you and being able to be users of your product, I think that brings a lot of satisfaction, and hence Rapid is at the top of my list. 

At the same time, I think everyone who works here is of such a high caliber. Like people know how to have fun, but at the same time, I can see that people excel at what they do. And that also really drives me. I feel like we can all push each other to be better. And that's the culture that I really like at Rapid. 

I think there's a lot of magic that is going on by the engineers I'm working with. They all care so much about the product they're building. They are not just solving engineering problems, but also they are contributing to simplifying developers' lives and empowering developers everywhere to create transformative software applications.

<Callout
    title="Rapid API Hub – World's largest API Hub"
    linkText="Get access now"
    linkHref="https://rapidapi.com/auth/sign-up"
    linkTextForSignedInUsers="Get started now"
    type="modern"
>
Rapid API Hub is a public Hub that has over 40,000+ useable APIs. All you need to do is sign up and then start integrating different APIs in your web application. 
</Callout>


## Balancing Success in Team Management

My day-to-day life at Rapid mostly involves meetings. In this role, mostly your job is to influence. As a manager, you need to give your reports the autonomy and space to explore their solutions. Interfering too much will become micro-management. Well, at least, in my opinion. You want to empower your team to be able to do their best. However, your level of understanding needs to be sufficient to evaluate the complexity of the work, understand what good looks like, and be able to set expectations with your report. 

You need to understand and ask questions for the team to educate you. They're the experts. I'm the person who is learning from them. So a lot of the time that I have is spent on first keeping the teams accountable for what they have committed to. I trust the team, but I will verify what they have done to make sure that we're on track and to coach them if things are not on track to see how we can improve next time. 

Then a big part of it is learning from the team, what they're working on, and how they're approaching things. And potentially, there are also ways I can provide guidance based on what I've experienced before. 

The third aspect is building relationships. Not just with my reports in their one-on-ones, but at the same time, building relationships with my peer. For example, my product counterpart. There are a lot of things in the organization. How do we want to set the culture and the environment? How do we want to think about ownership? These are things we need constant alignment on. 

![Balancing Success in Team Management](https://devrelstack.kinsta.cloud/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/IMG_5690-min-scaled.jpeg)

So hopefully, if I have time after doing all of that, I think a few steps ahead. While the team's responsibility area might be focusing on this week or the next, and then for the Engineering Manager, it might be probably three to six months. And then, for a director, you should think a little bit more out in the vision and strategy. 

I would say the role is to find a way to help the team to be successful both in the short term and long term. The short term will be mostly on delivery and focusing on the right things day to day. But long term, it'll be to train the people, mentor, and coach them so that they can fulfill the role for your team in the far future.

So in the short term, if you don't do it right, you can also squeeze the team a lot and make them deliver a lot. But that is not going to be conducive to long-term success, which is that you want them to be happy, you want them to have a good environment, and you want to train them to improve. So all the things that I do are around these two things.

## My advice for someone who is starting out

Don't be afraid. Just try out things and see what you like and what you don't. If there are things that you're not familiar with, it's okay. Keep having a growth mindset. Like if you think you're not good at something, it's not because you are not born with it. 

I would recommend a book called Talent is Overrated. I don't know if I finished all of it, but I think it changed my mind on how to deal with imposter syndrome. The notion of the book is that people are not born good at something. Instead, they practice with feedback to get better. 

The book has all sorts of arguments. For instance, for children, if you say that they draw well, they will continue to draw more, get validation, and continue to do that more. And then one day, everyone will be like, you're such a genius. But it's not genius per se. It's by deliberate practice.

So this thinking can help you become a better person overall. If you face something like public speaking that you aren't good at, you can practice and become better. If you avoid doing it, it's never going to get better.

<Quote imgSrc="https://devrelstack.kinsta.cloud/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/20230127_160136-min-scaled.jpg" altText="Yenny Cheung" position="100% 20%">

So I would say for people starting out in their career, don't think that just because you're not good at something now means that you will not be not good at it forever. If anything, try to seek out opportunities for you to practice more. One day you'll look back and be like I did it.

</Quote>


Making an Impact: How Yenny Builds Communities and Solves Real-World Problems

## My journey

Hi! I am Aimad from Morocco. I started my journey of programming and development when I was around six years old. Like every other developer, I started with Visual Basic and Pascal. Eventually, after some time dabbling in the programming world and solving problems, I switched to web development. My go-to languages became PHP, Python, and JavaScript.

When I was thirteen years old, I built my first real project. I hacked around and built an app that helps to download videos from the internet. 

Later, I started another project called Periscope for Web. The reason why I built this project was that in the past, you could only start a live stream from mobile. There was no web version of Periscope. So I reversed the mobile app and created a web platform that also got featured on [Product Hunt](https://www.producthunt.com/products/periscope-for-web). That was my first time reverse engineering a mobile application.

I learned from my experience. I was curious about what to do next. And then I found TikTok. At that time, TikTok did not offer a web platform. So I reverse-engineered their application and built my own web version. Unfortunately, I ran into some issues with TikTok, so I took down my web application.

## First APIs

Being a web developer, I have built SaaS applications, and I remember using Stripe as my first external API. However, the first API I built was during my Periscope for Web project. This was back in 2015, and I couldn't sell it. I think it is the same year Rapid was founded. 

<Quote imgSrc="https://devrelstack.kinsta.cloud/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/PXL_20230130_183431087_2.jpg" altText="Aimadnet – Fullstack engineer" position="50% 50%">

[ScrapTik](https://rapidapi.com/contact-cmWXEDTql/api/scraptik/) was the first API I ever had a chance to monetize on [Rapid API Hub](https://RapidAPI.com/hub). It was my first success in the API industry, and I am very proud of it. 

</Quote>


## Thought Process behind a new API

When I think about building a new API, I first do some research. I try to find problems and solve them via APIs. This is one way of doing things. I also try to find new opportunities. For instance, AI is trending right now, and I have created an API using ChatGPT. It isn't public yet.

I also visit [Rapid API Hub](https://RapidAPI.com/hub) for inspiration. I navigate to the top APIs section and look up some APIs. I try to find out what the APIs are missing. Once I figure it out, I start building the API. I take care of the missing features and also add new ones.

Once everything is ready, I publish it on the Hub and start monetizing. 

## Getting to know about Rapid API Hub

When I took down TikTok for Web, I researched how to monetize the internal API, and that's when I found out about [Rapid API Hub](https://RapidAPI.com/hub). 

<Quote imgSrc="https://devrelstack.kinsta.cloud/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/PXL_20230130_184005364.NIGHT_2-scaled.jpg" altText="Aimadnet – Fullstack engineer" position="right bottom">

My first impression was that it's really intuitive. You can easily publish your APIs. It provides you with analytics to track the API requests of the end users. You just have to publish the API, and voila! Your API is ready to monetize. 

</Quote>

You can build your own API, publish it and start monetizing it. Everything is in one place. With [Rapid API Hub](https://RapidAPI.com/hub), you just need to focus on the product (API). You can sell your code.

Currently, [Rapid API Hub](https://RapidAPI.com/hub) is my full-time job. I reverse mobile applications and create their APIs. Then I publish those APIs on [Rapid API Hub](https://RapidAPI.com/hub).

## The inspiration behind building a five-figure API

I made the [ScrapTik API](https://rapidapi.com/contact-cmWXEDTql/api/scraptik/) that earned me five figures in December 2022. I built it due to two reasons. The first one is because TikTok is a fast-growing platform that was the most downloaded app in 2021. Secondly, it was a challenge for me to reverse engineer it. So while doing it, I learned a lot of new reverse engineering techniques. 

And when it came to publishing the API, [Rapid API Hub](https://RapidAPI.com/hub) made it feel like a breeze. 

I have created the endpoint in a way that they are very intuitive. Anyone can just use them right away without needing to look up a lot of documentation.

## Experience with Rapid

It has been an incredible experience working with [Rapid API Hub](https://RapidAPI.com/hub). I have used it to monetize several APIs. It's intuitive and easy to use. We can publish an API in less than five minutes and only need to focus on the API. 

One feature that I love about Rapid products is the [API testing](https://rapidapi.com/studio) and [alerts](https://rapidapi.com/studio). We can test our APIs in the cloud. The API alerts instantly let you know via SMS and email if something goes wrong with your APIs. This helps me ensure my API is up all the time and I do not lose business.

One thing I would like to see in [Rapid API Hub](https://RapidAPI.com/hub) is the ability to communicate with clients via a chat interface where we can also send files or images. This way, we will not require third-party apps like Telegram to provide support for our APIs.  




Unleashing the Power of APIs: How Aimad Made Five Figures on Rapid API Hub

We have interviewed [Zeno Rocha](https://zenorocha.com/) (VP of DX at WorkOS) to talk about his experience with using RapidAPI for Mac.

## Introduction

I am the Vice President of Developer Experience at [WorkOS](https://workos.com/). I am originally from Brazil but live in Los Angeles, California. 

Before WorkOS, I was the chief product officer at Liferay Cloud. I have also worked at other companies, but I have always been a creator at heart. That's how I like to define myself.

I like building open-source software and sharing developer products with other folks, and that's my passion. I also created projects such as [Dracula](https://draculatheme.com), a theme for VS Code and other editors, and also [clipboard.js](https://github.com/zenorocha/clipboard.js/), which is another open-source library to help folks to copy to clipboard.

Zeno also published a book called "14 Habits of Highly Productive Developers".

![Zeno published a book](https://staging-devrelstack.kinsta.cloud/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/zeno-book.jpeg)

## First API Zeno used

I have played a lot with the GitHub API because it was such an easy way to get real data from a real system. And it was so easy to do that. 

There were no GraphQL layers back then. It was just like you make a GET request, and you can see the results in the browser. You don't even need to authenticate. If you need more quota, then you request and use an API key. It was so easy that you may want to continue to play around more. 

So today, I work in an API-first company. A lot has changed from the moment I made my first API call until today. But that foundation is still there. And that's why I love it so much.

## API development workflow

I mostly used cURL, and then I would need to create some sort of layer on top of it to manipulate the data I would receive.

It was always some sort of Node.js wrapper that I would use, but then that was like one step further. I first needed to see the API myself. The Google API, the Google Maps API, or the GitHub API was always like just trying it on the browser, and if I couldn’t, I could use cURL to PUT, POST, PATCH, etc., and go from there.

![Zeno at Liferay symposium](https://staging-devrelstack.kinsta.cloud/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/zeno-cpo.jpeg)

## Discovering RapidAPI for Mac

My real "aha" moment was when I went from a consumer to a creator of APIs.

Back in 2013, I was really into web components. I was told that it was the future of the web, and I was so excited that "oh, this is the next HTML5", and I wanted to help that ecosystem. So I created a project called `customelements.io`. It was the registry of web components. Think of it as npm but instead of node packages, we would download web components. 

I started by creating a REST API, and very early on in that project, I noticed that it'd been a pain to just use cURL to make these API requests. I was already using a MacBook, and I wanted something easy. I didn't want a chrome extension. 

<Quote imgSrc="https://staging-devrelstack.kinsta.cloud/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/242375816_1464314837272796_7592409961118460243_n.jpg" altText="Zeno Rocha - VP of DX, WorkOS">

I wanted something that felt fast, and when I downloaded RapidAPI for Mac, that was the impression I got. I was like, **"woohoo! Okay, this feels native"**, and that's why I fell in love with it.

</Quote>

The design was also much better than the other ones. All the other tools wanted to create something more customized. And it feels like [RapidAPI for Mac](https://paw.app/?utm_source=RapidAPI.com/developers&utm_medium=DevRel&utm_campaign=DevRel) allows you to focus on whatever you are trying to do. It is the type of tool that doesn't get in the way. So it's really agnostic and straightforward to use. 

Just like the structure of the layout, we can see the response on the right and the request you make on the left. So that was my first exposure to it. That's when I started using it. By now, it's been 8 or 9 years since I have been using [RapidAPI for Mac](https://paw.app/?utm_source=RapidAPI.com/developers&utm_medium=DevRel&utm_campaign=DevRel).

## One thing that brings him back to RapidAPI For Mac

I had moments when I would use RapidAPI for Mac every single day, and then I would go and not use it for months, and then I would go back. 

Then maybe there was another tool in the market, or maybe there was a co-worker who was already using something, and they wanted to use the same software. With Postman, that was the case. Like many times I gave it a shot. I was like, "ah! No, this isn't it". Then I would do it again, and I would be so frustrated. 

I would say it comes down to the developer experience. The way I see it, there is a hierarchy for developer experience, and then the base of that pyramid is performance, and I don't think there is any app that can beat the performance of [RapidAPI for Mac](https://paw.app/?utm_source=RapidAPI.com/developers&utm_medium=DevRel&utm_campaign=DevRel).

## Features of RapidAPI for Mac Zeno use currently

I loves certain things about the [RapidAPI for Mac](https://paw.app/?utm_source=RapidAPI.com/developers&utm_medium=DevRel&utm_campaign=DevRel) and frequently uses them when I am building a sample application locally or testing a feature built by the team.

First on the list is the ability to switch between environments with ease. Because sometimes, I am running the system locally, and other times I want to check it in production to see how it works.

<Quote imgSrc="https://staging-devrelstack.kinsta.cloud/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/zeno.jpg" altText="Zeno Rocha" position="right top">

Another feature I use often is the automatic code generator, where one can go like, "Oh, here is how you can do it using Node Fetch or Ruby". 

</Quote>

Since they are building a product that supports many different platforms and languages, they want to be embedded in those communities. This feature helps them be native to the ecosystems they serve, which means a lot to Zeno.

I remember another thing that changed the game for me when RapidAPI for Mac introduced the Cloud feature. It allows me to sync my projects and share them with my team. I have done it multiple times where I shared an environment with a co-worker so they could see things like my request's parameters, headers, and response to replicate an issue I discovered in the product. I feel that it has made the loop of debugging much faster.

## RapidAPI Client for VS Code

I have played around a bit, but it is not a part of my workflow yet. One thing I love is not having to leave my code editor. 

Zeno summed the experience up by saying that there is something about the cost of switching context where the moment you press "command+tab" (to change the window), your mind wanders to another place. Then, getting back to that stage of productivity takes time. 

## Wrap Up

It was a pleasure to interview Zeno. He's a brilliant developer and a valuable member of the community who maintains one of the most popular VS Code themes.

You can follow Zeno on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/zenorocha).

Zeno Rocha (VP of DX, WorkOS) Talks About RapidAPI for Mac (formerly Paw)

Read the stories of community leaders to learn about their experiences with Rapid.

Rapid Developer Stories