Dennis Beatty

Here’s why you should know about Dennis Beatty. This guy’s the real deal in the tech world. He’s the CEO and co-founder of Surge, a YC F24 startup that’s basically building the Stripe for telephony – an insanely easy SMS API for devs. The dude crushed it getting into YC, which is no joke, but what’s really cool is his background before that.

Dennis has been deep in the trenches as a Staff Software Engineer. He knows his shit when it comes to building expandable, rock-solid distributed systems. We’re talking Java, Spring Boot, microservices, cloud-native tech – the stuff that keeps the internet chugging. Before Surge, he was at Podium, working on their Messenger platform, helping small businesses communicate better. He was a tech lead there, so he’s got leadership chops and knows how to build tech that actually moves the needle.

But he didn’t stop there. Dennis also rolled at giants like Netflix and Gusto, where he focused on core infrastructure stuff – observability, distributed tracing, all that behind-the-scenes magic that makes big systems reliable and fast. He’s kinda known in the Spring system too, speaking at big conferences like SpringOne, QCon, KubeCon – sharing knowledge, pushing the tech forward. He’s super passionate about writing and open source, always giving back to the community.

What’s wild is how this all ties together. Dennis started out as a hardcore engineer, building complex systems, figuring out what works, what doesn’t. His drive? To make tech better, easier, more reliable. That’s what pushed him to create Surge. He saw how messy and complicated phone integrations can be for devs, and he decided to fix that. He’s on a mission to simplify telephony – to give developers a tool that’s as simple as Stripe, but for messaging.

He’s based in Lehi, Utah, hanging with his wife and daughter when he’s not coding or speaking at conferences. The guy’s all about building cool stuff, sharing what he’s learned, and making tech more accessible. Honestly, he’s one of those entrepreneurs who’s been around the block, built it all, and now he’s jumping into something that could really shake up how we talk to each other online.

Bottom line? Dennis is a tech innovator with a solid background in infrastructure and a passion for making life easier for developers. He’s all about pushing the entire tech world forward, not just focused on his own startups. That’s why he’s someone you gotta keep your eye on.