Sam Stokes

Y’all gotta know about Sam Stokes, this guy’s the real deal in the startup world. He’s part of YC’s S10 batch, which already puts him in that elite circle of folks who crushed it early on. But what’s really cool is his story. He’s been around the block with some serious heavy hitters like LinkedIn, Bloomberg, and Rapportive.

So here’s the scoop: Sam co-founded Rapportive, which was all about making email smarter, like giving you more context on your contacts without losing focus. Basically, he built something super useful that journalists and regular folks loved. That caught the eyes of LinkedIn, and they scooped it up. That’s a big win, turning a startup into a part of a giant tech company.

But Sam’s not just about selling out or riding the wave. Nah, he jumped right into the culture of a huge platform, learning how big tech ticks from the inside. That kind of experience? It’s gold. It shows he’s all about building stuff that actually matters, but he also gets the real hustle of scaling, not just the fun part of creating, but the grind of making it stick.

And what’s dope is he’s been vocal about empathy in dev. Like, he’s not just about tech for tech’s sake, he talks about understanding users, feeling their needs. That’s the kind of mindset that turns good ideas into game-changers. You can see that passion in his podcast talks and all the interviews he’s done.

His process? It’s all about jumping into the fire, building from scratch, then taking that experience and leveling up big time. He’s proof that if you build something meaningful, hustle hard, and care about the people using your stuff, you can go from a YC startup to a major player and beyond.

Basically, Sam’s the guy you wanna watch if you’re into startups, tech, or just making a real impact. No bullshit, he’s all about building better tools, understanding what people need, and crushing every challenge in front of him.