Fern (YC W23)

Fern (YC W23) is a company that builds tools to make APIs easier to use and understand. Their primary focus is on automating the generation of SDKs (client libraries) and documentation for REST APIs. They envision a world where every engineering team can offer "Stripe-level" APIs, meaning APIs that are well-documented, easy to use, and reliable. Their tools are inspired by the internal tooling used by large companies like AWS and Palantir, which have significant resources to invest in developer experience.

Fern is a young company, founded in 2022 and backed by YCombinator. They are a small team of less than 10 people, working together from their office in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn, NY. Fern's open-source tools are gaining traction with customers like Cohere, ElevenLabs, Webflow, and Merge.dev, who are leveraging their technology to improve the developer experience for their users.

Fern offers a full-time, in-person role at their Brooklyn, NY office. They do offer unlimited vacation, but remote work options are not mentioned in the job posting.

Fern offers a comprehensive benefits package that includes a competitive salary of $168,000 to $192,000 per year plus equity, a living proximity bonus of $18,000 per year for employees living near the office, free meals at the office, comprehensive health, dental, and vision insurance, and unlimited vacation.

Fern's mission is to simplify API development by providing businesses with the tools to offer "Stripe-level" SDKs (client libraries) and comprehensive documentation for their REST APIs. Inspired by the streamlined developer experiences offered by companies like AWS and Palantir, Fern aims to make it easy for every engineering team to create user-friendly and well-documented APIs, ultimately improving the overall developer experience and accelerating software development.

Fern promotes a collaborative and customer-centric culture, valuing generalist skills and a willingness to tackle new challenges. They encourage direct interaction with customers and prioritize building a strong network within the SaaS startup community, especially among YCombinator founders. They emphasize rapid iteration, moving fast to release bug fixes and features, and using customer feedback to drive product development. They also offer a relaxed, team-oriented environment with generous benefits, including unlimited vacation and meals provided at the office.