The engineering team you can trust

We are Harvard-educated and Silicon Valley-trained,
with 10+ years of experience shipping software of unparalleled quality.

Trusted by the most innovative and established tech companies

...backed by the world's premier venture capitalists.

A decade of engineering excellence

Hiro and Mark, who became friends during their college days at Harvard and later colleagues in the formative years of Asana, have been building together for over ten years. They're ready to guide your next engineering initiative to remarkable success.

Hiro Yamada

Co-founder / CEO

Software Engineer, Asana
Founder, Asana Japan
Harvard Degrees in CS, MS, MBA

Mark Yao

Co-founder / CTO

CTO, Kaya (a leading venture studio)
Senior Eng Lead, Thumbtack and Asana
Harvard Degrees in Math and CS

AI/ML/LLM Development

Our profound expertise in AI empowers companies to create AI-driven applications from the ground up or enhance existing ones.

Large Codebase Expertise

Our ability to quickly understand existing codebases enables us to start enhancing and adding features within days, adhering to established conventions.

Mobile Development

We have extensive experience in developing and deploying mobile apps for both iOS and Android.

Full-stack Web Development

With more than ten years of experience, we're well-versed in the industry's best web development practices, delivering scalable and robust web solutions.

AI Research Projects

We specialize in AI research initiatives aimed at solving the most challenging and complex AI problems.

Build from scratch

Embarking on a new project? Collaborate with us to design, build, and launch your idea into reality.

Notable past projects

We've had the honor of partnering with some of the world's most innovative and established tech firms.

Web App, AI/ML

ALMA

ALMA's AI engine revolutionizes legal document preparation. As ALMA faced challenges in hiring a CTO, we built and launched their initial product in just three months.

Web App, Large Codebase

Orb

Orb builds billing infrastructure optimized for usage-based apps. Red-hot AI companies like Pinecone and Perplexity rely on Orb for billing. We are trusted to build new features for this mission-critical software.

Web App, AI/ML

Penguin AI

Supported by Y Combinator, Penguin AI revolutionizes inbound sales through AI. We are their primary source of full-stack engineering resources.

Web App, Large Codebase

ovice

A Series B venture, ovice is crafting a next-gen virtual office platform. Within a month of our collaboration, impressed by our code quality, they doubled our project team size.

AI/ML Research

Acelab

Acelab is an integrated platform for building materials. We trained a neural network to significantly enhance their search feature.

Engineering insights

We're eager to share our technical expertise and insights through our published articles.

AI/ML Research

AI-powered search ranking algorithm

A report on implementing a data pipeline enabling Thumbtack to consistently and swiftly enhance its AI capabilities.

Infrastructure, AI/ML

Feature Store for Faster ML Development

A report on creating an AI/ML production system that powers Thumbtack's search feature, serving over 10 million users.

Testing, Web

Testing in production: Rewriting APIs with dark clients

How Asana enhanced its API performance and consistency using dark clients to test production-level loads and identify discrepancies before deployment.

AI/ML Research

Validating Search Ranking with the Simulator

A report on developing a simulator to detect ranking regressions and maintain quality in Thumbtack's algorithm connecting customers with home service professionals.

App Development, Security

App Security for Startups: Strategies for Small Developers

This article outlines essential app security strategies for startups, covering multi-factor authentication, API security, encryption, security audits, and best practices to protect sensitive data and ensure regulatory compliance.

CI/CD, Development Process

How to Implement Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment (CI/CD)

This article explains how Continuous Integration (CI) and Continuous Deployment (CD) enhance software development by automating code integration and deployment, leading to faster, more reliable releases and improved collaboration among developers.

“I trust your techical judgement more than my own in almost all cases, because you know the codebase as well as I do!”

Rohan, CEO at Penguin AI (YC S22)

Former ML Engineer at Google

“You are resilient, and your communication is open and honest. We had the peace of mind that our engineering was in great hands.”

Aizada, CEO at ALMA

Harvard-educated lawyer and legal tech CEO

Frequently asked questions

How much do you charge?

We typically charge $10k to $15k per engineer per month, although this could vary for complex projects. Our customers find our pricing to be more competitive than anything they find in the US.

When can you start working for me?

Please contact us, but most likely, immediately! We always try to keep some reserve capacity to serve new customers with minimal delay.

What are the logistics of working together?

We are flexible! Typically we first engage in a two-week paid trial so our clients can validate the value we can provide. Projects can be fixed term (typically 3+ months), or indefinite (we become an integrated part of the team).

Schedule a call with us to find out if we can help you!

We are thrilled to be your trusted partner for your AI / engineering projects. Please reach out!

hello@firstmate.tech

+1 (510) 680-3749‬