Guillermo Rauch
Founder and CEO of Vercel; co-author of Next.js and author of Socket.IO and Mongoose
Guillermo Rauch is a software engineer and the founder and CEO of Vercel, the company behind the Next.js React framework and a cloud platform for deploying web applications and agents. Rauch's own site describes a career built on the web and open source, including authoring the Socket.IO real-time library and the Mongoose MongoDB library, and designing and co-authoring Next.js.146
Open-source work
Rauch's early open-source work was in JavaScript: Rauch was a member of the MooTools core team, and Rauch's startup LearnBoost contributed to Node.js ecosystem projects such as Express, Connect, Jade and Stylus. Rauch went on to author Socket.IO, for real-time communication, and Mongoose, for accessing MongoDB data.189
Rauch also authored the Hyper terminal emulator built on web technologies and collaborated with Shu Ding on the design of the SWR data-fetching library. Rauch wrote one of the early books on Node.js, "Smashing Node.js: JavaScript Everywhere".1
Vercel and Next.js
Rauch's company, then called ZEIT, started in 2016 with a command-line deployment tool for individual developers, and in October 2016 open-sourced Next.js in a launch post co-written by Naoyuki Kanezawa, Rauch and Tony Kovanen. In April 2020 the company renamed itself Vercel, with Rauch signing as CEO and founder.457
Rauch's 2025 essay "The AI Cloud" describes a shift in the web and the cloud from pages to agents, and the infrastructure Vercel builds for AI apps and agents. Vercel's about page now presents the company as agentic infrastructure for apps and agents.36
Work
Next.js (external site: github.com)Open-source code
Designed and co-authored the MIT-licensed React framework, which Rauch and colleagues open-sourced in October 2016 as a small framework for server-rendered universal JavaScript web apps.157
Socket.IO (external site: github.com)Open-source code
Authored this MIT-licensed library, which its repository describes as bidirectional and low-latency communication for every platform.18
Mongoose (external site: github.com)Open-source code
Authored Mongoose, an MIT-licensed MongoDB object modeling library designed to work in an asynchronous environment.19
Career timeline
2014
Published the essay "7 principles of rich web applications" on rauchg.com.2
2016
Started ZEIT with a deployment tool for individual developers.4
Oct 25, 2016
Co-wrote the post that open-sourced Next.js, a framework for server-rendered React apps.5
Apr 21, 2020
Announced, as CEO and founder, that ZEIT had been renamed Vercel.4
Oct 17, 2025
Published "The AI Cloud", an essay on infrastructure for AI agents.32
Other documented roles
Roles the sources document but that are not confirmed as current.
Related people
More sourced profiles at the same organization, in the same field, or from the same school.
- Lars GrammelAlso at Vercel
- 0xSeroDeveloper tools
- Jared PalmerAlso at Vercel
- Abubakar AbidDeveloper tools
- Adam FourneyDeveloper tools
- Adam SelipskyDeveloper tools
- Adrien GallouëtDeveloper tools
- Akshat BubnaDeveloper tools
- Aldehir RojasDeveloper tools
- Alessio FanelliDeveloper tools
- Alex FinnDeveloper tools
- Amjad MasadDeveloper tools
Is this you?
Profiles cover public professional work only, and every line cites a source. If something is out of date, missing or wrong, send a correction with a link to an official page and we will update it. Suggest a correction
Add this badge to your website or GitHub profile README. It links back to this page. It is not an endorsement or a rating.
Markdown (for a README)
[](https://unitedstatesofamericasuperintelligence.com/people/guillermo-rauch/)
HTML
<a href="https://unitedstatesofamericasuperintelligence.com/people/guillermo-rauch/"><img src="https://unitedstatesofamericasuperintelligence.com/badges/profile.svg" alt="Guillermo Rauch — Profile on USASI" height="20"></a>
This profile covers public professional work only, from the sources below. It is not an endorsement or a ranking. To correct or remove it, use the correction form.