We're excited to share that João Melo is joining the Resend team as a Software Engineer.

João is an engineer who loves building things. He previously worked at Coinbase and BooksOpen. He brings a lot of AI knowledge from his years working with LLMs and contributing to Langchain.

Here's our favorite post from him: Understanding Weighted Graphs: Dijkstra's Algorithm Revealed.

More about João

How did you get into software?

When I was around 12 years old, I started playing a lot of Minecraft with some friends.

After a while, we began exploring the world of game mods, and I developed a great interest in turning my laptop into a 24-hour server where my friends could connect to play together and set up various plugins and mods to enhance the experience. After some time, I found myself programming mods in Java for Minecraft and server plugins.

Since then, being able to write lines of code to solve problems and improve the user experience has become a passion.

What does your desktop/home screen look like?

I always try to keep my desktop as clean as possible. Organized and minimalist. As for the dock, I always keep my favorite apps there.

Why are you at Resend?

Resend has been a company that has inspired me for years. I have always admired the attention to detail and the developer experience.

During my career, I have worked extensively with AI technologies, collaborating on open source projects, contributing to powerful tools for developers to connect to different models, and creating amazing products.

Now, I am joining Resend to bring new.email to life, allowing not only developers to connect more and more with LLMs, but also opening the doors for any person that wants to send emails in the simplest and most effective way possible.

I am extremely excited to join Resend and transform the reality of communication into something simple and easy for everyone.

Where do you find #inspiration?

Traveling is one of the ways that inspires me the most. Through travel, I get to know new places, cultures, cuisines, histories, and ways of thinking. With each trip, I become a person with different roots.

Beyond travel, I'm passionate about connecting with people. I deeply believe that meaningful connections and friendships help us grow in unexpected ways—both professionally and personally.

If you weren't programming, what would you be doing?

I have always been very close to music.

My father taught me to play guitar when I was very young. After a few years, I started exploring other instruments like piano, bass, and finally, drums. The ability to produce sounds that fit well to the human ear seems like a superpower to me. Through music, you can evoke strong feelings in anyone. The harmony, synchronization, all aspects flowing through different instruments, resulting in music that can give someone chills when they hear it.

I would certainly be some kind of musician if I weren't a programmer.

Favorite tool?

Without a doubt, Raycast. It's always fun to discover that there's something I can optimize or automate. I'm always thinking about what I can create with Raycast to optimize my workflows.

Favorite hotkey?

Option + Command + L . This is the keyboard shortcut I've mapped to search for Linear tickets. This is definitely the most used shortcut in the past few months.

Favorite place to visit?

Toronto, Canada.

During the winter, I fall in love with the city. Being a place with cultural roots from all over the world, I find it magical how it's possible to find anything, at any time. It's a city where you need to spend days to visit all the museums, participate in events, and practice various outdoor sports, regardless of the season.

Advice for ambitious software engineers?

Teach while you learn.

I discovered very early in my career how powerful it is to share with others what you have been learning. It is one of the most efficient ways I have found to internalize knowledge and become a better professional.

In the end, you not only learn what you are trying to teach, but you also learn to communicate better, to deal with people, and last but not least, you help others grow with you. Knowing how to teach is knowing how to learn. You will need this regardless of the journey or experience you are about to go through.