Every coding journey starts with a “Hello World”, so it felt right to start this blog the same way! I’m Marco Araujo, a Fullstack Software Engineer from Brazil.
Where have I started?
My first steps came back in 2014, when I took a technical course in São Paulo’s ETEC as a Programming Assistant. There, I learned the basics of system analysis, SQL databases, web development with JavaScript and PHP, and desktop software with Java and C#. ETEC was one of the leading technical education schools in Brazil, so although each topic was explored in 6-months modules, the coursework was pretty demanding, requiring a lot effort, patience, overnight debugging, and finding out semi-colons are the root of all evil. I learned and grew a lot during that period, and that sealed my decision to join IT.
In 2016, I started my bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering at Rio de Janeiro State University. The STEM foundation was really strong, with the basic engineering cycle featuring several calculus and physics courses, differential equations, numerical simulation for physical phenomena, linear algebra, and much more! On the computer science and engineering cycle, the course also provided a rich set of courses, like algorithms, data structures, and computer architecture, databases, networks, state machines, and I also had the chance to explore machine learning concepts like regression models, perceptrons, neural networks, and applied linear algebra techniques, like SVD, QR decomposition, PCA, and more. The constant exchange with students and Ph.D researchers provide an even richer experience, and I got to attend to meetups and seminars, ranging from sociophysics to black-holes.
Learning by building
In 2017, I joined Serra Jr. Engenharia, our university junior company, as a Junior Project Manager & Engineer. Under the mentorship of experienced staff and Ph.D. professors, I managed backlogs, gathered client requirements, and led the delivery of web applications using Angular, PHP, and JavaScript. It was also where I designed an industrial IoT solution with Arduino and C++ to automate temperature control in production, which was where my love for electronics could be used for the first time!
In 2019, I joined the university as an IT Intern, where I developed a climate-monitoring mobile app with Ionic and a Java REST API. The goal was to help the community and authorities with disaster prevention, through alerts based on strategic placement of sensors for measuring precipitation and water levels. The app was published on the Google Play Store and earned a project registration certificate, and became one of the projects I’m proudest of.
From college to the job market
In 2020, I took on a freelance project with Satélite Norte, building an audit platform. This was the first project I ran by myself, reaching out to a client, having meetings to collect all requirements, prototyping the solution, designing the UI/UX, planning tasks, and implementing everything. I’ve built three different frontends using React and React Native, along with a Node.js and PostgreSQL REST API. The experience was pretty fun, and the client feedback was great! The system is now being used to audit hundreds of agencies, and can provide centralized insights, planning, and requests.
EasyRetro: serverless apps
Later in 2020, I joined EasyRetro, where I spent nearly five years working fully remote and async. I handled end-to-end product development across multiple SaaS applications, including EasyRetro, Slideasy, and PlanITPoker, from feature planning all the way to release. For being a small startup, I’ve got to wear multiple hats, working from discovery, prototyping, to implementation, analytics, SEO, and even helping with customer support for a few weeks. That diversity of roles obviously made me mature very quickly.
Besides building on EasyRetro, which was the main focus, I built Slideasy from scratch up to its MVP launch, and led the migration of PlanITPoker to a new stack while it moved from free to paid.
The serverless stack also got my heart! Backend services like Firebase provide top-notch authentication, databases, hosting, file storage, and edge functions that are really easy to set up and ship and virtually at no cost, since the free-tier can accommodate small to medium size apps, allowing one to validate, pivot, and grow before spending a dime in infrastructor. Of course this comes with vendor lock-in, but being based on platforms like Google, I would say it’s a pretty safe bet!
Form Factory: performance at scale
In 2025, I joined Form Factory, a California-based company, where I worked on headless e-commerce for leading US brands. Working at this scale has had a huge impact on my mindset and how I approach building!
I led a performance optimization program that took Lighthouse and Core Web Vitals scores from poor to production standards, and rebuilt the Customer Hub for a major clothing brand, including a new loyalty provider integration, account management, orders, and customer support. The seasonal demand in business such as e-commerces was new to me, and it was pretty interesting to have windows for development, shipping, and validation, followed by clean up, hardening, and discovery work. It seemed pretty much like leaning back to sprint forward a few times each year!
I worked kind of as Forward Deployed role, reporting to the merchant staff
What you’ll find here
Today, my main tools are TypeScript, React, Node.js, Remix / React Router, Shopify Hydrogen, Vue, Firebase, and PostgreSQL. Lately, I’ve also been diving into AI tooling, working with the Claude API, Model Context Protocol, and agent skills.
On this blog, I plan to write about the things I work with and care about: JavaScript and TypeScript, web performance, SaaS and e-commerce, Arduino and electronics, and AI. Mostly practical lessons learned along the way.
Thanks for reading this far! Feel free to get in touch through the links below with any feedback or ideas, and I invite you to join me on this journey!