ericpsimon

In Y Combinator's latest release of request for startups, Diana Hu and Tom Blomfield asked founders to turn companies into closed loops.

"Closed loop" is a defined engineering pattern, not a metaphor. IBM formalized it in 2003 as MAPE-K: Monitor, Analyze, Plan, Execute, sharing Knowledge. Every system that actually closes the loop is an instance of this pattern.

In my latest post, I walk through what each MAPE-K layer needs to look like from first principles, with OpenAI's recent data agent as the case study. If you're designing toward Hu or Blomfield's RFS, start here before you start integrating tools.

Finch | Staff Software Engineer, Backend | HYBRID - SF or NYC | https://jobs.lever.co/finch/62ac428a-80ef-4469-9e06-0b87ed4f... | $200K+ base + equity

Finch (tryfinch.com) is building unified API infrastructure for employment systems—think Plaid, but for payroll and HR data. We connect 401k providers, insurance companies, and other fintech apps to 200+ payroll providers through a single integration. Series B backed by General Catalyst, Menlo, YC, and angels including founders from Plaid, Brex, Mercury, and Ramp.

We're looking for a Staff Backend Engineer (10+ years) to lead large cross-team initiatives, design systems for high-volume data processing across complex employment integrations, and help set architectural direction. You'll work with NodeJS, TypeScript, PostgreSQL, Redis, and AWS. We deploy daily, practice TDD, and care deeply about building reliable, scalable APIs. Strong systems design skills and comfort with ambiguity are key—you'll be defining problems as much as solving them.

Hybrid (2+ days/week in SF or NYC). Equity includes a 10-year exercise window. Full benefits, unlimited PTO with 3-week minimum.

Happy to answer questions here, or apply via the link above.

Congrats on the release Ayush! Happy to see this come to market.

It is great to hear that feedback. We think this is something that many development teams can utilize in order to build stronger 3rd party API integrations. Please let me know if you have any additional questions.

Loom API solves 2 of the major problems with third party API integrations:

1. Generation of type-safe clients - We autogenerate API clients from OpenAPI specs allowing you to create clients from both internal and external APIs.

2. Observability - Every API call is logged to our platform which allows you to understand how your APIs are being used and how they are performing in real time.

If you have any questions or feedback, please don't hesitate to reach out to us at [email protected]. We'd love to hear from you!"

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