about me
haider toha london, uk
github • email • linkedin • twitter
founding engineer at sammy labs (yc w25). i write code across the stack, from typescript on the frontend to python on the backend with postgres underneath. most of my time goes into building features end-to-end, designing the interface, writing the api, optimising the queries and making sure it holds up in production.
my background is aeronautics. designing systems that can't afford to fail taught me to think about failure modes first, asking what breaks, when and how you recover gracefully. i’ve since worked at goldman sachs (scale, process, reliability) and built my own ventures from zero (speed, scrappiness, shipping daily). both shaped how i write code.
i spend about a third of my time with customers, on calls, debugging their issues live, understanding what's actually blocking them vs what they say is blocking them. the best features i've shipped came from watching someone struggle with the product.
what i care about is clean abstractions, fast feedback loops and code that's easy to delete. i'd rather ship something small that works than something ambitious that doesn't.
outside of work i'm usually at the gym, playing cricket or on late-night walks through hyde park when i need to think. i coach my local kids football team, which is the most grounding thing i do each week. recently started gliding and working towards my pilot’s licence.
i read too much. mostly history, philosophy and whatever rabbit hole has me that week.