How Genius AI Empowers Early-Career Engineers to Make an Impact
When Nirvan Silswal joined Genius AI straight out of university, he was expecting to spend most of his time learning the codebase, fixing bugs and slowly earning scope — but that’s not what happened.
Within his first year at the company, Nirvan owned critical projects end to end, delivering solutions like an internal framework that cut recovery time on operational issues from around 40 minutes to five.
“That level of ownership so early wasn’t what I pictured, and it’s been the best part of the job,” Nirvan said.
Nirvan, who currently works as a software engineer II, has been surprised — and impressed — by the culture at Genius AI, including its embrace of AI. Over the past two years, the company’s use of AI has expanded to an entire suite that includes an internal coding agent called Geni, which engineers can delegate Linear issues to. Together, these tools automate much of the repetitive, mundane work.
While Genius AI’s cutting-edge projects and culture of ownership have undoubtedly shaped Nirvan’s professional trajectory, there’s another reason why he has decided to continue building his career there: the people. At Genius AI, everyone truly cares about delivering what’s best for customers, making every workday both enlightening and impactful, he said.
“I’ve learned more in a year and a half here than I expected to, and almost all of it came from the people I work with,” Nirvan said.
Below, Nirvan shares more about what brought him to Genius AI, how he’s grown at the company so far, and what makes the company a fulfilling place to build a career.
What Engineers Work on at Genius AI
I’m currently a software engineer on Genius AI’s business platform team. I joined the company as a new graduate out of college and have been here for a little over two years. Our team is responsible for building and maintaining some of the company’s most critical platform services, including authentication, messaging infrastructure, and trust and safety initiatives. Some of the projects I’ve worked on include updating our internal libraries to support backfills at scale, integrating content moderation into our platform and building eventing frameworks that enable automated decision-making for fraud detection. I’ve had the opportunity to work across a wide range of problems, from improving the reliability and scalability of our infrastructure to building systems that directly support the safety and integrity of the platform.
Why Nirvan Silswal Chose to Start His Career at Genius AI
I graduated college at a unique time in software engineering, right when AI was beginning to reshape the software development lifecycle. I was fascinated by how AI could transform different industries, particularly those that had historically been underserved by technology. I came across Genius AI (GlossGenius at the time) and was immediately intrigued by the idea of applying frontier technology to a traditionally underserved vertical. After interviewing and speaking with several people across the organization, I was struck by the energy and ambition of the team; it felt unlike anywhere else I was interviewing. I came away feeling that Genius AI was a place where I could learn quickly, work on meaningful problems and have a real impact early in my career. That combination ultimately convinced me that it would be an exciting place to start my career.
How Genius AI Gives Early-Career Engineers Ownership
Coming out of college in 2024, I expected my first year or two to be well-scoped tickets in a single service: Learn the codebase, fix bugs and slowly earn scope. That’s not how it went. Within my first year, I was owning projects end to end, including an internal framework that cut recovery time on operational issues from around 40 minutes to five. That level of ownership so early wasn’t what I pictured, and it’s been the best part of the job.
How Do Genius AI Engineers Use AI?
Genius AI engineers use tools including GitHub Copilot, Claude Code, Ramp Router, Linear, and an internal coding agent called Geni. These tools help automate repetitive work so engineers can focus on more complex problems.
How Genius AI Engineers Use AI in Their Work
Two other things have surprised me. The first is how deeply we embraced AI. We’ve gone from just using GitHub Copilot in 2024 to a whole suite of tools now, and each engineer builds the setup that works best for them. We have Claude Code, Ramp Router and an internal coding agent called Geni that we can delegate Linear issues to. Most repetitive, mundane work has been automated away, freeing us up to focus on the problems that matter most. The second is how visible individual work is here. About a year in, I demoed something I’d built at a company town hall. At a bigger company, I doubt a new grad’s internal tooling project would make it in front of the whole company. Here, it did, and that changed how I think about what’s worth building.
Why Nirvan Silswal Chose to Keep Building His Career at Genius AI
My first project at the company was coupons. While many of my peers were joining months-long onboarding programs and training, just a couple of days after joining Genius AI, I was tasked with overhauling our coupon infrastructure. As a new grad, I found it incredibly rewarding to be trusted with a production system so early, with senior engineers supporting and guiding me every step of the way. Taking ownership of a project with real users and real impact gave me a tremendous amount of confidence in my ability to ship and set the tone for my experience at Genius AI. Since then, I’ve consistently been given opportunities to take on meaningful problems, move quickly and have a tangible impact. That first project made it clear that joining Genius AI was the right decision for me.
So did the people. Everyone who works at Genius AI cares a ton about the mission, and that shows up in the products we ship. Whether it’s engineering, product or design, this is a company full of people who have taste and really care about the work they do. What that looks like day to day is that the bar for quality is set by the people around you, not by a process. Code review here isn’t a rubber stamp. I’ve had reviewers push back on my work in ways that genuinely made it better, and I’ve been able to push back on more senior engineers’ work without it being weird. That only happens when everyone actually cares about getting it right rather than getting it merged.
The other thing is how connected people are to who we’re building for. Our customers run real businesses, and nobody here treats them as an abstraction. That makes the work feel like it matters, and it makes disagreements productive. Instead, we’re arguing about what’s actually best for the customer, not about whose idea wins. I’ve learned more in two years than I expected to, and almost all of it came from the people I work with.
Who Thrives at Genius AI
I’d describe the company as ‘scaling.’ The company I joined two years ago is entirely different from what it is today — in a really cool way. I’ve seen us scale from around 200 employees to 400+ without losing the hacky builder mentality that brought me here in the first place. The tools and processes have matured, but the instinct to just go build the thing is still very much intact. The people who thrive here are the ones who see an unclear problem and start pulling on it.
A lot of the work I’m proudest of started as something I noticed was broken or slower than it should be. If you need well-defined scope to feel productive, that’s a harder fit. The other thing that matters is being willing to work outside your lane. I’m a back-end engineer, but I’ve spent time on internal tooling, talking to ops teams and writing docs for non-engineers. You have to enjoy figuring things out, moving quickly and getting your hands dirty rather than waiting for perfect processes or instructions. There’s a really high bar for the quality of what we build. If you’re someone who gets excited about ambiguity, cares about your craft and wants to help shape a company as it grows, Genius AI is a great place to be.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does Genius AI do?
Genius AI provides a platform designed to help local businesses grow operations and maximize income by offering features such as appointment scheduling, payment processing and client management.
What do software engineers do at Genius AI?
Genius AI engineers build and maintain critical platform services, including authentication, messaging infrastructure, and trust and safety initiatives. They take end-to-end ownership of projects early in their careers, working across diverse initiatives like creating eventing frameworks for fraud detection, updating internal libraries for scaling, integrating content moderation and building operational frameworks. The company's engineers also work beyond standard back-end development by building internal tooling, writing documentation for non-engineers and collaborating directly with operations teams.
What is the engineering culture like at Genius AI?
The quality bar is set by peers rather than strict processes, featuring rigorous code reviews and open feedback regardless of seniority. Work revolves around solving real-world customer problems, fostering productive cross-team alignment across engineering, product and design. Early-career engineers and new graduates own production projects end to end with high visibility across the company, supported by senior mentorship.
How do engineers at Genius AI use artificial intelligence?
Genius AI engineers use a suite of AI tools that includes GitHub Copilot, Claude Code, Ramp Router, Linear and an internal coding agent called Geni. These tools help automate repetitive work so engineers can focus on more complex problems.
