Gilbert Pellegrom / Founder & engineer

I build the kind of
businesses I want to use.

Founder, engineer and product person. I’ve spent the last decade turning useful software into enduring businesses—and learning what makes the work worth doing.

Follow the journey ↓

One project led
to another.

My career has been a series of increasingly ambitious bets on useful software. The thread runs from a weekend project in my university flat to the acquisition of Lemon Squeezy by Stripe—and now back toward the freedom of a small team.

012010OPEN SOURCE

The side project

It began with a weekend
and a jQuery plugin.

I made Nivo Slider in my university flat because I wanted a better image slider for the web. I released it for free, and other people took it further than I could have planned.

Its popularity led to a paid WordPress version—and my first real lessons in product, distribution and making a living from software.

890k+downloads by late 2011
022010sBUILDING BUSINESSES
032020–2024LEMON SQUEEZY

The biggest bet yet

We built Lemon Squeezy.
Stripe bought it.

I left my job to go all in as a co-founder and CTO, building commerce infrastructure for software businesses with a small team. In 2024, Stripe acquired Lemon Squeezy.

I stayed on as an engineering manager, seeing how the product and the team could grow inside a much larger company. It gave me a new perspective on scale—and a clearer idea of what I value about startups.

THE MILESTONEAcquired by Stripe
2024
04NEXTSTARTUPS & AI

The next chapter

Back to startups.
Looking toward AI.

At Stripe and in my own projects, I’ve been using AI across planning, coding and the everyday work of building software. It feels like a real change in what a small team can accomplish.

After Stripe, I want to return to the speed and closeness of startups. I’m exploring where AI can make a product meaningfully better, then doing the patient work of making it useful enough to rely on.

The next part is still being written.

All writing ↗

The longer version.