Adam Kliment VP of Developer Experience
Throughout my career, I've worn many hats. I started tinkering as a Linux admin, founded a startup, and moved from engineer to PM, and now I’m VP of Developer Experience (DX) at Apify. Each stop along the way has taught me the value of the people behind the products and shaped my perspective on development, teamwork, and building great communities. I’m all about building bridges between bright minds and big ideas.
One thing that's remained constant is my love for learning. Sometimes it’s a gift and a curse! I dig deep into topics, always trying to understand the nuts, bolts, and big picture. My curiosity has led me down many paths outside of tech, each one surprisingly shaping my career.
Take drumming. I might not be a frontman, but I know how to keep the beat and lead the band from the back. Then there’s endurance cycling, my crash course in resilience and knowing when to pivot (sometimes literally!). Don’t get me started on electronics, conceptual art, and 3D printing with concrete. They’ve taught me how to build complex systems from the ground up. Who knew playing with mud could teach you so much about strong foundations?
Over the years, I've tried to live by this principle: Try to solve real problems with technology, ideally your own, the ones you have the most empathy for. This approach has steered my journey, leading to meaningful work. For those entering tech or changing careers, I highly recommend this mindset. It's a powerful way to create useful solutions and find fulfillment in the field. This concept is central to my current role at Apify, where we're working to build trust, a great community for developers, and making deeply technical automation accessible to everyone.
Servers, start-ups, and San Francisco
My journey kicked off in the “Wild East” of Prague back in the 2000s. I was an aspiring web designer and I met a group of Linux enthusiasts – they were building a guerilla internet infrastructure as a response to poor internet connection at the time. Their passion gave me my first "wow moment" and soon I was running my own web hosting server. It was my very first developer oriented product. It wasn't easy, but the community had my back. They taught me more than just technical skills – I learned the value of sharing knowledge. It was my first taste of how awesome tech communities can be.
Next, I started Virtualmaster, a cloud computing platform for rapid prototyping of Linux servers – in the pre-Docker era with the uprising of the DevOps movement. We built it on Ruby on Rails. It taught me what DX even is and how powerful a driver for adoption it can be for a software product. Our focus on solving real infrastructure problems led to rapid growth, reaching 10,000 users in just a year. This success was exciting, but also taught me the pitfalls of scaling up quickly. I learned firsthand the importance of building systems that can grow with demand and a rapidly expanding user base. My startup was a test in learning my limits and the importance of relying on a great team, i.e., how do you balance innovation with practical business needs?
Post startup, I landed at Apiary to focus on APIs. There, I created Dredd, a language agnostic, open-source API testing tool. I made it because I saw developers (including myself!) struggling with API testing, when taking the API design-first approach. Dredd grew from this simple idea to a tool used by thousands with support for eight programming languages. Building it connected me with a highly academic community, which even included people working on RFCs at the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force). It was pretty intimidating at first, but the community's feedback was gold – shaping Dredd into something truly useful. This experience demonstrated the power of open-source collaboration and the impact of solving real developer problems. It showed how adoption by solo developers can catapult a business into deals with Fortune 1000 companies.
At Apiary (acquired by Oracle), I shifted from engineering to product management, which took me to San Francisco. Apiary had an HQ at Heavybit, a co-working space for developer-oriented companies, and truly opened my eyes to the importance of DX. I was also surrounded by some of the smartest and most ambitious people in the industry. I had a front-row seat seeing how company and product leaders could better connect with the developer community. This experience was key to building partnerships across different parts of companies. I learned to balance technical possibilities with user needs, always keeping the developer's perspective in mind.
Building more than just a great platform
At Apify, I've found my sweet spot as VP of Developer Experience. We're innovating in web scraping and automation, aiming to solve problems before developers even face them. My role gives me a 360-degree view of the company. My goal is to inspire, lead by positive example, and build trust inside Apify and with our developer community. I try to provide a vision for the future, but I still love getting my hands dirty and diving into code to stay sharp. It's not just about building tools; it's about tools that make developers' lives easier.
The most important thing I've learned is that great external DX is only as good as your internal one. Apify has built a solid foundation. We always keep open source in mind, and it shows. We’re making an ecosystem where individual developers can build their own products and succeed. For me, Developer Experience isn’t something that’s just sprinkled on top of our platform, it’s internal, transparent, and functional.
What I love most is that, although Apify may be a young company, it’s very mature. There is sincere, frank communication at every level of the company. There's never a need to read between the lines. We all share knowledge freely, aiming to 'skate where the puck is going to be,' as Wayne Gretzky would say.
I have seen at Apify that “Software is People” is more than just words – it's how we work every day. Our culture isn't abstract – everyone, from developers to marketers, contributes to creating great products and experiences. We're trying to build more than just a great platform; we're building a community where everyone's input counts.
Join the Apify team
If you're passionate about web automation, we'd love to hear from you.
Remember, the key is to focus on people – solving real problems, especially ones you've experienced yourself. That's where true innovation happens, and it's what has guided me throughout my career. So, take a look at our open positions and let us know where you want to go in your tech career. We're excited to see what problems you're passionate about solving!
