We Are Smoothstack

Smoothstack was born out of a desire to change how software engineers are developed and deployed.

As an immigrant, John Akkara arrived in the US excited to witness the American Dream in action. However, he discovered a broken system. It wasn’t enough to work hard, graduate from college, and aim for the stars. Among him and his peers, those who could access opportunities were those with existing personal networks. Those without this headstart struggled, facing endless job applications and fruitless interviews.

A desire to level the playing field and further the best and brightest on the sole basis of merit was the first foundation stone of Smoothstack.

The second foundation stone was experiencing shortcomings on the other side of the equation. When John joined forces with Prashanth Ram to co-found an IT consulting firm, they found it very hard to source excellent engineers. Teaming up with Boris Kuiper, Smoothstack’s third founder, they developed their own custom training framework. The framework was a huge success – elevating aspiring developers who were ready to learn and providing exceptional project results to their clients.

This homegrown training approach was the kernel of what would become Smoothstack.

The founding team asked themselves: What if we could scale this model?

What if we could offer truly merit-based career opportunities to aspiring software engineers, regardless of background? What if we could provide companies with a reliable pipeline of custom-trained talent, ready to operate on their tech stack from day one?

These ambitions became reality; they became Smoothstack.

At Smoothstack, we are passionate about our mission to:

1. Unlock potential in those that may not have had the opportunity to show their talent.
2. Create a reliable source of candidates – at scale – for top-tier tech companies looking for excellence.

We are 100% committed to creating bias-free environments that are challenging but rewarding, and that ultimately contribute to the creation of the great tech products on which the world relies. Anyone willing to excel can thrive and flourish here.

We are passionate about giving anyone who is willing to work hard an opportunity to flourish – regardless of race, gender, or any other characteristic. We are proud that our recruiting and training modalities naturally produce highly diverse teams.