About Me

ProfilePhoto Hey there! I’m Michael Rebello. I’ve been doing iOS development since iOS 4, and am currently a Staff Engineer on Airbnb’s Client Networking & Data team.

Most recently, I worked as a cross between a software engineer and a product manager at Buf where I authored and still maintain Connect-Swift, a CNCF-bound Protobuf RPC library. Prior, I was a Staff Engineer at Lyft for 6 years and co-founded a social travel company called Path. Before that, I worked in enterprise SaaS and started and sold two small software companies.

I currently live in San Diego with my wife Milla and our 3 cats (Bailey, June, and Walter). In my free time, I enjoy baking, hiking, surfing, bouldering, and learning to speak Russian. My wife and I also launched an app together called Earful to solve our own need for listening to news articles on-the-go.

This page contains a little bit about my work background – feel free to contact me or ping me in the Buf Slack.

Open Source

Public Talks

Featured Posts

Work Experience

Airbnb - Staff (iOS) Engineer (2023 - Present)

I’m currently on the Client Networking & Data team at Airbnb.

Buf - iOS Engineering & Product (2022 - 2023)

I’m the author and a maintainer of Connect-Swift, an open-source Protobuf RPC library in the Connect ecosystem which recently applied to join the CNCF. I was responsible for defining and leading other projects such as Buf’s breaking change governance flow and gateway solutions, represented the company at conferences, and managed its blog.

Lyft - Staff (iOS) Engineer (2016 - 2022)

After leading an architecture effort on the iOS driver app, I formed a “lab” team with 2 other iOS engineers to build and ship a redesigned rider app which boosted ride bookings and became the foundation for the current Lyft app. I led Lyft’s mobile-wide adoption of Protobuf APIs, authoring a Swift Protobuf generator in Go and partnering with product teams to achieve 100% utilization across mobile at the company. I was also a founding member and maintainer of the open-source Envoy Mobile project (now part of the CNCF), and was responsible for writing Lyft’s experimentation, analytics, and gRPC streaming components on iOS. Lastly, I led a new team on mobile infrastructure focused on networking and reliability, and was an editor of the Lyft Engineering Blog.

Path - Co-Founder & CTO (2020 - 2022)

Co-founded Path, a platform to find the best spots through short-form, relatable video reviews from local experts and recommendations from friends. In 2021, the company raised a funding round led by 75 & Sunny Ventures. As the sole technical team member, I built Path’s backend server and iOS app from the ground up. My co-founder and I interviewed countless users, shipped >250 builds, and launched several marketing campaigns over 2 years of working towards product-market-fit, but eventually decided to wind the company down, returning the majority of funds back to investors. Screenshots can be found in this portfolio album.

ActivityHub/NEXMachine - iOS Product & Architecture (2014 - 2016)

Joined ActivityHub (NEXMachine) to build their iOS calendar app and backend which integrated with several external services. A few months later, they acquired my company (Scholastic Connections), and I began leading product development for both initiatives before later closing down Scholastic Connections as ActivityHub refocused on the enterprise space as a Salesforce partner. I then led product engineering, hired new engineers, contributed as an IC, and participated in investor meetings.

Flounder Apps (Acquired in 2016) - Co-Founder (2013 - 2016)

Co-founded Flounder Apps, focused on building Ambition: Strategy War Game – an iOS app designed as a complex, turn-based strategy game. The product was acquired by another organization in 2016.

Scholastic Connections (Acquired in 2015) - Founder (2014 - 2015)

Founded Scholastic Connections, a company that partnered with classroom management providers to create an iOS app which provided teachers and families with easy access to their students’ data. In 2015, the company was acquired by ActivityHub (NEXMachine), but was later wound down when ActivityHub pivoted towards the enterprise space.

Independent iOS Developer (2011 - 2014)

Contracted independently on iOS projects for several companies. Additionally, I created a few of my own apps which were distributed on the App Store, some of which were eventually sold off.