Liyas Thomas, 2020 Noonie Nominee, is the Creator of Postwoman.io

Liyas Thomas from India has been nominated for a 2020 Noonie Award in the Software Development and Technology categories. The Noonies are Hacker Noon’s way of getting to know — from a community perspective —  what matters in tech today. So, we asked our Noonie Nominees to tell us. Here’s what Liyas had to share.

1. Which 2020 Noonie have you been nominated for?

• Hacker Noon Contributor of the Year - FUNDRAISING
• Hacker Noon Contributor of the Year - TESTING
  

2. Tell us a bit about yourself.

I'm Liyas. I'm a software engineer who is passionate about making open-source projects, creating technology to elevate people, and building community.

I'm the author of Postwoman - A free, fast and beautiful API request builder and tester (web alternative to Postman) used by 65k+ developers.

I'm also a full-stack developer at Buy Me a Coffee (YC W19), developed and maintain dozens of other open source projects. I design UIs, sketch and play guitar.

3. Tell us about the things you make / write / manage / build.

Postwoman.io - A free, fast and beautiful API request builder and tester (web alternative to Postman) used by 65k+ developers.
Web app: https://postwoman.io
GitHub: https://github.com/liyasthomas/postwoman

Other open source projects: https://github.com/liyasthomas

4. What are you most excited about right now?

Building an all-in-one (open & free) API testing platform and thereby help developers create requests faster, saving precious time on development. Postwoman v2.0 makes this possible as we're approaching 310k+ one-time users and 65k+ monthly users.

I work at Buy Me a Coffee. We believe almost everyone will work for themselves in the future — our mission is to empower individuals to achieve that.

Apart from that, I'm petty excited about work from home opportunities around the world, work-life balance, psychology and finance. I read and learn about them continuously.

5. What are you worried about right now?

White supremacy and police brutality hurt my heart, as they're global problems. Every Black life lost to police murder globally matters and mattered.

My project "Postwoman" attracted lot of anti feminists - they made lot of hate speech against me and my project in social sites, dev communities etc.

6. What's the most useful advice you've ever given somebody?

Progress takes time. It doesn't matter how slow you are, as long as you don't stop. "Build and people will come" - this is BS. Take ownership and work on it.

7. How has the pandemic changed your life and/or career?

Our team went 100% remote. I realized collaborating from multiple time zones is one of the most non-discussed things about remote work. Productivity increased at least 1.5x while working from home.

8. If we gave you $10 million to invest in one thing right now, where would you put it?

Home education - simple, effective and practical home education solutions.

9. What's an opinion you have that most people don't agree with?

Taking risks will pay off in the long run.

10. What or Who are you keeping an eye on in 2020?

Myself and Elon Musk

11. Which apps can't you live without?

Clock & alarm app (I could list at least a dozen of other apps but that won't be my honest answer. I can't live without looking at a time app).

12. What are you currently learning?

Psychology and finance.

For much the same reasons Hacker Noon decided not to put good ideas behind pop-ups or paywalls — nor abuse your personal data to target you with creepy ads — we also decided that you don’t have to be an influencer or have 50k followers on Twitter to earn the recognition that comes with a 2020 Noonie Nomination. 

Make somebody’s day and nominate them to be recognized in the internet’s most independent and community-driven awards: NOONIES.TECH. Don't forget to vote for Liyas in the following awards:

• https://noonies.tech/award/hacker-noon-contributor-of-the-year-testing
• https://noonies.tech/award/hacker-noon-contributor-of-the-year-fundraising