AI in NYC: How Tenex Builds an AI-Native Engineering Team — Alex Lieberman & CJ Hess
Alex Lieberman and CJ Hess of Tenex join swyx at AI Engineer New York to explain how they run an AI-native engineering consultancy that pays software engineers based on story points and output rather than billable hours. They detail their MetaHarness development workflow that commits agent plans and decisions into Git, outline the enterprise diffusion gap where only 5% of non-engineering agents reach production, and debate whether vertical AI startups and mid-tier SaaS can survive custom internal rebuilds.
- Tenex co-founders Alex Lieberman and CJ Hess argue vertical AI startups face extinction as buyers demand custom software built for their exact workflows. Read →
- Only 5% of non-engineering enterprise AI agents make it into production, stalled by fragmented human workflows rather than model limitations. Read →
- 90% of large enterprises have purchased enterprise licenses for frontier models like Claude or ChatGPT, but buying seats does not mean workflows change. Read →
- Tenex pays software engineers strictly by completed story points instead of billable hours, linking compensation directly to delivered code. Read →