Hello, I'm Michael.
VP of Product & Engineering, making complex tech feel simple. At Getaround, I scaled our team from 20 to 60 while keeping car‑sharing a three‑tap task.
I work where code meets company strategy. Every product has its own physics, so I learn the rules quickly, reshape them, and ship value faster.
Roadmap debates, company‑wide strategy sessions, database schemas, launch timelines: each decision serves one purpose, move the business forward.
What matters most
- People first: a tight crew beats any framework.
- Users always: every byte should erase friction.
- Results that show: technology counts only when the numbers move.
When the laptop closes, I’m a Lego architect and bedtime‑story voice actor for my favorite co‑founder, my son.
Onward.
Michael Bensoussan
Writing
- Being explicit about expectations isn't micromanagement (2025)Goals without explicit expectations are just wishes. I learned that being clear about what you need from senior engineers isn't micromanagement — it's good leadership. Because when everyone knows what good looks like, they can focus on delivering instead of mind-reading.
- The Hidden Costs of Running a Global Engineering Team and Recipes for Mitigation (2025)Time zones kill engineering velocity in ways that aren't obvious until you're stuck with them. Drawing from real experience managing teams across US and European time zones, I break down the hidden costs of global engineering teams and share battle-tested ways to minimize the damage.
Professional Services
I occasionally provide advisory services to companies and startups looking for guidance in:
- ☑️ Engineering Management & Org Scaling – Helping teams scale effectively while maintaining agility and execution speed.
- ☑️ Product Strategy – Aligning engineering with business goals, roadmap planning, and execution.
- ☑️ Infrastructure, DevOps & Platform Scaling – Designing reliable, cost-effective architectures.
- ☑️ Hiring Engineers & Engineering Leaders – Helping companies attract and recruit top technical talent.
If you're looking for advice, feel free to reach out on LinkedIn.
Getaround Blog
I occasionally write about engineering, product, and business topics on the Getaround Engineering Blog.
Leadership
- Your Job is Not Just to Write Code (2021) - The importance of communication and collaboration in engineering.
- Hackday #4: Full Remote (2021) - Running a fully remote hackathon and lessons learned.
MySQL
- MySQL 8 Features (2021) - Key improvements like CTEs, window functions, and indexing enhancements.
- The Evolution of MySQL at Getaround (2017) - How MySQL evolved across versions, focusing on new developer features.
Performance & Monitoring
- Sidekiq Instrumentation (2017) - Enhancing background job monitoring with Sidekiq instrumentation.
Deprecated Projects
Over the years, I've worked on various side projects and open-source contributions. These projects are no longer actively maintained, but they reflect past experiments and interests.
Ruby & Rails
- Code Copy Ruby Ref (2018) - VSCode extension allowing you to copy the path to a class, method, or constant in Ruby.
- Black Hole Struct (2017) - A data structure similar to an OpenStruct allowing autovivification.
- Checkzilla (2014) - CLI allowing you to check and be notified of outdated software.
- Rails Frontend (2014) - Build a static frontend app with Ruby On Rails.
Video.js
- Video.js Progress Tips (2013) - A plugin for Video.js that displays tooltips on the progress bar.
- Video.js Google Analytics (2013) - A plugin for Video.js that integrates Google Analytics tracking.
Web & Application
- Darmanin ou Le Pen? (2021) - A small app where users guess whether a quote is from Gérald Darmanin or Marine Le Pen.
- Job Board (2010) - A simple moderated job board aggregator for listing and managing job postings.
- Last.fm to YouTube (2010) - A tool to convert Last.fm loved tracks into YouTube playlists.
Games
- Space Shooter (2011) - An experimental space shooter game developed using Crafty.js.
- td.coffee (2010) - An experimental tower defense game combining CoffeeScript and Processing.js.
Get in Touch
Feel free to reach out on LinkedIn.