# Austin Rowland

> Austin Rowland is a San Francisco-based founding forward deployed engineer at Postman whose early career links computer engineering, customer-embedded product work, and an unusually public interest in how ambition should be managed. At Georgia Tech he co-created Spread the Love, a student-led effort that began with 500 homemade cookies and later grew past 4,000 distributed with handwritten notes. After a Cisco software engineering internship and a 2023 TEDxGeorgiaTech talk, he moved into Postman's work on APIs for AI agents, helping turn field observations into an AI-ready API assessment.

- **Role:** Founding Forward Deployed Engineer at Postman
- **Organizations:** Postman, Cisco, Georgia Institute of Technology, TEDxGeorgiaTech, Spread the Love
- **Education:** Computer Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology
- **Known for:** Built Spread the Love into an independently funded annual project that has distributed more than 4,000 cookies with handwritten positive messages., Gave a TEDxGeorgiaTech talk in November 2023 on ambition, discipline, gratitude and self-reflection., Selected as one of nine Mayo Clinic medical startup finalists in April 2024.

## Career timeline

- **2023** — Co-founded the annual Spread the Love project at Georgia Tech; the first event distributed 500 homemade cookies.
- **2023** — Worked as a software engineering intern in Cisco's CPX Security Engineering organization and documented the experience publicly.
- **2023** — Delivered the TEDxGeorgiaTech talk 'Ambition Might Be Your Achilles Heel.'
- **2024** — Spread the Love doubled its annual distribution to 1,000 cookies and handwritten notes.
- **2024** — Selected as one of nine finalists in a Mayo Clinic medical startup competition.
- **2024** — Completed his Georgia Tech studies.
- **2026** — Working in San Francisco as a founding forward deployed engineer at Postman; helped launch an AI-ready API assessment after nine months of field work with large API programs.

## Achievements

- Built Spread the Love into an independently funded annual project that has distributed more than 4,000 cookies with handwritten positive messages.
- Gave a TEDxGeorgiaTech talk in November 2023 on ambition, discipline, gratitude and self-reflection.
- Selected as one of nine Mayo Clinic medical startup finalists in April 2024.
- Applied bone-conduction research in a 2023 computer engineering project to design a dual-mode audio circuit.
- Helped translate Postman field research into a public AI-ready API assessment.

## Latest updates

- **2026-07** — Published 'AI-Ready APIs: Agents Are the New Audience' on Postman's blog and introduced an assessment built from field work with major API programs.
- **2024-04** — Named one of nine finalists in a Mayo Clinic medical startup competition.
- **2024-02** — The second Spread the Love event distributed 1,000 homemade cookies at Georgia Tech; his profile now reports more than 4,000 distributed since launch.

## Links

- Website: https://www.postman.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/austinrowland

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/austin-rowland
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-09-27