Iterate (iterate.com) is a developer productivity startup founded by Jonas_Templestein, the former co-founder and CTO of Monzo Bank. The company focuses on tooling to help software developers ship faster and more effectively, with a vision of "self-driving startups" where AI handles routine business operations.
In May 2025, Jonas Templestein reached out to Jan_Wilmake to do a paid trial week. Jan completed the trial successfully. After the trial, Jonas offered Jan a full-time role, but the terms required full-time commitment with no room for Jan's own projects — which Jan declined.
Jan and Jonas had been in contact through the developer community. The trial arrangement is notable in that Jonas — as a highly credentialed founder (ex-Monzo, now building in the developer tools space) — directly sought Jan out for paid work.
Iterate is backed by OpenAI, Index Ventures, Y Combinator president Garry Tan, Naval Ravikant, Amjad Masad (Replit CEO), Aravind Srinivas (Perplexity CEO), and others. Jonas Templestein has been vocal about a theory of "Level 0 through Level 5" AI-augmented startups, placing most organisations at Level 1 as of 2025.