Bereket Engida
Beka in action—self-taught dev turned YC founder.

Who is Beka?

Picture this: a "chronically online" dev (his words, not mine) hustling from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Beka isn't your typical coder; he's a problem-solver with a flair for design and UX that makes his tools feel like they were built just for you. When he's not dropping commits, he's jamming out as a musician—composing tracks or performing. That rhythmic creativity? It shines through in the elegant APIs he crafts.

Fun fact: Beka's journey kicked off five years ago when he needed a MIDI keyboard for music production but couldn't find one easily in Ethiopia. He taught himself to code, scraped Telegram channels, and built a searchable site. Boom—his first gig as a dev.

Bereket Engida Music
Beka blending code and creativity—perhaps a nod to his musical side.

The Toolkit: Building "Better" Everything

Under his GitHub handle @bekacru, Beka's cranking out tools that prioritize dev joy. Here's the lineup:

  • Better Auth: The flagship—a framework-agnostic auth library for TypeScript that's extensible and dev-friendly out of the box.

Better Auth Screenshot
Auth.js joins Better Auth— a full-circle moment.

  • Loglib: Privacy-first web analytics with a sleek dashboard.

Loglib Dashboard
A glimpse into privacy-focused analytics (similar to Loglib's vibe).

  • Better Fetch: API handling supercharged with Zod validation for that extra layer of type safety.

And that's not all—Beka's a serial builder:

  • Read 21: A multi-sensory app aiding dyslexic students.
  • Sim Server: A Swift-based toy web server for under-the-hood experiments.
  • Talk to Yourself: A minimalist site for those internal monologues we all have.

His philosophy? Code is expression—whether securing logins or sparking learning.

The Better Auth Explosion

Auth has always been a pain: clunky, rigid, or just plain overkill. Beka, frustrated with options that didn't fit his needs (especially in Ethiopia), rolled up his sleeves. After months of solo grinding, Better Auth launched in late 2024. Fast-forward to 2025: 150,000 weekly downloads, 15,000 GitHub stars, and a 6,000-strong dev community.

The big win? Catching Y Combinator's eye, snagging a spot in their spring batch, and raising $5M in seed funding from Peak XV, P1 Ventures, and more. Now based in San Francisco, his team even maintains Auth.js (ex-NextAuth)—the tool he set out to top.

"I have a knack for all sorts of things—from unique ideas to launching products, planning, and designing." — Beka

This isn't just a win for him; it's hope for ambitious devs everywhere, showing you don't need a fancy degree or Valley address to go global.

What's Next?

With YC backing and fresh funds, Beka's scaling Better Auth into the future of web security. But he's still that Addis Ababa hacker at heart—bridging worlds and inspiring self-taught creators. He didn't ask for permission; he just built.

Want in on the action?

Thanks for hacking through Issue #1! Next week: A deep dive into Better Fetch's speed secrets. Subscribe and stay "better" informed.

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