How large is Tenex now?

Tenex has grown to 75 people, and 90% of employees are either engineers or AI strategists, which Alex Lieberman describes as technical consultants.

Who are Tenex's customers?

Half of Tenex's customers are Fortune 2000 companies, and the other half are mid-market businesses doing 100 to 500 million in revenue.

What is different about how Tenex pays engineers?

Tenex pays engineers for output measured in story points rather than hours worked, and Lieberman said the feared failure modes of inflating estimates or shipping bad code have not been the biggest problem.

AI Coding AssistantsAI Business & IndustryLatent Space2h agoOct 21, 2026, 16:00 JST

Tenex hits 75 people as Fortune 2000 half of customers

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3 Key Points

What happened
Tenex cofounder Alex Lieberman said at AIE New York that the firm has grown to 75 people, with 50% of customers now Fortune 2000 companies and 50% mid-market firms doing 100 to 500 million in revenue.
Why it matters
That mix of large and mid-sized clients shows Tenex's output-based pay model has scaled beyond its startup roots into enterprise work.

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Context & Analysis

Tenex started 18 months ago as an AI-powered development shop, built around the idea that engineering is a canary in the coal mine for AI adoption. The founding impetus came partly from cofounder Armand, who saw peers still typing into their IDE without embracing coding agents, and Tenex set out to supercharge engineering organizations that were not adopting the technology.

As Tenex moved upmarket from startups and mid-market companies, customers began asking for AI transformation as a service, not just staff augmentation and AI engineering. That shift is reflected in the customer split Lieberman described, with half of clients now Fortune 2000 companies and half mid-market firms doing 100 to 500 million in revenue, while the team has reached 75 people.

Tenex still ties engineering compensation to story points, and Lieberman said the classic concerns about subjective estimates or shipping bad code to rack up points have not been the biggest problem. The harder issue has been compensating engineers for time not spent coding, such as architecting or meeting with clients, work that a system built around shipped tasks has to make room for.

FAQ

How large is Tenex now?: Tenex has grown to 75 people, and 90% of employees are either engineers or AI strategists, which Alex Lieberman describes as technical consultants.
Who are Tenex's customers?: Half of Tenex's customers are Fortune 2000 companies, and the other half are mid-market businesses doing 100 to 500 million in revenue.
What is different about how Tenex pays engineers?: Tenex pays engineers for output measured in story points rather than hours worked, and Lieberman said the feared failure modes of inflating estimates or shipping bad code have not been the biggest problem.

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