Ask HN: Who is hiring? (July 2026)

Acme is building a product. We are an early-stage company at the ground floor — no code yet, no customers yet, just a clear vision and a bias for action. We are looking for a founding engineer who wants to build something from nothing: architect the system, write the first line of code, ship the first version, and grow alongside the company.

What You'll Do: - Build the product end-to-end — from database schema and API design to frontend UI and deployment infrastructure - Make architectural decisions — choose the tech stack, set up CI/CD, monitoring, and dev environments - Ship iteratively — get working software in front of users fast, then improve based on real feedback - Set engineering standards — establish coding conventions, code review practices, and a culture of quality - Influence product direction — work directly with the CEO on what to build, what to cut, and how to prioritize - Own the infrastructure — provision cloud resources, manage deployments, and keep the app running in production

Who You Are: - 3–8 years of software engineering experience, preferably in early-stage startups or with significant side-project shipping - Full-stack capable — comfortable across frontend, backend, databases, and infrastructure - Ship-focused — 80% today beats 100% next month. Pragmatic tradeoffs between speed and quality - Independent — thrive without a playbook. Figure things out, make decisions, communicate clearly - High ownership, low ego — care about the mission and the team, not about who gets credit - Product-sensible — good judgment about what users need and what can wait

Compensation: Competitive salary + meaningful equity (2–5% range)

How to Apply: Send a note to the CEO with what excites you about early-stage building, a link to something you have built (GitHub, portfolio, side project), and why Acme specifically. No formal resume required.

With zero website or email information...

Step one - Find the right CEO and cold spam him with GitHub proof of work or an idea to steal (side project is the LAST THING is would show to a CEO with nothing else to do but 'acqui-hire'). No formal resume: "we're to cool to read those."

For a company that doesn't have a product, any code, or any customers.

Step two - invent the product, build the code, test the code, deliver 80% complete code (forgetting the 90-10-90 rule of code) in return for 5% stake in a company with no other product than what you just invented whole cloth by yourself. Which when 80% done is still 10% away from being half of the required time away from production ready.

Geebus, how dumb and desperate does this account-holder think a full stack developer with 3 to 8 years experience on mature, functioning production is going to be at this point in time?

Oh, and be low ego. So that when the CEO and his buddies claim to have invented the next big thing, you are already OK with that.