Open Application – Ex-Founder

Who this is for You started a company: maybe it sold, maybe it shut down, maybe you're still on the cap table of something that's quietly winding down while you read this. You learned to ship without permission, talk to users without a script, and hold the whole stack in your head. If you're between things, this listing is the reason. We don't have a job slot waiting for you, but we'd rather meet you now than miss you later.

About Lingo.dev We started at a hackathon, won best dev tool, and kept going. Today: hundreds of users, 7,000 weekly CLI runs, 5,000 GitHub stars, 200M+ translated words, backed by YC, Initialized, and paying customers. We're a small team, fully remote, senior with computer science degrees. We write the code, answer the support tickets, and talk to our users on Discord every day.

What you'd probably do We won't know until we talk, the real options are: own a product surface end to end (web, CLI, API, agents, integrations); be the founding engineer of a product line we haven't started yet; or bring a wedge we missed and we'll fund it if it fits. Pay matches seniority, equity matches conviction, title is whatever's useful - choose your own.

What we look for

• You shipped a real product to real users. Revenue, GitHub stars, downloads, paying customers, pick your proof.

• You write TypeScript fluently. Bonus for Effect, Drizzle, TanStack, Cloudflare, Postgres.

• You use AI coding tools daily and have strong opinions about them.

• You argue clearly in writing.

• You're available 7–10am San Francisco time.

• You write English the way you'd speak it.

What we don't care about

• Whether your company succeeded. Most don't. We care what you learned.

• Where you went to school.

• Whether you've worked at a "name" company.

• A polished resume. A link to the thing you built is better.

How to apply Tell us:

• What you built and what happened to it.

• The most interesting technical decision you made and why.

• What you'd want to work on next if money weren't a constraint.

Please don't use AI to auto apply - we'll know. If it's a fit: founder call, paid project, one-month paid trial, offer.

Don't apply if

• You want to be CEO again next quarter. Be honest with yourself, and with us.

• You're looking for a sabbatical with a salary.

• You need a clear ladder and a six-month roadmap to feel safe.

• You build for the resume.