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Founding Engineer hiring process template

Founding Engineer

Engineering Founding team Paid assignment

A lean hiring process for your first engineering hire, built around a paid work trial, an ownership interview, and a transparent founder equity conversation.

Why this works:

  • A paid work trial on a real slice of your product is the single best predictor of on-the-job performance
  • The ownership interview screens for zero-to-one shipping under ambiguity, not algorithm puzzles
  • A dedicated equity conversation with plain numbers wins the candidates who understand risk and ownership
  • Deliberately few rounds: this hire is won on scope and trust, not process theater

Best for: Pre-seed and seed startups making their first engineering hire
Timeline: ~2 weeks
Candidate effort: 6-10 hours (paid)

Process stages

This template includes 7 stages that candidates move through:

1

Application

Submit Application

Tell us what you’ve taken from zero to shipped, and why you want a founding seat instead of a senior IC role.

2

Ownership Interview

Interview

Work through a real problem we’re facing right now, together with a founder. We’re listening for the hardest calls you’ve made, the tradeoffs you chose, and how you decide with incomplete information.

75 min
3

Paid Work Trial

Code Assignment

Ship a small, real slice of our actual product. Scoped to 6-10 hours over one week, and paid $1,000 USD regardless of outcome. We look at your commits, decisions, and tradeoffs, not just the end result.

USD 1,000
4

Trial Review

Team Review

Everyone on the team reviews your work trial independently before we compare notes, so you get multiple fair reads instead of one loud opinion.

5

References

Reference Check

We’ll have short calls with two references, focused on zero-to-one shipping and ownership rather than generic character questions.

6

Founder & Equity Conversation

Interview

A direct conversation with the founders about the cap table, vesting, cliff, strike price, and what your grant is plausibly worth in dollars. Ask the hard questions; that’s a signal we want.

60 min
7

Offer

Offer

A transparent offer with the cash and the equity explained in plain numbers, so you can weigh the risk like the owner you’re about to become.

Make this process yours.

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