Founding Engineer

Engineering 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:

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.

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

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.

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.

References

Reference Check

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

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

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.

Ready to use this template?

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