Rama — Founding Engineer

• →1–5 years of experience in full-stack or backend engineering (Python and TypeScript) [Required]

• Shipped backend systems in production: SaaS, services, or data infrastructure [Must have]
• Evidence of high slope: promoted early, or built side projects / open source (visible on GitHub or personal site) [Required]
• Experience at high-bar startups or companies [Strongly preferred]
• Built data pipelines or integrations with legacy systems (ERP, EDI) [Strongly preferred]

• Degree in a quantitative / problem-solving field (CS, physics, math, engineering) [Required]

• Experience building or maintaining data pipelines at scale [Must have]
• Proficient in Python and TypeScript [Required]
• AI-native developer, actively uses AI coding tools (Cursor, Claude Code, Codex) and has opinions on them [Strongly preferred]

• Can explain technical concepts clearly and concisely to non-technical users [Required]

• Evidence of high-level competitiveness outside engineering (D1 athlete, martial arts belt, music at highest grades, etc.) [Strongly preferred]

No dedicated "Traits to Avoid" section was present in the source role page. The closest equivalent is the Non-ideal Companies list under Ideal Companies & Backgrounds.

• Salary: $165K – $190K
• Equity: Meaningful early-stage equity (competitive)
• On-site policy: 5 days/week in-office, Sansom Street, San Francisco
• Visa sponsorship: Open to transfers (OPT, H1B) and new sponsorships (new H1B, TN)
• Employment type: Full-time
• Location: San Francisco, CA

1. Are you able to work in San Francisco and come into the office 5 days per week?
2. Share a link to your GitHub profile or a project you've built that has real users.
3. Can you be on-site? If not, are you willing to relocate?
4. What is your salary expectation?
5. How actively are you exploring new opportunities?

Updated Jul 30, 2026

Horizontal distribution / supply chain tech startups (10–50 people) Endeavor, Flexport, project44, FourKites, Fictiv, MacroFab, Cofactr, Luminovo, Octopart

High-growth startups (10–50 people) with strong data pipeline and B2B infrastructure focus Fivetran, Airbyte, Dagster Labs, Prefect, Hightouch, Census, Supabase, Retool, Temporal Technologies

YC-backed early-stage startups where engineers ship production software end-to-end Supabase, Vercel, Railwaymen, Render, Resend, Trigger.dev, Inngest

Non-ideal companies — do not source from these Companies backed by Entrepreneur First (EF) — founders know these teams personally: Tractable, Cleo, Permutive, Onfido, Rotate, Jitsu, Synthesia, Magic Pony Technology

Data note: The "High-growth startups" list is labeled "Show all 10 companies" but only 9 were expanded in the source HTML — 1 company is missing. A separate one-item "Ideal Companies" group (Endeavor) also appeared, likely a duplicate/miscategorized entry. Please provide the full list.

The client has surfaced three reference profiles (two highlighted "great fit" candidates plus their actual first hire). Read together, the bar is best treated as an OR, not an AND — a strong candidate clears it via either archetype:

• Archetype A — Pedigree + competitiveness: a brutal-hiring-bar "badge" employer (Google, Amazon, DRW, top quant/HFT) plus elite competitiveness outside engineering (D1 athlete, national record, black belt, chair of a major society). Bera and Adit fit this.
• Archetype B — Scrappy end-to-end builder: a non-traditional path with clear 01 ownership, production shipping into messy/external systems, and genuine customer-facing ability. Rodrigo (the first hire) fits this — no CS degree, no badge employer, but real integration work (YC) and years of direct customer/sales experience.

Scoring implications:

• Customer-facing communication is an elevated, top-tier screen signal — not a nice-to-have. The role is heavily customer-facing (non-technical distributors, 40s–60s), it's the JD's Required soft skill, and it recurs in rejected-candidate feedback. Rodrigo's hire confirms the client will trade pedigree for a builder who can own customer relationships.
• The Education "Required" and experience floor are satisfiable via demonstrated building. The intake call allows "equivalent GitHub evidence," and Rodrigo was hired without a CS degree. Strong, verifiable shipping evidence can clear the gate — flag a non-traditional path for judgment rather than auto-rejecting. (Confirm with David before treating this as settled.)
• Absence of Archetype-A competitiveness/badge is not a penalty when Archetype B is clearly met, and vice versa.

For reference only — do not source these specific profiles.

Bera Ajala — LinkedIn Quantitative AI Engineer | Prev. SWE @ Google & Amazon | UMich D1 NCAA Track & Field | Scottish Athletics Junior Record Holder | United States

• Competitiveness (top signal): D1 Track & Field, University of Michigan — 6x All Big 10, #2 in school history, 2x NCAA Regional Qualifier, national junior record holder
• Badge employers: prior SWE at Google & Amazon; now AI Engineer at OneStream (Xperiflow team — AI/ML implementation, quantitative analysis)
• Education: BS Computer Science, University of Michigan (2024) — strong quantitative degree from a top school
• Self-driven initiative: co-founded "Michigan Athletes In Tech"; VP / Head of Professional Development at ColorStack; Investment Analyst at BlackGen Capital
• ~1 yr full-time post-grad — inside the 1–3 year sweet spot

Adit Kulkarni — LinkedIn Building Agents | Ex Quant | United Kingdom

• Domain-exact founder: currently founding a stealth AI startup building agents for electronic components — Rama's exact space
• Voice AI builder: SaraSpeak — voice-first AI language tutor, sub-1s latency, NLP pipelines, LLM-judge prompt optimization, Python/FastAPI + native iOS; 110 organic beta installs
• Badge + competitiveness: Quantitative Trader at DRW for ~5.9 yrs (Global Delta One, Sharpe 5); JPM summer analyst (turned down return offer); Co-Chairman of Warwick's largest society (2,500+ members)
• Education: MSc Data Analytics, Imperial College London; BSc Economics, Warwick
• So strong that a full interview round was skipped

Not for sourcing — reference for what a successful hire has actually looked like.

Rodrigo Tari — Founding Engineer @ Rama (Feb–Jun 2026), the client's first engineering hire; since co-founded Alfera.

• Archetype B exemplar: non-traditional path — 42 (project-based software school, no CS degree) + EHL (International Business); earlier years in wine sales and hospitality
• Real 01 / integration chops: Backend Engineer (contractor) at Stacksync (YC W24) — shipped production API connectors (Shopify, Teams, Crustdata, Hyperline); directly analogous to Rama's ingestion/integration work
• Customer-facing depth: BD / sales at Dealroom (full sales cycle with VP BD and COO); years of direct customer selling
• Takeaway: confirms the client will hire a scrappy, customer-capable builder without pedigree or a formal CS degree — the strongest evidence for weighting Archetype B and customer-facing ability heavily

• Ensure candidates demonstrate hands-on ERP / legacy-system integration experience, not just generic data pipelines.
• Candidates must show clear customer-facing communication skills, with examples of translating technical concepts for non-technical users.
• Emphasize evidence of end-to-end production ownership (from requirement gathering to shipping features) in portfolios or GitHub.
• Prioritize applicants with a high-slope signal (side projects, open-source creds, competitive extracurriculars) that differentiates them from standard early-stage hires.