Join a badass team | CTO Opportunity

Are you an experienced software engineer looking to work on interesting problems with a badass team? Are you willing to not only write code but help us create and define a top-tier engineering culture? Not just putting great people in the room but creating an environment where they feel empowered and valued? Are you looking to join a founding team that is already in conversations with Venture capital about securing a pre-seed round? If this sounds interesting, please read on….

The problem we are solving: As businesses, especially SMBs, continue to shift online, protecting themselves online has become a priority, but it’s still a problem they are struggling to solve. The tools they need to use, such as VPN & SSO, are not easy to implement, even for those with IT experience. When you consider that 60% of SMBs close their doors within six months after a data breach (LastPass 2019 Annual Report), a product that can protect business owners, customers & their employees is mission-critical!

Who are we looking for: A full-stack engineer with experience in React/Python/AWS and developing/deploying mobile & web apps. You understand the work required to build a startup and are someone we can depend on as we build this company. You are excited to roll up your sleeves and write code, and you have an interest in building a robust engineering culture. You like to have fun but also work hard and are resourceful. You are low ego and enjoy collaborating on ideas. Location is flexible as long as you are willing to fly out occasionally for meetings.

Who we are: We’re two childhood friends who have lived in the US for the majority of their lives but are originally from Africa (I’m from Ethiopia, he’s from Zimbabwe). We grew up aspiring to become entrepreneurs but we wanted to wait until we had the right team + idea and this idea is it. We have significant experience in product, sales & marketing (him) and operations and finance (me). We have outcome-oriented mentalities, low egos, and are always open-minded regarding ideas or approaches that take us to the end goal - happier/safer customers. We love to have a good time outside of work wether it’s hiking, playing sports, playing video games, eating good food, traveling, film photography, anime and everything in between. You by no means need to like what we like in fact we hope you introduce us to new things we might enjoy! Ultimately, our goal is to create products that help consumers and businesses protect themselves online. We are relentless in our pursuit to build a world-class product, and we are intentional about building a diverse & inclusive world-class team.

Even if you are not an exact match, we’d still love to hear from talented engineers! We're always on the move and would love to reach out about additional opportunities as we continue to build a diverse and inclusive team!

If you’re interested, send a comment with your Git, LinkedIn, and a few sentences about you and your interest to

About Us
We are a startup in the Identity Access Management space, focusing on the SMB market. Our product will be available on mobile, desktop, and web platforms.
Our founders’ who have worked at LinkedIn, Pluralsight, and McKesson, have a background in product, sales, marketing, and operations. We are looking to add a third founder with a technical background.

Founder #1
As a Director, led net new sales teams in B2B Saas
Created and implemented sales processes that led to 80% growth year over year
Developed GTM strategy for new products
Closed six-figure deals for products still in the pre-launch “Pilot” stage
Transitioned from Sales to Product Management

Founder #2
As a project manager, saved $12 million in working capital for the business
Streamlined rebate process that led to additional $30,000 customer savings per quarter
As an analyst, created standard operating procedures used to operationalize contract pricing strategy
Experience in Master Data, finance, and business analytics

Our designers boast experience from places like Google, Credit Karma, and Paypal:

Designer #1
Senior Designer at Google
Previously at Paypal
Experience on the Gmail team and many others

Designer #2
Senior Designer at Credit Karma
Previously at Google
Experience on the Google maps team and many others

Since the beginning of the project, we’ve been working with a contract CTO up to this point to do a lot of the foundational engineering work. We are now looking for someone to come in and take it to the next level!

What we've done so far:
Conducted extensive market research
Created analysis of competitor products to better understand the market
Created user story maps for different personas and experiences
Completed user stories and SRS documents
Conducted user surveys and user interviews
Analyzed pricing and ran pricing tests
Several investors and advisors already on board
One of the advisors/investors is a CEO with a high seven-figure exit
We’ve raised a family & friends round
Wireframe prototype that includes all user flows has been developed
Begun pitching the product and have a few customers interested in being pilot customers
Commitment on half of our pre-seed round thus far

Additional commitment is dependent on adding our technical co-founder.

We've been partnering with a contract CTO that has a lot of domain knowledge to this point
A lot of the scoping work has already been completed. Ready for review by our future technical co-founder
We are always on the lookout for those who...

Serve as a thought leader and strategy driver for the team in all things technology and help build and embody the company's culture and mission
Build, build, build: especially in the early days, you'll be rolling up your sleeves and writing code, from architecture to fixing finicky bugs as the primary developer
The initial plan is to use React Native but that could change
React Native experience is a plus but not necessarily a deal breaker
Full-stack experience is a must, as we are building a full mobile, web, and desktop experience
Collaborate well. We’ll defer to you on technical decisions, but you’ll be willing to walk us through the big strategic ones
Recruit a killer team, managing staffing, mentoring, maintaining and bettering a best-in-class engineering team that loves coming into work every day as we grow to scale in the future
Partner with the business and design teams to understand the customer and shape product vision and requirements
Develop the long-term strategy for the company and translate that into an achievable road map
Understand how all elements of the software lifecycle work together and develop quality engineering approaches to define the overall architecture
Get to know our customers (or know them well already) and use that empathy to inform building an exceptional product.

What we offer…
Solve an important problem with massive reach
An opportunity to build a strong engineering organization
Work with a talented and experienced team
An opportunity to develop and maintain an early-stage product
An environment that prioritizes creativity and autonomy
Equity in the business