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Founding Engineers: What in the Actual Heck Do They Do? 🦄​

For many startup founders, especially the non-technical ones who still think "cloud" is just a fluffy thing in the sky, the role of a Founding Engineer is a glorious, confusing enigma. What is this mythical creature's job description? What outrageous things are we supposed to expect? And, most importantly, how much gold do we have to pay them? 💰

We're here to answer all your most aggressively burning questions about these engineering superheroes and give you the harsh, yet valuable, truth for your wild, early-stage SaaS safari. 🦒

What in the World is a Founding Engineer? 🧙‍♂️​

A founding engineer is one of the first few poor souls dragged into the whirlwind of a tech startup. They play a crucial, sanity-testing role in shaping the company's technological doom or glory, working like a caffeinated maniac to design, build, and maintain the company's product from a cold, hard tech standpoint.

Unlike the company’s founders themselves (who are often just excellent talkers), Founding Engineers typically get zero ownership at inception but are later tossed some "substantial" equity and often receive a salary so high it might make the founders weep into their ramen. 😭

The job of a Founding Engineer is a unique opportunity to shape a company from the ground up—or accidentally set it on fire. 🔥

What is Their Actual Job Description? (Hint: Everything) 🤯​

Early-stage SaaS startups don't have the luxury of specialists; they need generalist, multiple-hat-wearing engineers who can survive a nuclear winter and thrive in a market where 90% of all startups fail, and 25% have the decency to call it quits in their first year. ⚰️

A founding engineer’s main job is to take ownership of literally everything and furiously build out an MVP (Minimum Viable Product, or as we like to call it, the "Miraculously Vaporizing Product"). They tend to juggle the following:

  • Building the core product: Translating the founder's vague, hand-wavy vision into a functional solution, often starting with a crayon sketch on a napkin.
  • Defining the tech stack: Picking the programming languages and tools that will either power future growth or cause a decade of technical debt. 🤦
  • Writing clean, efficient code: They write the foundational code future engineers will complain about for years.
  • Build a team: Forming a team of engineers who can build the company’s vision... after they've done all the hard work themselves.

Although a Founding Engineer’s job is predominantly consumed by the soul-crushing task of coding, they can sometimes find themselves performing truly bizarre tasks for the founders, like speaking to annoyed customers or conducting deep-dive market research (i.e., Googling things).

An early-stage startup is an organizational vacuum—they won’t always have a Product Manager or Customer Success Manager, so everyone, including the poor Founding Engineer, will pitch in to cover those activities (i.e., they’ll be forced to put on a suit and pretend to like people).

What Traits Should I Look For? (Spoiler: A Robot) 🤖​

There are many traits to look for in a Founding Engineer; it extends far beyond just knowing how to type.

A Founding Engineer should be able to perform a wide, terrifying range of other activities to help a startup grow during a phase where the founders have fewer options than a pigeon in a chess match and a budget that consists of lint and a dream.

A great FE hire should look something like this:

  • The Tech Know-How (i.e., the Sorcerer): They know how to build MVPs stupidly fast. They’ve done it before and know what needs to be done without being babied.
  • A Believer in Your Vision (i.e., a Naïve Optimist): They take a genuine financial risk when they join. They have to truly believe in your vision and see it as an opportunity, not just something they have to "live with" until the next recruiter calls. 📞
  • Go the Extra Mile (or 10) (i.e., a Workaholic): An unwritten rule is you put in the hours—you know, the ones that ruin your sleep schedule. They must be ready for evenings and weekends at their computer if need be (i.e., they must have no social life).
  • Be Adaptable (i.e., a Shapeshifter): They must be able to adapt to an ever-changing market and not be afraid to pivot (i.e., completely change the product they just spent three months building) or learn something completely new if push comes to shove. 🤯