Founding Full Stack Engineer at Text.ai | Y Combinator
Founding Full-Stack Engineer
Ready to build the next generation of AI-native consumer experience?
Text.ai is a consumer-first AI native company, revolutionizing how people communicate in group chats.
We're pioneering an entirely new category of consumer AI products that millions will use daily. We are building the
first AI-native communication platform, where every conversation becomes intelligent, collaborative, and effortless.
We're reimagining how humans and AI work together from first principles.
While everyone else builds individual AI assistants, we're solving the hardest problem in consumer AI: making multiple
humans happy simultaneously through true group intelligence.
Our AI doesn't just respond to prompts. It stays, learns, thinks, and adapts to make every human connection better. From
planning the perfect group trip to finding restaurants everyone will love, we transform chaotic group coordination into
effortless collaboration.
The future isn't prompt → response.
It's presence → understanding → creation.
We are backed by Y-Combinator, SV Angel, and angel investors from Shopify and Tencent, with founders from Ex-Tesla,
Eventbrite, Amazon, & McKinsey.
The Role
We're hiring a Founding Full-Stack Engineer (Frontend/Backend) to be the technical owner and driver of our new app
experience. This is a very hands-on role focused primarily on React Native (iOS and Android), along with Backend
(Python) integration. You will be joining the founding team and taking the lead on building our mobile app from the
ground up, while also contributing to backend integration tasks when needed.
This isn't your first native app launch. You've done this before, you are a seasoned engineer and know how to ship
bug-free, polished, and high-performing apps. You'll work closely with design, product, and engineering stakeholders to
build intuitive and beautiful experiences, FAST.
What makes this role extraordinary:
- Category Creation: You're not iterating on existing patterns. You're inventing new ones that will define how humans
and AI collaborate.
- Massive Scale Potential: Early product-market fit signals with explosive organic growth. Your work will impact
millions of daily conversations.
- Technical Innovation: Implementing AI capabilities that don't exist anywhere else, group preference learning,
multi-participant coordination, social facilitation algorithms.
- Founding Impact: Direct influence on product direction, technical architecture, and company culture.
What You'll Build
Own the Mobile Platform (Primary Focus)
- Lead development of our React Native app from ground zero to millions of users
- Create seamless group collaboration experiences impossible on any other platform
- Build AI-native interfaces that feel magical, not mechanical
- Ship polished, performant experiences across iOS and Android
Shape Our Technical Future
- Architect mobile backend (Python) integration for real-time group AI coordination
- Implement cutting-edge GenAI features, you'll be implementing AI features that don't exist anywhere else.
- Design systems that scale from thousands to millions of concurrent conversations
- Become a true full-stack powerhouse working across our entire technical ecosystem
Collaborate Across Disciplines
- Partner with design and product to bring completely new interaction patterns to life
- Work directly with founders on product strategy and technical roadmap
- Help build the engineering culture and practices for our growing team
Who You Are
Technical Excellence
- 4+ years shipping React Native apps that users love, you know what separates good from great in mobile UX
- Full-stack capability with backend integration experience (Python/modern web stack)
- Consumer product instincts, you obsess over performance, polish, and user delight
- Senior ownership mindset, you set direction, drive decisions, and own outcomes
Startup DNA
- Thrives in ambiguity, comfortable building new things without established playbooks
- Ships relentlessly, measures iteration cycles in days, not months
- Quality obsessed, won't ship anything you wouldn't personally use and love
- Team player, humble, hardworking, ready to do whatever it takes to move the team forward
Bonus Superpowers
- Experience with GenAI/LLM integration in consumer products
- Background in social/communication platforms
- Mobile app performance optimization expertise
- Understanding of viral growth mechanics
Why Text.ai
Product-Market Fit Signals
We've found something real. Organic word-of-mouth growth, high user engagement, and genuine user love with millions of
messages transacted in just a few months.
World-Class Backing
Y Combinator, SV Angel, and angels from Shopify and Tencent. Founding team from Tesla, Eventbrite, Amazon, and McKinsey.
Technical Challenge
You'll work on problems that don't have Stack Overflow answers. Group AI coordination, social preference learning,
multi-participant optimization - this is frontier territory.
Culture & Values
- Humble excellence - Big ambitions, zero egos
- Ownership mentality - Everyone leads, everyone contributes, everyone wins
- Learning velocity - New challenges, new growth every single day
- Impact focus - Your work directly shapes how millions of people connect
Benefits
This position offers:
- Competitive Pay
- Meaningful Equity
- 401k Plan
- Fitness and Gym Reimbursement
Ready to Build the Future?
This isn't a FAANG role where you'll optimize conversion rates by 0.1%. This is your chance to architect the
foundational technology and new experience for how humans and AI will collaborate for the next decade.
We're looking for engineers who want to build something that matters, ship something people love, and create technology
that makes human connection more effortless and joyful.
When you apply, please include:
- Your resume or description of recent technical experience
- Why you're excited about this specific opportunity and what draws you to Text.ai
- Links to apps you've shipped, GitHub repos, or anything that showcases your work
- What excites you most about building collaborative AI experiences
