Founders:
- 20 years operating wellness brands across Asia/US/EU
- Built distributor networks in 30+ countries
- Deep relationships with Korean/Japanese/SEA brands
Why this matters: We've seen 50+ amazing Asian brands fail in Western expansion. They waste $500K on consultants who deliver PowerPoints. AI can automate 80% of that work—but no one's building it. We have domain expertise + network. We need a founding engineer.
What we HAVE:
- * Clear problem: Brands waste $500K + 18 months on international expansion
- * Deep expertise: 20 years operating brands globally
- * Vision: Build AI agents to compress market entry to 90 days
- * Network: 10+ brands committed to test
What we DON'T have: * Customers yet | * Revenue yet | * Product yet | * Technical team yet
- You'd be Employee #1. This is a founding role, not a typical internship.
- If you want proven product with structure → this isn't it.
- If you want to BUILD from zero → keep reading.
What You'd Do
Month 1-2: Research & Prototype
- Interview 10-15 brands about expansion pain
- Experiment with Claude API, build proof-of-concepts
- Test: "Can AI check FDA supplement compliance in 4 hours?"
Month 3-4: Build MVP
- Design Agent 1 (Regulatory Compliance Oracle) from scratch
- Make tech stack decisions with founders
- Set up infrastructure (GitHub, AWS, monitoring)
Month 5-6: Alpha Testing
- Get 3-5 brands to test your agent
- Iterate rapidly based on feedback
- Measure: 90%+ accuracy, <4 hour turnaround
Beyond Month 6: If exceptional → founding team role with 0.3-1.0% equity
Requirements
Must have:
- CS/AI/ML student (Year 3-4 or Masters; Year 2 if exceptional)
- Strong Python + experience with LLMs (GPT-4/Claude)
- Clean code on GitHub (we'll review it)
- 6 months full-time availability
Nice to have:
- Web scraping, vector DBs, knowledge graphs
- Built something people used
- Read AI papers for interest
Personality (more important):
* Thrive with ambiguity | * High ownership | * Ship fast | * Customer-obsessed
* Need structure | * Risk-averse | * Perfectionist | * Lone wolf
Key question: Are you someone who STARTS things or JOINS things?
What You'll Learn
Technical:
- 0→1 product development (rare experience)
- AI agent architecture (RAG, fine-tuning, multi-agent systems)
- Production AI (cost optimization, accuracy vs latency)
Startup:
- Customer discovery, rapid iteration, founder mindset
- Cross-functional work (code + product + design + support)
Career outcomes:
- If we succeed: Founding engineer at Series A company
- If we fail: Strong portfolio + rec letter + rare 0→1 experience
- Either way: 10x more hireable than Big Tech rotation
Include:
1. GitHub (required - even class projects OK)
2. Best AI project (max 300 words: what? challenges? learnings?)
3. Why Employee #1? (max 200 words: why you want 0→1 specifically)
Optional: Links to projects, blog posts, open source
No formal cover letter needed.
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