Co-Founder & CTO

About the Role

This is a rare, true co-founder opportunity — not a conventional CTO hire. You will join as an equal co-founder with meaningful equity (~28%), owning the research agenda, the product, and the engineering team from day one. The company is an AI-powered video advertising marketplace operating at the intersection of generative AI, creative tooling, and performance marketing. With a pre-seed round already closed (backed by experienced founders, operators, and institutional investors), a growing network of thousands of creators, and early brand traction, the flywheel is already spinning.

Several of the most consequential technical and product design decisions have been deliberately left open — because they belong to the person in this seat. You will not be executing someone else's roadmap. You will be writing it.

What You'll Do

• Set and own the full technical research agenda, making high-stakes architectural and product decisions independently

• Build and scale the company's core AI-driven technical advantage — spanning generative video, multimodal models, and creator tooling

• Lead product development across the platform: AI ad generation, creator marketplace infrastructure, brand personalization, campaign management, and creator payout systems

• Hire, mentor, and grow an engineering and research team as the company scales

• Collaborate closely with your co-founder on company strategy, fundraising narrative, and go-to-market direction

• Operate as a hands-on technical leader in the early stages — writing code, reviewing architecture, and shipping product

What We're Looking For

• Exceptional technical depth in AI/ML, with strong familiarity with generative models (video, image, or multimodal)

• Product instinct — the ability to translate a creative and commercial vision into a coherent, scalable technical architecture

• Founder mentality: high agency, comfort with ambiguity, and genuine ownership of outcomes

• Leadership experience building or meaningfully contributing to technical teams at a startup or high-growth environment

• Willingness to commit fully — this role requires 6–7 days per week in the early stage

• Based in or willing to relocate to San Francisco for full-time, in-person collaboration

Nice to have:

• Prior experience in adtech, martech, or creator economy platforms

• Background in performance marketing or understanding of brand creative workflows

• Previous co-founder or early-stage (0→1) startup experience

Compensation & Benefits

• Equity: ~28% equal co-founder equity

• Salary to be discussed; structured appropriately for a co-founder at the pre-seed stage

• Real authority over the technical direction of the company — not a subordinate role

Visa sponsorship is not available for this role.

Location

This role is fully on-site in San Francisco, CA. In-person, day-to-day collaboration with your co-founder is a core part of how this company operates at this stage.