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.