Announcing Work at a Startup

Matt describes Work at a Startup as a common application where engineers share their experience, interests, and role preferences. YC company founders can search candidate profiles, express interest, and start conversations. The team built it because YC founders said hiring engineers was their biggest challenge after the program.

Jared says startup hiring is a difficult matching problem: small companies have few openings and may be unfamiliar to candidates. The product compares candidate preferences, skills, and experience with company details such as size, culture, and technology stack. The team began with a simpler profile and later added résumés after founders said they needed more information.

Jared summarizes feedback from a Hacker News discussion with about 1,000 comments. People valued autonomy, close teams, interesting problems, and influence, while compensation, equity transparency, and job security were common concerns. Participants also pointed to high housing costs and remote work as factors in choosing where to work.

YC planned a July conference modeled on Demo Day, with talks from Justin Kan and Sam Altman followed by 35 short company pitches. The companies ranged from established businesses such as Instacart and DoorDash to early-stage teams hiring their first engineers, across fields including machine learning, robotics, and embedded systems. Attendees would apply through Work at a Startup, meet founders, and see hardware demonstrations; the event would also be livestreamed.

Jared says the quietly launched service had more than 3,000 engineer profiles, and most had received at least one message from a YC company. He also says more than 80% of YC companies hiring engineers had created profiles. The site listed companies with open engineering roles.