Question 1

Do I need experience?

Accepted Answer

Some, yes. This used to say no, which was generous rather than honest. I'm not asking for a CV or a number of years. I am asking that you've already done something real: shipped something people actually used, run something, built an audience, sold something, moved a number that mattered. A college assignment isn't that, and neither is a tutorial you followed to the end. If you're in your first or second year and still finding your feet, this probably isn't your round, and there's no shame in that at all. What I care about most is whether you can think for yourself and defend what you think. That should be a low bar. It has quietly become a rare one, and it's most of the job here.

Question 2

Can I do this alongside college or another job?

Accepted Answer

No. It's full time. This comes up on nearly every call, usually as "I can give three or four hours a day", and the honest answer is that at this stage part-time attention produces nothing. There's no product and no plan yet, so the work is thinking, arguing and changing your mind, and that does not happen in the gaps between other commitments. If your situation genuinely doesn't allow full time right now, that's completely fair, and it's much better known before either of us spends half an hour.

Question 3

What about money?

Accepted Answer

There isn't any yet, and I'm not going to invent a number so this looks like a normal job. A token figure that doesn't cover your month isn't compensation, it's a way for me to feel better about what I'm asking. So the honest position: money gets discussed when ZERO makes money, not before. And when it does, the people who were here before there was any get paid first, ahead of anything else that revenue could go to. That's an order of priority, not a percentage, because a percentage today would be a number I made up. What this costs you is time you could be selling somewhere else, so if you need income now this isn't the place today, and that's a completely fair call.

Question 4

What if I don't know what to build?

Accepted Answer

That's fine. The first thing we're making is picked, The Middle Market, and a lot about it is still undecided. Its page says where it is, and the vision page says where the wider thinking is. We want someone who goes and finds out instead of waiting to be told.

Question 5

Is this an internship?

Accepted Answer

No. It's full time, and you'd be founding team, working with me rather than for me. Interns get handed tasks. You'd be choosing what to work on and defending why. If you want a structured programme with a certificate at the end, this isn't that.

Question 6

Do I have to be a developer?

Accepted Answer

No, and there are three tracks now: building, business, and marketing. You choose one on the apply form. Design, writing, talking to users, working out whether a thing can make money, spotting the problem worth solving, all of it counts. For the first while everyone is doing the same thing anyway, figuring out what's worth building.

Question 7

What counts as a problem worth solving?

Accepted Answer

The short version: someone is already paying to avoid it, in money, time, or some stupid workaround they built themselves. You can name the person rather than the segment, because Gen Z is a demographic bracket, not an audience. It happens often. And someone disagrees with you about it and you can hold the argument. All five tests are on the vision page.

Question 8

So what are you actually doing?

Accepted Answer

Making The Middle Market: a way for small businesses to answer their customers on WhatsApp from their own records, and hand the chat to the owner when it isn't sure. It's still in the making, and its page says honestly where it is. We got here by finding the problem first, and that's still how every decision gets made.

Question 9

Who is actually behind this?

Accepted Answer

Pari Goyal, founder, and a founding team that started joining in August. They said yes before there was a product, which is the whole point. There is still no senior engineer to learn from and nobody to hand you work, so if you need someone above you telling you what to do, this remains the wrong room. The team is on /team, and her LinkedIn is linked there.

Question 10

What happens after I apply?

Accepted Answer

You get a link with two steps behind it. Your details and a few blunt questions, then a short assignment. The assignment comes before any call on purpose, so if we do talk we spend it on your thinking instead of me reading the job post out loud. I read every one myself, which takes days rather than minutes. If I want to talk, I'll email you with a time.

The Middle
Market.

What it's meant to do

Where it is

Run a business?

The MiddleMarket.

What it's meant to do

Where it is

Run a business?

The Middle
Market.