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CTO at Phrasing
Phrasing is the brainchild of one engineer, one designer, and lots of blood, sweat, and tears. Over the past 6 months, it's been prototyped, iterated on, and finally launched. Now that we have paid users signing up, we're looking to find another technical co-founder to join and help us scale from our first users to our first million and beyond. In fact, our goal is to build a billion dollar business with a product team of 10 people or less.
So, if you consider yourself an engineering maverick, have a passion for languages, and a penchant for building; if you genuinely want to do good in the world and make a lasting impression, then we want to hear from you.
Why Phrasing?
Amazing Product
So, if you consider yourself an engineering maverick, have a passion for languages, and a penchant for building; if you genuinely want to do good in the world and make a lasting impression, then we want to hear from you.
Amazing Opportunity
The OpenAI Startup Fund's (led by Sam Altman) largest investment to date has been in a language learning application. Duolingo is a 10 billion dollar company with an application that doesn't teach you a language. Computers now understand language, and not only that, but nuance as well. The market potential here cannot be understated.
Amazing technology
Work with ClojureScript, Elixir, Phoenix, Python, ML and more. We’re not afraid to dive into the latest technologies to push the boundaries of what’s possible.
Amazing team
We are selective about our team members, aiming for a tight-knit group of no more than 10 core members. We want passionate, talented individuals who strive to excel, and who seek genuine fulfillment from work.
Amazing environment
Our remote work environment is highly collaborative, working synchronously and pushing each other to master our crafts and achieve our personal goals. We foster a culture of mutual respect and encouragement, where we inspire each other to reach new heights.
What are we looking for?
Fearlessness & competence:
No specific experience or credentials is required, but you should not be afraid of any part of the stack. We need to build everything - from training custom models, through managing servers and databases, to clients across browsers and native apps. You shouldn't be afraid to jump in at any part of the stack, sink your teeth in, and move the needle forward.
Commitment & resolve
We're looking for someone to join in a co-founding capacity — that will mean lots of nights, weekends, stress, frustration, as well as all the joys that come with starting a business. We're not asking from you anything we're not asking from ourselves. This will likely be one of the hardest jobs of your life, but it will also be the most rewarding
Passion & whimsy
We need to be able to read, tokenize, and analyze hundreds of languages. We need to be able to perform part of speech tagging, feature extraction, constituency parsing, multilingual alignments, idiom and gender classifiers, and so much more. We’re working on the next generation of these tools, supercharged by the natural language understanding LLMs provide, built with Elixir.
What would you work on?
Now that computers can understand language and we have robust concepts for memory, how do these two interrelate? How do audio-based flashcards compare to cloze completion flashcards? How about tap-to-flip flashcards? How does studying an expression affect the memory of the individual words? How can we model and predict that? We’re pushing the boundaries of spaced repetition systems by integrating advanced memory concepts with AI, making learning more efficient and personalized.
When you start learning a language, you likely already ‘know’ hundreds of words. Our goal is to figure out which words you know, then recommend sentences you’re likely to understand, in topics that interest you. As you continue, we can start recommending media that you would happily engage with at your current level.
Next-Gen NLP Tools
We need to be able to read, tokenize, and analyze hundreds of languages. We need to be able to perform part of speech tagging, feature extraction, constituency parsing, multilingual alignments, idiom and gender classifiers, and so much more. We’re working on the next generation of these tools, supercharged by the natural language understanding LLMs provide, built with Elixir.
Who should not apply?
We know how tedious job hunting can be, and we are looking for a very specific candidate. So we want to be transparent about a few reasons why this role might not be a good fit for you:
This role is not for you if you are seeking immediate employment. We are looking for the perfect fit, not the first fit, and we fully anticipate the hiring process will take some time.
If you are seeking a competitive base salary, this role may not align with your expectations. We offer equity and profit-sharing as our primary form of compensation. While we do have paying users and are growing, we cannot offer a competitive salary from the get-go.
We are a fully remote team, but we value synchronous work and collaboration. If you prefer to work completely asynchronously, you may not find our preferred work style suitable. We believe that spending time together, even if remote, fosters better ideas and a stronger team dynamic.
Lastly, if you are easily offended or prioritize political correctness, our company culture may not be a good fit. We're two young, conservative leaning men who embrace a growth mindset and are passionate about self-improvement. Our interests include fitness, nutrition, tattoos, personal development, and the occasional Joe Rogan podcast. If these traits are not aligned with your values or if you take issue with any of these interests, this role is not for you.
Want to apply?
Video applications will get the highest considerations, although written applications are also accepted. Please note that we get thousands of applications every month, and it's a two person team. Therefore if you want a response, we ask that you include at least the following three sections in your video or email:
One section telling us why you are the best candidate for the role
One section telling us about an exciting project you've worked on
One section telling us one cool idea or thought you had reading this job posting (or about language learning + ai, we want to hear what you think would be awesome)
To fluency, and beyond.
"The fool who persists in his folly will become wise"
- William Blake
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