Co-Founder & Chief Technology Officer / Engineer

Job Description

The opportunity
Most independent used-car dealers run their business on a pile of tools that don’t talk to each other.
A DMS, a few spreadsheets, a separate CRM, a separate desking tool, a texting app, and a folder
full of PDFs. Aerolot replaces all of that with one system: inventory, the sales and F&I funnel, deal
desking, lender submission, compliance, and messaging, plus an AI copilot that coaches the dealer
while they work a deal. The goal I keep coming back to is that a dealer should never have to open a
spreadsheet again.

The product already works. It’s about 85% to 90% done and going to market in the next month or
two with pilot design partners. What it needs now is a technical co-founder to take it over, get it to
launch, and build it out, including the mobile apps that get Aerolot off the desktop and onto the lot.

About Aerolot
Aerolot is a multi-tenant SaaS platform built specifically for independent used-car dealers, starting in
Miami. I built it solo. I know this business from the inside: the sales and F&I funnel, how a DMS
actually gets used day to day, lender relationships, F&I product economics, and the compliance
rules that touch every deal. That knowledge is the hard part, and a lot of it is already baked into the
product.

Today the platform has a working inventory and cost system, a deal desk with correct tax and lender
math, credit pulls and lender submission, real-time messaging, and Aero, an AI copilot that reads a
deal and explains it in plain language. The web app is live in v1. Mobile hasn’t started yet.

Why now
A few reasons this is worth your time:
• The product is built and close to shipping. You inherit a large, working codebase instead of a
blank repo, and you call the shots on where it goes from here.
• Pilot dealers start in Q3 2026, so your work lands in front of real users fast and the feedback
loop is short.
• The domain is the hard part, and it’s already worked out. Desking, F&I, lender math, and
compliance are mapped, so you get to build good software on top of foundations that are
already correct.
• This is a founder seat with founder equity. You run engineering and own the technical direction
of the company from day one.

What you’ll own
You are the whole engineering team and the company’s technical voice. That means:
• All the code. Frontend, backend, and mobile (iOS and Android). The full stack is yours.
• Technical direction. Architecture, stack, tooling, infrastructure, security, and the engineering
roadmap. You set the standards and the pace.
• Getting it shipped. Taking the product from where it is now to pilot launch, then making it
reliable and scalable.
• Mobile from scratch. The iOS and Android apps don’t exist yet. You design and build them.
• The AI layer. Keeping Aero and the rest of the AI features accurate and dependable.
• Bringing me the real options. For any big decision I want the choices, the trade-offs, the
costs, and your recommendation, so we make smart calls.
What you’ll build

Web platform
Take the web app the rest of the way. Harden it, scale it, and extend it across inventory, the sales
and F&I funnel, deal desk, lender workflows, compliance, and messaging. Tenant isolation is not
optional, ever.

Backend and infrastructure
Own the APIs, the data model, background jobs, integrations, and the infrastructure that keeps a
dealer’s day running. Several live third-party integrations (credit and lending, telephony and SMS,
payments, market data) have to stay reliable and compliant.
Mobile (iOS and Android)
Build the mobile experience from nothing. Dealers spend their day on the lot, not behind a desk, so
mobile is how they’ll actually use Aerolot. You pick the approach, native or cross-platform, and own it
through to the app stores.

AI features (Aero)
AI isn’t the first thing you’ll touch and it isn’t most of the job, but it’s a feature we have to get right,
because it’s where Aerolot does things the old tools can’t. You’ll keep Aero accurate, fast, and
trustworthy. It only analyzes a deal, it never acts on the dealer’s behalf. You’ll also use AI in your
own day-to-day to build faster.

The stack you’ll inherit
You can change any of this. Here’s what’s running today so you know exactly what you’re walking
into:
Layer Today
Web / app framework Next.js 15, React
Database & ORM Neon Postgres, Drizzle ORM
Auth & multi-tenancy Clerk, with explicit per-tenant isolation
Hosting & edge Vercel, Cloudflare R2 for storage
Cache / queue Upstash / Valkey, Redis
AI & search LLM copilot (Aero), Qdrant vector DB, Voyage AI embeddings
Comms Telnyx (SMS), Resend (email)
Lending & data 700Credit integration, MarketCheck, compliance scaffolding
Payments Stripe
Observability Sentry
Mobile Greenfield. Your call (iOS and Android)

How we’ll work together
I’m the founder, and I’m moving into the CEO role: product, sales, customers, and the domain. I’m
handing you the technical side. That’s a real hand-off. You set engineering direction, and I’ll lean on
your judgment instead of telling you how to build.

A few things I want to be straight about up front, because this is what keeps a co-founder
relationship from blowing up later.
• You own the how. Architecture, stack, tooling, process, and where the engineering effort goes.
That’s your territory, and I won’t second-guess your implementation.
• I make the final call on the big stuff. Major strategy and money decisions come to me. Your
job is to lay out the options, the trade-offs, the costs, and a recommendation. I’ll weigh that
against my own research and decide. I keep final control, but I’d much rather be convinced by a
good argument than pull rank.
• I’m still going to be in the code. I built this, and I’ll always have a hand in it. I’ll even ask you
where my time is best spent there. I’m not disappearing. I’m giving up the wheel and sitting next
to you.
• Small team, a lot of trust. Right now it’s the two of us. You get huge ownership and zero
bureaucracy, and in return we have to talk straight and talk often.
If a founder who stays in the code sounds like a problem, we’re probably not a match, and it’s better
we both figure that out now. If it sounds like a CEO who actually understands what you’re building
and will get out of your way on the how, let’s talk.

Who you are
Must-haves
• Senior and full-stack. You’ve shipped production web apps end to end and can run both
frontend and backend on your own.
• You can do mobile. You’ve shipped iOS and Android before, or you can pick it up and build
from a standing start.
• You actually build with AI. You code with AI tools every day and know how to ship AI features
that hold up. Ideally you know this area at least as well as I do.
• You think like a founder. You want ownership, not a ticket queue, and you’re fine with pre-
revenue risk and equity upside.
• You’re in Miami, in person. You’re here, or you’re moving here. Two people building
something move faster in the same room.
• You can talk to a non-engineer. You can explain a trade-off and its cost to me and give a
straight recommendation, not a shrug.

Bonus points
• Background in automotive, fintech, lending, payments, or anything compliance-heavy.
• You’ve been a technical co-founder or first engineer and know what the job really takes.
• You already know our stack (Next.js, Postgres, Drizzle, Vercel), though range and judgment
matter to me more than any single tool.
• You’ve taken a product from its first customers to a lot of them and know where things tend to
break.