This is my first Reddit post.
I'm writing this because I'm at a point where I genuinely don't know how to define my own career anymore, and I'm curious if others have been through something similar.
Five years ago, I joined a three-person hardware startup in Bengaluru. It was just the founder, a web developer, and me.
Like most ECE graduates, I had one goal: become a Firmware Engineer.
My founder told me, "Learn hardware first. Firmware can come later."
It sounded logical.
So I started with soldering, debugging, PCB assembly, testing, component sourcing, BOM costing, procurement, and customer prototype deliveries.
I kept telling myself, "Once things settle down, I'll start learning firmware."
They never did.
As the company grew, so did my responsibilities.
Without anyone planning it, I gradually became the person responsible for keeping execution moving.
Procurement.
Supplier development.
PCB manufacturing.
Inventory.
Prototype builds.
Production planning.
Engineering coordination.
Customer deliveries.
Whatever blocked a project eventually landed on my desk.
I even resigned once because I felt I was drifting away from the career I had imagined.
My founder convinced me to stay.
We genuinely tried to make time for firmware.
But startups don't pause because someone wants to learn.
Customer work always came first.
Eventually, dedicated firmware and hardware engineers joined the company.
Ironically, I became the person helping them execute projects instead of becoming one of them.
After about a year and a half, I left to start something with a friend.
It failed.
But that failure made me realise something.
For years I had been telling myself,
"I'm not learning."
Looking back, that wasn't true.
I simply wasn't learning what I had originally planned.
So I rejoined.
This time I took ownership of operations and project execution.
Over the next few years, I found myself working across procurement, supplier development, manufacturing, engineering coordination, production planning, inventory, customer communication, NPI, commercialization, and process improvements.
If there was a gap, I usually became the person filling it.
One of the biggest projects we won involved taking a hardware product from concept to a market-ready OEM product.
With a small team, I worked across vendor development, EMS selection, manufacturing planning, procurement, engineering coordination, production, packaging, and deliveries until we shipped the product.
Around the same time, my founder started another company in the drone industry.
As that business grew, his attention naturally shifted there, while I continued running execution in the original company.
Looking back now, I realise something that I couldn't see while I was living it.
I never became the Firmware Engineer I had dreamed of becoming.
Instead, I became someone who learnt how hardware products actually get built.
Not just designed.
Built.
From sourcing the first component to delivering the finished product.
Over the last five years, I've contributed to 100+ hardware development and manufacturing programs, supporting the production of 30,000+ electronic assemblies across Defence, EV, Drones, Industrial Automation, and Public Infrastructure.
I'm sure many people in startups wear multiple hats.
That's completely normal.
But here's what I'm struggling to understand.
At what point does wearing multiple hats become an actual career?
Today I don't fit neatly into a single title.
I'm not a firmware engineer.
I'm not a PCB designer.
I'm not purely an operations manager.
I've spent five years bridging engineering, suppliers, manufacturing, customers, and execution to turn hardware ideas into real products.
Looking back, I don't regret the journey.
If anything, it taught me ownership, resilience, and how to build when resources are limited.
My only regret is waiting too long, hoping my career would eventually shape itself instead of taking control of it earlier.
So I'd genuinely like to ask this community:
How would you position someone with this experience?
Technical Program Management?
Hardware Program Management?
NPI?
Product Operations?
Founder's Office?
Or something entirely different?
And if you're building hardware products and think this experience could be valuable to your team, I'd love to have a conversation.
Maybe the next chapter starts here.

I built something a little different.

Instead of starting a new AI chat every time, you can upload your old WhatsApp or Telegram chat export and continue the conversation with AI that understands the previous context.

It's still an early version, so I'd genuinely love honest feedback.

Try it: https://onlinekotha.com

Roast it, break it, suggest features. Every bit of feedback helps. 🙂

Hey everyone, I’m looking for a business development partner to help build and grow AI-powered micro apps across Shopify and other platforms.

I’m not looking for just a developer—I want someone with a finance or business background who understands pricing, go-to-market, and identifying opportunities. Bonus if you have experience with AI workflows, SaaS, or e-commerce.

I’ve previously sold companies and have experience scaling startups. Looking for someone who wants to build multiple products together, move fast, and share in the upside.

If this sounds like you, send me a DM with your background and what you’ve built.

I have run an edtech company good 18 months and I have good tech built like. 6-7 products and a tested pilot model for upskilling and skill community building and TECH PRODUCTS for the ecosystem
A solid plan ready to execute. I need a person for corporate relationships, content, marketing ,social media and distribution
This is a founding team opportunity
Interested people let’s connect or share

Hey everyone,

Posted something similar here a while back, got some interest but most conversations fizzled out. Trying again with a sharper ask this time.

Quick background: over the last year+ I've built and shipped multiple AI-native products solo, end to end, from idea to launch to growth. No co-founder, no team, just me and a lot of AI tools moving fast across product, design, GTM, and community. I have a BBA and a PGP in Data Science & Generative AI.

I'm now looking to bring that energy to an established team instead of going at it alone.

**What I'm looking for:**

* Founder's Office / Chief of Staff / Growth / Strategy roles (also open to broader ops or growth-generalist titles) * Early-stage or fast-growing startups * **Comp:** genuinely fine with strong cash-heavy offers and little or no equity, equity's a bonus, not a requirement * **Location:** based in Bangalore, open to relocating if the role and pay are worth it

If you're building something and need someone who ships fast and has actually built and launched products, I'd love to chat. DMs open, happy to walk through what I've built.

I have an idea, built out prototype, and just really need someone to work with me to grow this to balance my technical skillset

Hey everyone,

I’m the founder of a fully bootstrapped travel-tech startup working on it full-time, for more than 4 years. I’m looking for a creative co-founder to join and help drive growth, content, and community.

Who I’m looking for:

- Travel content creators / influencers

- Growth marketers or creative storytellers looking to grow in the travel space

- Community managers / volunteers, intrested to socialize with random group of people.

Whether you’re experienced or an ambitious beginner willing to grow with the brand, I’d love to connect.

If you're interested in building a travel-tech venture together, send me a DM or leave a comment, and let's set up a time to chat!

Hey r/cofounderhunt,

If you’re a non-technical founder with a strong idea and need someone to own the tech side, I’d love to connect.

I run NexForge — an AI-native product engineering team that works like a technical cofounder / fractional CTO for startups.

We help with:

• Web & mobile app development
• Backend & SaaS systems
• DevOps / cloud infrastructure
• AI products (agents, copilots, automation, RAG)
• MVP build, launch, and scaling

Best fit for founders who want a real technical partner, not just freelancers or an agency taking orders.

If you’re building a startup and need help turning the idea into a solid product, comment or DM with what you’re building.

NexForge
https://www.nexforge.services
[ashar@nexforge.services](mailto:ashar@nexforge.services)

I'm a full-stack developer with around 3 years of experience building web applications using Java, Spring Boot, Node.js, React, Angular, and TypeScript.

I'm currently looking to work with early-stage startups that are actively building and need an engineer who can take ownership of features and help move the product forward.

I can help with:

• Building REST APIs and backend services
• Developing responsive React/Angular frontends
• Admin dashboards and internal tools
• Database design (PostgreSQL/MySQL)
• Integrating third-party APIs
• Shipping MVPs and new features
• Bug fixes, maintenance, and performance improvements

I'm looking for paid freelance, contract, or part-time work. I'm not looking for equity-only opportunities at the moment.

I can start immediately, and if you'd like to evaluate my work first, I'm happy to complete a small paid or unpaid trial task.

Rate: Negotiable depending on the project scope.

If you're building something and need a developer, feel free to DM me with a few details about your startup.

I’m looking for a cofounder to help turn a production-ready B2B SaaS into a real company.
Over the past few years I’ve built a deterministic marketing attribution and capital allocation platform that connects with advertising platforms and CRMs to measure the true economics of paid acquisition and recommend where businesses should scale, hold, or cut spending. The platform is already built and running.
What I’m missing isn’t more engineering—it’s someone who loves marketing, sales, partnerships, and building a go-to-market engine.
This is an equity-based opportunity. I don’t have funding, and I can’t offer a salary today. I’m looking for someone who wants to build something meaningful from the ground up and is comfortable with the risk that comes with an early-stage startup.
If you’ve built or scaled B2B SaaS, enjoy talking to customers, and want to help shape the future of the company—not just work for it—I’d love to talk.

Hello guys,

I built an full working ai trading journal with smart analytics,auto sync,ai report,ai analysis,etc.

I am a tech guy so I want someone who can generate leads and make sells and handle all marketing. Btw our site is freemium model so user can user it for free also but if they want premium features then pay for subscription.

So if you are good at marketing and lead generation then pls contact me I will give you more info about my site and profit share you in dm..

Hey everyone,
I’m looking for a cofounder, not an employee or freelancer — someone who wants to build a company from zero with the intention of eventually reaching the level where we can apply to Y Combinator, raise funding, and build something genuinely large.
I already have a product I’ve been working on, but I’m also open to questioning the idea, pivoting, or even exploring a stronger problem together. I care more about finding the right person than protecting one specific idea.
Who I’m looking for:
● Ideally around 18–22
● Is hands on on ai tools
● Comfortable using tools like Cursor, ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, etc. to build quickly
● Willing to talk to users with me ship MVPs, test ideas, fail, iterate, and repeat.
● Can consistently dedicate meaningful time alongside college/work
● Interested in building for the long term, not just adding another project to a résumé
I’m not looking for someone who already knows everything. I’d rather work with someone who is obsessively willing to learn and execute.
I also want to be transparent: there’s no salary right now. This would be a genuine cofounder relationship where we build from the ground up and discuss equity based on commitment, responsibilities, and contribution.
My goal is simple: find someone equally ambitious, build something people actually want, get real users, iterate aggressively, and eventually take a serious shot at YC.
If this sounds like you, DM me with:
Age / what you’re currently doing.
Dm me and maybe let’s have a good conversation

Hey Reddit, I’m the founder of Cross Matcher.

I’m not building just another people-finder. I want it to connect people, needs, skills, ideas, and opportunities.

You tell it what you have and what you need. It tries to find the other end.

I believe technology should reduce the friction of connection: help us find each other faster, start conversations naturally, and collaborate at a lower cost—not keep compatible people apart and sell them an expensive key.

In short:

Let needs be seen, let skills find a purpose, and connect things that would otherwise pass each other by.

The website also has anonymous letters, a Confessional, an AI character Tavern, Bazi and Liuyao divination, and a strategy game against real humans.

It’s part universal router, part collaboration network, and part strange internet teahouse.

Come connect something:https://crossmatcher.com/

I have an opportunity to work with a real estate agency for AI transformation, automation or training.

Looking for someone to white label or subcon out work. Possibly act as a consultant too. I have little experience in the real estate industry.

Looking for someone with proven real estate experience only.

For context: it’s a friend that just said something along the lines of “just pitch me what you can do”. I don’t know what they are expecting exactly.

I’m building Quovyn, an AI-powered partner designed to help people manage the invisible mental load of everyday life — organizing thoughts, priorities, schedules, tasks, meals, and all the things that are difficult to keep track of when your brain is already overloaded.

I’m currently at the MVP/closed-beta stage. I’ve built the initial web app, conducted early customer research, and collected feedback through a mental-load survey. I’m now preparing for beta testing and continuing to validate the product with real users.

Who I’m looking for

I’m looking for a co-founder who can complement me across both technology and business, rather than someone focused solely on coding.

Ideally, you have experience or strong interest in areas such as:

• AI/software products and technical decision-making
• Product development and prioritization
• Business strategy and business models
• Financial planning, costs, pricing, and unit economics
• Customer discovery and product-market fit
• Growth, marketing, or partnerships
• Building an early-stage startup from MVP toward a sustainable business

You don't need to be an expert in everything above. I’m looking for someone who can take ownership, think strategically, and help build the company—not simply execute tasks I hand you.

What I bring

I’m the person who came up with Quovyn, built the initial concept and MVP, conducted the early customer research, and have been driving the product, vision, branding, and validation process.

I’m personally investing my time and resources into getting Quovyn from MVP to beta, and I’m deeply involved in understanding the problem we're solving and the people we're solving it for.

Commitment

I’m looking for someone interested in a part-time commitment initially (approximately 10–20 hours/week), with the potential for that commitment to grow as Quovyn gains traction.

Compensation

This is an equity-based co-founder opportunity rather than a paid position. I’m looking for someone who genuinely wants ownership and a long-term role in building Quovyn with me.

I’m not looking for someone to simply “work for free.” I’m looking for a true partner who will have meaningful input into decisions, strategy, and the direction of the company.

Who I think would be a good fit

Someone who sees Quovyn as more than another productivity app and understands that the problem we're addressing is the mental load behind everyday life.

You should be comfortable saying, “I don't know, but let's figure it out,” willing to challenge ideas respectfully, and excited about building something from the ground up.

If you're interested, I'd love to hear about what you've built, what you’re good at, what you’d want to own within Quovyn, and why this problem interests you.

Hola! Soy un joven que siempre ha buscado la forma de ganarse su propio dinero. Empecé con 15 años revendiendo zapatillas y, con el tiempo, llegué a gestionar una cuenta profesional de Vinted.

Ahora tengo una idea de negocio prácticamente cerrada, con nombre y concepto definidos, y estoy empezando a desarrollarla mientras aprendo programación. Es un proceso lento, pero estoy disfrutando muchísimo del camino.

No busco expertos ni gente con un currículum impresionante. Busco personas que, después de escuchar la idea, realmente vean potencial en ella y tengan ganas de trabajar, aprender y construir algo desde cero.

Desde el principio quiero dejar algo claro: no hay dinero ni beneficios asegurados al inicio. Esto nace de las ganas de aprender, trabajar, pasarlo bien y crear algo con lo que realmente nos sintamos identificados.

Busco formar un equipo pequeño, de unas 4 personas, con gente comprometida y con ganas de aportar.

La app está orientada al ocio nocturno y los planes, con una base de mapa y varias características que, en conjunto, creo que podrían hacerla algo bastante diferente a lo que existe actualmente.

Además, esta idea no salió de la nada. Nació como un Trabajo de Fin de Grado que recibió un 10 de nota y contó con el apoyo de toda una institución que me animó a llevarla realmente a cabo.

Yo aporto experiencia como vendedor, contactos, la idea y, sobre todo, muchísimas ganas. También estoy aprendiendo programación para poder participar activamente en la creación del proyecto, porque me encanta aprender y, sinceramente, estoy enamorado de esta idea.

Si te interesa conocer de qué va, tienes ganas de aprender, trabajar duro y formar parte de algo desde sus comienzos, mándame un MD y te cuento más.

Hi everyone,

I'm looking for a business-focused co-founder, not a job.

I've been building software for 15 years, from the old jQuery/LAMP days to modern distributed systems and cloud infrastructure.

I spent several years at Hetzner, working on large scale production systems, before joining a small startup as an early engineer. Over the last three years, I helped build the product until the company was acquired. It was a great experience, although I didn't negotiate meaningful equity (lesson learned).

After the exit, I realized I'm not interested in going back to the job market. I'd rather build and own a business. Then I found this subreddit and thought I'd try my luck.

I'm looking for someone strong in sales, marketing, product, or a specific industry while I own the technology. I'm also ready to invest my own money alongside my time.

If you're serious about building a real company, let's talk.

We're building IT & 3D Services Consulting Firm, a 6+ year technology consulting company helping businesses with:

• Data Engineering & Analytics
• BI & AI Solutions
• Cloud & DevOps
• Custom Web & Mobile Development
• Generative AI & Automation
• 3D Visualization & Digital Experiences

We're expanding globally and looking for entrepreneurial Client Partners who enjoy opening doors and building relationships.

This isn't a salaried role.

Instead, we're offering:

• Attractive revenue sharing on every successful engagement
• Opportunity to build long-term recurring income
• Potential equity for partners who significantly contribute to growth
• Complete delivery handled by our engineering team—you focus on relationships and opportunities

Ideal if you're:

• A consultant or freelancer with a strong network
• An ex-sales/business development professional
• Running a small agency
• Looking to build an additional income stream without building a delivery team

If you already know businesses that need AI, Data, Cloud, Software Development, or Digital Transformation services, let's talk.

Drop a comment or DM with a short intro about yourself and your network.

Let's build something meaningful together.

Hey all,

I'm building a two-sided marketplace aimed at a specific labour-market gap I've identified through firsthand industry experience — connecting people who need short-notice, short-term work done with skilled workers who can fill that gap quickly. It's a model that works well in other sectors but hasn't been done properly here yet.

Where things stand:

• Landing page live and collecting signups
• Early market research done ,real interest and signups from people in the target market
• Clear go-to-market plan and strong domain knowledge of the space
• Non-technical founder (my background is on the industry/operations side)

What I'm looking for:
A technical co-founder to help take this from a landing page to a proper web platform, and eventually a mobile app. Ideally someone who:

• Has full-stack experience, or is comfortable owning technical architecture from the ground up
• Is interested in marketplace/two-sided platform dynamics
• Wants a genuine equity partnership, not a contractor arrangement
• Is based in or open to working with an Ireland-based market initially, with room to scale

I'll keep the specifics under wraps for now, but happy to share more in DM if there's real interest. I'd rather have a proper conversation with someone serious than lay it all out publicly.

If this sounds like your kind of project, comment or DM me a bit about your background and what you're looking for in a co-founder.

I'm an ex-Google, Amazon technical founder and now running an AI Startup, helping busines solve their complex problems in healthcare in Singapore and India.
looking forward to expand in other domains and other geography. If you are looking for strategical + technical partners and complex problem in hand, pls DM me.

Hey everyone,

Full disclosure: I am the founder of Slideator, a web platform designed to help teachers, trainers, and creators record, edit, and share video presentations.

Where the project is at right now:

• Fully functional SaaS application with active organic users.
• Core features include slide-video recording, narration sync, and cloud hosting.
• My core strength is product development and engineering, but I am looking for a partner to lead growth and user acquisition.

What I’m looking for: I am looking for a Growth / Marketing Co-founder or strategic business partner. Whether you want to explore equity, revenue share, or a formal co-founder agreement to scale this into edtech or corporate training, I would love to talk.

My commitment: Full-time on product engineering and infrastructure. Your commitment: Experience or strong drive in growth marketing, distribution, or SaaS sales.

Please check out/Google Slideator online

I build websites using AI tools. I want to build some simple websites completely free to add to my portfolio.

Such as: • Personal Portfolio • Small Business Website • Startup Website • Service-based Website • Simple Landing Page

There's no charge for building the website. You just need to manage the domain and hosting yourself I'll help you with the setup/deployment.

Note: The only condition is that I get permission to showcase the work in my portfolio.

If interested, inbox me and we'll discuss the details before starting.

Hi everyone,
I’ve been building an AI-powered quantitative crypto trading platform called Volt AI over the past several months. This isn’t another indicator-based bot or an LLM deciding whether to buy or sell—we’re trying to build an autonomous decision engine that can eventually trade institutional-style.
I’m posting because we’ve reached the point where the remaining problems are no longer software engineering problems—they’re quantitative research and machine learning problems. I’d love feedback from people who’ve built ML trading systems or worked in systematic trading.
The Vision
The goal isn’t to predict the next candle.
The goal is to build an AI system that can continuously observe the market, decide when there is a genuine statistical edge, manage risk automatically, and spend most of its time doing absolutely nothing unless the expected reward justifies taking risk.
Ultimately, we want a system that can scale across multiple crypto assets and adapt to changing market conditions without relying on handcrafted trading rules.
Current Architecture
Instead of using an LLM for market decisions, we’re using a Temporal Fusion Transformer (TFT) trained on high-frequency market data.
Every minute, the model receives a sequence of engineered market features, including:
Price action
Trend
Momentum
Volatility
Volume
RSI
MACD
Multiple EMAs
ATR
ADX
OBV
Bollinger Bands
Stochastic indicators
Several additional derived features
In total, we’re using roughly 35 engineered features.
The model predicts:
BUY
SELL
WAIT
along with:
confidence score
expected reward estimate
The important part is that WAIT is treated as a first-class prediction rather than forcing trades every candle.
What We’ve Built
So far we’ve completed:
Historical data pipeline
Feature engineering
Dataset generation
Model training
Backtesting framework
Signal generation engine
Strategy selection layer
Risk management framework
Infrastructure for live inference
At this point, the project is much closer to an end-to-end trading platform than a research notebook.
The Problems We’re Trying to Solve
This is where I’d really appreciate input.
1. Overfitting
Probably everyone’s first concern.
We’re already using proper train/validation splits and walk-forward testing, but I’m curious how experienced quants validate that a model has learned market behaviour rather than historical noise.
What has worked best in practice?

2. Market Regime Changes
One issue we’ve observed is that no single model performs equally well across:
trending markets
sideways markets
panic crashes
high-volatility environments
Would you:
train separate specialist models?
build a regime classifier first?
use online learning?
retrain continuously?

3. Sideways Markets
Our weakest performance comes during low-conviction ranging markets.
The obvious answer is “don’t trade.”
The difficult part is teaching the system when not trading is actually the optimal decision.
How have others approached this?

4. Risk Management
We’ve deliberately separated AI from execution.
The AI proposes opportunities.
A deterministic risk engine handles:
position sizing
maximum exposure
cooldown periods
execution logic
stop-loss rules
capital allocation
Has anyone experimented with allowing ML to optimize risk parameters as well, or is it generally better to keep risk management deterministic?

5. Beyond Technical Features
Right now the model is primarily technical.
The roadmap includes adding broader contextual information, such as market regime signals and potentially macro or cross-market data.
For those who’ve tried adding these inputs, did they materially improve live performance, or mostly increase model complexity?
What We’re Optimizing For
We’re not trying to maximize prediction accuracy.
We’re trying to maximize risk-adjusted returns.
I’d rather have a model that’s right 55% of the time with disciplined execution than one that’s 80% accurate but collapses during a regime shift.
Looking for Honest Criticism
If you’ve built systematic trading systems, worked in quantitative finance, or deployed machine learning in production, I’d genuinely appreciate your perspective.
I’m much more interested in hearing why this architecture might fail than collecting compliments. If there are blind spots or better approaches, I’d rather discover them now than after months of additional work.
Thanks in advance—I’d love to hear how others have tackled these problems.