This is a full-time, in-person role based in San Francisco (Presidio) - we work from the office 5 days a week.
You must be based in the Bay Area or willing to relocate before starting.
We require US work authorisation, but are open to O-1 or J-1 visa sponsorship for exceptional candidates.
Most AI products hand you a coworker on day one and hope you trust it. Sauna is the coworker you raise: it starts by learning how you work, earns autonomy task by task, and ends up running hours of work on its own while you keep taste, review, and the final say. Wordware is the ~20-person team behind it, backed by Spark Capital, Felicis, and Y Combinator with a $30M seed, the largest in YC history. We build from a San Francisco office in the shadow of the Golden Gate Bridge, and we work absurdly hard because we can see and feel the outcome every day.
Being RealSomething didn't work out. We get it. Some YC companies don't end the way the founders pictured, but the people who come out of that experience are some of the sharpest operators we know. We're looking for founders who still have the fire and want to plug into something that's past zero-to-one but still wide open.
The Actual Opportunity
We're 20 people defining a new category: our main product, Sauna, is the first multiplayer AI brain. You'd be one of the first people showing the world what Sauna can do on a team where your work moves the company.
You Probably…
Ran a YC company
Know exactly what worked and what didn't
Still want to build something massive rather than settle into a comfortable role
Wear multiple hats
Are genuinely excited about AI agents, not just resume-excited
What the Role Looks Like
Shape is flexible. We've hired past founders into engineering, product, and growth roles. Tell us where you're strongest and we'll build the scope around you.
The Process:We keep our process simple. Exceptional candidates go from first touch to offer within 2 weeks.
1. Application: Submit your resume and answer a few short questions.
2. 15-minute intro call: Quick check to align on location, motivation, and logistics. If it's a go, we move fast from here.
3. Deep dive call: A longer conversation about what you built, the decisions behind it, and where you'd plug in at Wordware.
Skills Required
- Full-time, in-person presence in San Francisco (Presidio), working from the office five days a week
- Based in the Bay Area or willing to relocate before starting
- US work authorization required (employer open to O-1 or J-1 sponsorship for exceptional candidates)
- Prior founder experience, ideally a Y Combinator-backed company (ex-YC founder)
- Demonstrated ability to wear multiple hats across engineering, product, and/or growth in an early-stage startup
- Genuine enthusiasm and practical interest in AI agents and building AI-driven products
- Desire to build and scale a company rather than take a comfortable role
What We Do
Sauna is an AI agent designed to learn how individuals and teams work, remembering critical information and acting on their behalf. By connecting to tools like email, calendar, and messaging, it helps manage tasks and workflows automatically, allowing work to move forward even when the user is offline. It effectively serves as an AI-powered workspace and coworkers' assistant.
