For Pete Soderling · Zero Prime
An engineer-founder fixing hiring the way it should have been built.
Jobby.dev is the on-demand job fair for tech. We collapse sourcing, screening, and the first interview into a single live conversation — real-time matching powered by embeddings, wrapped in a product that finally respects everyone's time.
Why we're writing to you specifically
You've been an engineer, a 4x founder, and now you back engineer-founders from zero to one. That's exactly where we are. Your thesis — B2B products with clear technical differentiation, developer tooling, and AI infrastructure— maps directly onto what we're building.
You wrote about wanting to help 10,000 engineers start companies. Jobby.dev exists so that engineers who aren'tstarting companies can find the right one to join — instantly, without the broken funnel that wastes months of their lives. It's the same mission, different side of the table.
You know what it's like to build communities of deeply technical people — you've done it with AI Council since 2015. Jobby.dev is building that same kind of live, high-signal marketplace, but for the moment a developer and a hiring team need to find each other.
The problem
Engineering hiring is broken on both sides. Candidates tailor cover letters nobody reads, complete take-homes nobody grades, and wait weeks for silence. Teams pay $25K agency fees, run 6-round pipelines, and still lose their top pick to a faster competitor.
AI has broken the top of the funnel — generated resumes and auto-apply have made traditional ATS pipelines unusable. As you wrote recently: AI agents are shipping code, but who's checking the work? The same problem exists in hiring — teams need a signal AI can't fake: a live human in a live conversation.
Our solution
Jobby.dev is a real-time matching marketplace. Seekers upload a resume, recruiters post a role, and our algorithm connects them into a video call on the spot. Sourcing, screening, and the first interview collapse into one event.
Parse in seconds
Resumes and JDs become structured profiles automatically.
Match live
Embedding-based ranking puts the right person in front of you now.
Interview on the spot
One click into a video room. No scheduling, no email chains.
How we fit your thesis
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Engineer-founder, zero to one. Solo technical founder. Web app, native mobile, matchmaking algorithm, and live video — all shipped by one person. This is the stage you invest in.
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B2B with clear technical differentiation. Real-time embedding-based matching + WebRTC video in a single product. Not a wrapper — the matching layer is the moat.
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AI infrastructure that doesn't just wrap models. We own the foundational layer between candidate data, employer intent, and a live conversation. Every match trains the system.
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Software engineers as the end user. You've backed developer tooling your entire career because you know the audience. Our candidates are the same people — engineers who want substance over process.
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Early validation, capital efficient. Product is live. Seekers and recruiters are matching and interviewing on the platform today. Zero headcount outside the founder.
Business model
Free for candidates, always. Employers pay a flat monthly subscription for matchmaking access and live interview seats — a fraction of a single agency placement. No success fees, no per-hire tax. Software margins on a market currently priced like a services business.
The ask
We're raising a pre-seed round to fund employer GTM and scale the matching infrastructure. Beyond capital, we'd value the founder community you've built, your operator LP network, and the kind of high-conviction support you give companies from incorporation through seed. You've been in these shoes — that's why we're writing to you.
Important disclosure
This page is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any securities. Any such offering will be made solely to accredited investors as defined in Rule 501 of Regulation D under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, and only pursuant to definitive offering documents and applicable legal exemptions from registration.
Securities offered by Jobby.dev have not been registered under the Securities Act or any state securities laws, and may not be offered or sold absent registration or an applicable exemption. Nothing on this page should be construed as investment, legal, or tax advice.
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