About Agave
We’re modernizing construction, a $12T global industry run by siloed software built 20-40 years ago (on-prem, no APIs, no mobile access, etc.). We connect these systems by building proprietary APIs and wrapping them in a modern UI for automating work.
Construction Software Companies use our API to integrate their apps with these systems. Construction Companies use our UI to automate work, like keeping financial data in sync between field teams on jobsites and accounting teams in an office. We save both time and money, making them more productive and profitable.
Our founding team has worked together for 10 years, first at Graphiq (acq. by Amazon) then at Amazon. We've raised $3M from YC, Accel, and leaders from Plaid, Procore, Autodesk, PlanGrid, Aconex, and more.
These slides explain our company and market: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1VIRjj0W8wISEqM2IjPsg2-7carWSw-35GlC4ROTXXkU/edit?usp=sharing.
About the role
tl;dr: we're looking for a world-class full-stack/backend engineer who loves simplifying complex systems, unifying fragmented data, and building high-scale systems. Learn more about us here (link).
Why Join Us
- Opportunity: you have the chance to be an early, pivotal member of a fast-growing YC startup modernizing one of the world's largest and most critical industries (construction). You'll work with our world-class engineers to deliver and expand our core product.
- Team: you'll work with a formidable founding team that's experienced, intense, and ambitious. We've worked together for 10 years, first at a startup that Amazon acquired, then at Amazon, and now at Agave. You'll learn a ton while having outsized ownership. You’ll have a front-row seat to the good, bad, and ugly of building a company from the ground up.
- Timing: you're joining at a key inflection point. We're proven (4x revenue growth YoY, 140+ customers) but also early. This means you have lower risk but also huge upside.
Requirements
- Back-end/full-stack engineer, ideally with 1-4 years experience (we're open to exceptional college grads with strong intern/co-op experience).
- Familiarity with cloud infrastructure (e.g. AWS).
- Self-motivated, high ownership, low ego; desire to work on a fast-paced, intense, fun team. Excited to be our next hire; passion for building a world-class engineering culture.
- Pumped to work in-person with us in SF 5 days/week.
- No need to have: prior experience with our tech stack or at B2B SaaS/API company
Interesting Technical Challenges
- Unification: we’re unifying dozens-to-hundreds of fragmented systems under a single standard that we define. Our unification covers data objects, data models, authentication, account-linking UX, and features like filters and pagination. When designing any new feature, we have to do it in a scalable way. For example, when adding filters, we have to research each system we support (and plan to support) and create a generic, system-agnostic solution.
- On-prem: we’re connecting with many types of on-prem systems (SQL-based, DLL-based, API-based), many built 20-40 years ago. We provide tremendous value to customers allowing them to interface with these systems in a secure, fast, reliable way, as if they’re modern, cloud-based products. We need to support real-time communication and webhooks when they don’t exist (e.g., using web-sockets).
- Scale & speed: we’re handling millions of API requests per day, and growing daily. For our products that we power with our own API (e.g. Analytics), we need to store and retrieve large amounts of data in an efficient way, building elegant caching layers to reduce latency. We ship code daily and iterate quickly based on actual feedback from paying customers (they share tons!).
- Operational excellence: we’re creating a reliable API layer on top of many old systems that don’t have APIs. It’s like building a skyscraper on quicksand, enforced by SLAs. We need to innovate in expanding the depth and breadth of our integrations while simultaneously increasing our development velocity. We need to be very creative in how to continually test our code and integrations, creating scalable testing frameworks that can catch edge cases and bugs across 1k+ endpoints.
- Mix of back-end and front-end: we’re building front-end apps that dog-food our own APIs (e.g. Sync, Analytics). This helps us build world-class APIs because we suffer any pain present in our API. We’re building both the lego blocks and the higher-level lego models: we see what kinds of APIs our SaaS customers want, then also look at the kinds of API niceties we want for our own applications (like a caching layer, advanced filtering) and implement a combination of the two.
- Variety: without knowing, you might assume adding a new integration is low-ambiguity and routine. But each integration we launch is special, completely different and posing unique challenges. This requires researching that system and its nuances in great depth before building on top of it. It’s part engineering, part archeology.
Tech Stack
- TypeScript, React, Redis, Postgres, AWS - CDK, EC2
Benefits
- Healthcare: we cover 90% of your healthcare costs with several plan options.
- 401k: we match 100% of your contributions, up to 4% of annual salary.
- Relocation: sizable relocation bonus for folks currently located outside of the Bay Area.
- Gym: on-site gym with Peloton, squat rack, Tempo, Yoga setup, and more.
- Visa: we sponsor Visas (H1B, TN, etc.) for candidates who are a good fit!
In-Person
We've built Agave in-person since day 1, and will maintain an in-person culture in San Francisco going forward. We form tighter bonds, build a stronger culture, and move faster since we're all working from one location. Our office is just west of Twin Peaks, 1 block from a bus stop, 10min walk from a BART station, and a 5min drive off the 101 and 280. Our entire team commutes here every day. We believe building in-person is a huge strategic advantage, and we hope you’ll join us.
Interview Process
At each stage, we decide within 24hrs and update you shortly after.
- Intro (15min.) [Virtual]: informal chat for you to learn more about the role. We'll ask for details on past projects. We want to know that you can code, and speak about your work clearly. You’re welcome to ask lots of questions about whether working at Agave makes sense for you.
- Experience (30min.) [Virtual] : we'll dive into the details of your most technically complex or challenging projects. Our goal is to ensure you've worked on sufficiently challenging projects to ensure you'll be successful if you join us full-time. We'll also reserve 5-10min to answer any questions you have about Agave.
- Coding (1hr): [Virtual] : you'll meet with our CTO. He’ll ask you 1-2 coding questions in your language of preference. We’ll test how you write, test, and debug solutions, and identify tradeoffs.
- On-site (1hr x 5 people): [In-Person]: you'll interview with each co-founder and our lead dev. This will be a deeper dive into your technical abilities and overall fit. Each interview is 1hr, 45min for our questions and 15min for yours.
