[the tracks]
THREE TRACKS.
ONE PROGRAMME.
The Technical Co-founder Residency isn't just for software engineers. Real products need real engineering across the stack — software, hardware, and UX. Pick the track that matches what you do best. Or apply for more than one if you're a generalist.
SOFTWARE ENGINEER.
You write code that runs in production. Backend, frontend, full-stack, mobile. You've shipped real things — apps people use, services that handle real load. We don't care which framework. We care that you've shipped.
WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR
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You've shipped real software that real people used. Doesn't matter if it was a side project, an internship project, or a startup. It just has to have been used.
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You can write a clean PR description. You've reviewed code that wasn't yours. You know why "it works on my machine" isn't the end of the conversation.
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You're comfortable making product decisions when the spec is unclear. The Technical Co-founder Residency will hand you ambiguity. If you freeze without a Jira ticket, this isn't for you.
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You can talk to users. Not as a salesperson — as someone who can listen, ask follow-up questions, and translate what users say into product changes.
WHAT KIND OF CV EVIDENCE WORKS
- Three months of consistent GitHub activity beats one fancy abandoned project.
- One small product you launched and got real users for beats a CV listing fifteen frameworks.
- A blog post explaining why you chose a specific architecture beats a portfolio of polished landing pages.
- We read every CV personally. Don't pad. Don't lie. Show us what you've actually done.
VERTICALS THAT WORK FOR THIS TRACK
Without giving away client work, here's the kind of thing software engineers in this programme have built or are well-suited to build:
- Operational tools for trade businesses (restaurants, fitness studios, trades)
- B2B SaaS for fragmented industries (insurance agents, allied health, small legal practices)
- Coordination tools for community organisations (sports clubs, local groups)
- Light data products with clear single-vertical use cases
Hospital software, regulated fintech, anything requiring HIPAA/PCI/SOC2 during the build phase — those aren't 12-week projects.
HARDWARE ENGINEER.
You build things that exist in the physical world. Embedded systems, IoT, robotics, electronics. You know your way around a soldering iron, a logic analyser, and a deadline. This track is for hardware-software boundary problems where the product needs both to work.
WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR
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You've actually built hardware. PCB designs you've tested, embedded code you've shipped, devices that did something real. Coursework and tutorials don't count on their own.
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You can write enough software to ship a working prototype. You don't need to be a backend engineer, but you can't hand off the firmware and walk away.
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You understand that a working prototype isn't a product. The 12 weeks are about turning a thing-that-works into a thing-someone-pays-for.
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You're comfortable scoping ruthlessly. Hardware projects expand. Twelve weeks is a hard limit. You'll need to cut features.
HONEST ANSWER ABOUT WHAT'S BUILDABLE IN 12 WEEKS
Don't pitch us a smart home ecosystem. Don't pitch us a satellite. The hardware projects that work in this programme have these properties:
- A single-purpose device or a tightly-scoped IoT system
- Off-the-shelf hardware where possible (ESP32, Raspberry Pi, common sensors) — not custom silicon
- A clear user who pays for what the hardware does, not what the hardware is
- A cloud or app component that's small enough to ship in parallel
Examples of the kind of thing that fits:
- A cold-chain monitor for small-scale logistics operators
- A device + dashboard for managing physical assets in a specific industry (e.g., gym equipment, construction tools)
- An IoT product for a vertical we already know (allied health, hospitality operations)
WHAT KIND OF CV EVIDENCE WORKS
- Photos and short videos of things you've actually built.
- Schematics, code repositories, design documentation.
- A blog post or write-up explaining a project end-to-end is gold.
- Specific impact numbers if you have them ("this device replaced a manual process that took 4 hours/day for 30 staff").
UX DESIGNER.
Not a wireframer. Not a Dribbble curator. A designer who's done the full Figma-to-production cycle, who can do user research, and who understands that shipping a product is about killing your beautiful ideas as fast as you can.
WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR
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You've shipped at least one full product UI in production. Not a concept. Not an unsolicited redesign. A real product where you handed off to engineering and saw it ship.
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You can run a user research session. You know how to ask non-leading questions. You can synthesise findings into product changes.
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You can prototype in Figma to a level where engineers don't need three rounds of clarification. Design tokens, components, sane auto-layout. Your hand-off is clean.
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You're comfortable being a product owner. The Technical Co-founder Residency gives the UX designer the same product responsibility as any other applicant. You'll make scope calls. You'll kill features.
WHAT WE WANT IN YOUR PORTFOLIO
- Two or three case studies showing the full process: research, decisions, trade-offs, what shipped, what got cut.
- One example of a UI that you shipped and then iterated on based on real user behaviour.
- One example of a design decision you got wrong and fixed.
- Visual polish matters but doesn't matter as much as decision-making. We'd rather see ugly-but-thoughtful than pretty-but-empty.
WHAT YOU WON'T BE DOING
- Mocking up things to be "designed" later by an engineer.
- Producing pixel-perfect comps with no input on the underlying logic.
- Being told what to design.
If "designer who runs the product" sounds appealing, apply. If it sounds stressful, this isn't your track.
[04] across all tracks
WHAT WE EXPECT
FROM EVERYONE.
Whatever your track, three things apply.
You'll do user research in week 1 and week 2. If "talk to a stranger about their work for 30 minutes" sounds awful, this programme isn't for you.
You will pitch us something. We'll workshop it. By week 4 you may have killed half the original pitch and pivoted. Engineers who fall in love with their first idea don't ship products that grow.
You'll be mentored by founders who've made the mistakes you're about to make. Listen. Argue when you should. Don't argue when you shouldn't.
[05] next
KNOW YOUR TRACK?
Send the pitch. Pick your track in the application form. If you're a generalist who fits two tracks, pick the one you'd lead with — and tell us in your pitch.
Send your pitch deck →