Founding Growth

Job description

Shipd is our gamified data collection platform where contributors take on quests, bounties, and challenges that feel like an engaging and addictive experience. 16,000+ engineers have signed up organically, and now we need a Founding Growth hire to scale this community into the engine that powers frontier AI labs. Your mission: solve the supply-side scaling problem --getting more sign ups, convert signups into engaged, retained contributors, build systems that multiply output, and create the “data flywheel” where contributors are so motivated they bring their friends. WHAT YOU’LL DO - Scale the contributor base: Recruit specialized talent (e.g., cybersecurity, ML, domain experts) through creative, non-traditional channels. - Convert signups into active contributors: Build onboarding funnels, training systems, and engagement loops for complex, hours-long tasks. - Build retention systems: Keep top contributors engaged through competitions, leaderboards, recognition, and community dynamics. - Design community infrastructure: Promote contributors to trainers/reviewers, run challenges, and make the ecosystem self-reinforcing. - Engineer incentives: Go beyond payments—design viral referral mechanics, gamification, and status-driven rewards. - Be data-driven: Build contributor lifecycle tracking, run cohort analyses, and design A/B tests for engagement and retention features. - Scale operations: Develop 0→1 playbooks, hire community managers, and handle white-glove delivery for lab contracts while automating long-term systems. YOU’LL SUCCEED HERE IF YOU HAVE - Experience growing two-sided marketplaces, consumer apps with high friction, developer products, creator economies, or gig/freelancer platforms (supply-side bias). - A track record of building engaged communities— developer ecosystems, or competitive programming platforms. - Comfort with data analysis (cohorts, funnels, retention metrics) and building lightweight systems. - Run growth hacks that are highly creative and being able to make decisions from intuition in the early days when not much data is available to draw conclusions - Ability to design scalable processes—from onboarding to QA to contributor promotions. - Strong product sense for human motivation and psychology; you think in systems of incentives. - Willingness to work hands-on: sourcing talent, running community experiments, and jumping into ops. CHARACTERISTICS WE’RE LOOKING FOR - Scrappy, creative executor who thrives on unconventional channels and tactics. - Comfortable working 70+ hours in-office with high ownership. - Equity-motivated, excited to build a foundational system for AI progress. - Fast mover: prefers testing ideas live over long planning cycles. NICE TO HAVE - Experience in gamification, hackathons, or developer competitions. - Background in community-led platforms or marketplaces with strong supply-side dynamics. - Familiarity with QA systems, contributor assessments, or technical training funnels. NOT A FIT IF - You’re a traditional marketer focused on ads and brand campaigns. - You’ve only worked in big tech with large budgets and teams. - You don’t understand developer/technical talent motivation. - You need structured processes and research cycles before acting.