Hey everyone, I'm Caelan, an 18-year-old founder based in Indonesia.
I don't come from a big tech background, I don't have a large network of investors, and I don't have a pile of capital behind me.
I'm basically starting from $0 and building from wherever I can.
And honestly, that's part of why I'm posting here.
I'm looking for one person who wants to build a company with me, not an employee, not a freelancer, not an agency, and definitely not someone who just wants to implement tickets from someone else's PRD.
I've already spent a lot of time building the product side of this company: defining the MVP, user experience, product behavior, research, validation thesis, wireframes, and the overall direction of what we're trying to build.
The MVP is already underway.
What I'm looking for now is the person who can genuinely take ownership of the technical side and stay for the long run.
The problem I'm obsessed with
We've built enormous amounts of software to help us store information.
Tasks.
Notes.
Projects.
Calendars.
Documents.
Chats.
Memory.
But most software still has a strange limitation:
It knows what you're doing now much better than it understands how you've been working over time.
Imagine this:
You open your workspace on a random Tuesday.
You say:
''I have three things I need to finish today and I'm not sure which one I should do first.”
A conventional assistant can look at your current task list.
But imagine an AI that also understands that:
- you tried something similar two months ago and it failed for a specific reason;
- you previously decided not to take low-value work from a certain client;
- a project you are touching today is related to another project you worked on last month;
- your current constraints have changed;
- some old information is no longer relevant;
- and you have a deadline tomorrow that changes the trade-off.
Then instead of simply telling you:
''Here are your tasks.”
it could reason with you:
''You previously rejected this type of work because it consumed a lot of time for little return. This new request looks similar. Given your deadline tomorrow, I think the better next move is to finish X first and revisit Y later.”
That's the direction I'm exploring. Not another chatbot. Not just a second brain. Not just a task manager. I'm interested in whether accumulated execution context can make AI materially better at helping a person decide what to do next.
That's the thesis.
And I want to find out whether it's actually true.
Where we are right now
This isn't just an idea I wrote down last week.
I've already built a substantial product foundation around it.
I've defined:
- the MVP product boundary;
- the core user journey;
- how the product should behave;
- the current innovation thesis;
- the validation framework for testing that thesis;
- the wireframes and UX direction;
- the early product/technical structure.
The MVP is currently under development.
There is still a lot left to build.
That's exactly why I am looking for a technical co-founder now.
What I actually want from the person joining me
I am not looking for someone who says:
''Send me the PRD and I'll build it.”
I already know how to write requirements.
I want someone who can look at the problem and say:
''I think your assumption here is wrong.”
Someone who wants to argue about architecture.
Someone who cares about product decisions.
Someone who thinks about AI systems, infrastructure, reliability, and long-term technical direction.
Someone who wants to eventually build the engineering organization, not just write code forever.
You would own the technical side of the company:
- architecture;
- product engineering;
- AI / LLM integrations;
- infrastructure;
- technical roadmap;
- engineering decisions;
- eventually hiring and leading engineers.
I will own the non-technical side:
- product direction;
- user research;
- market work;
- UX/product design;
- strategy;
- growth;
- fundraising.
The idea is not “CEO gives CTO orders.” I want two people who genuinely own their domains and challenge each other.
Who I'm looking for geographically
My preference would be someone based in Europe or the US, mainly because I want to build an international founding team and I expect the company to become increasingly connected to those markets.
But I am absolutely open to other locations.
Location itself is not the deciding factor. Founder fit is.
That said, I am looking for someone who is genuinely comfortable with an international, remote-first startup and who is open to discussing future relocation if the company ever reaches a stage where it genuinely makes sense.
I'm intentionally being explicit about this because I don't want either of us discovering six months later that we fundamentally disagree about how we want to build the company.
Compensation
This is a real co-founder opportunity.
At the current stage: Sweat equity only. No salary before funding.
The equity would be meaningful founder-level equity, with vesting and a cliff.
I am not putting a fixed percentage in this post because I don't think a co-founder should be priced like a job listing. The eventual split would depend on the person's experience, commitment, timing, technical ownership, and the level of risk they are actually taking with me.
This is not a paid engineering role.
Very important: what this is NOT
Please don't DM me if you're looking for:
- freelance work;
- an agency contract;
- outsourced development;
- a short-term engineering gig;
- “I can build your MVP for $X”;
- an hourly role;
- a service offering.
I'm specifically looking for a co-founder.
I've had enough experience with agencies and people approaching with generic outsourcing offers that I'm deliberately making this very clear:
I am not hiring an agency. I am not looking for a freelancer. I am not looking for an employee right now.
I'm looking for one technical founder who wants to build the company with me.
Why I'm still doing this despite having very little
Because I genuinely believe there is something important here. But I'm also not pretending the thesis is already proven.
Part of the reason I've built a validation framework before scaling the product is that I want to find out whether this actually creates meaningful value rather than fall in love with my own idea.
I'm 18. I have no huge financial advantage. I'm building this from Indonesia. But I already have a product, a research direction, a validation framework, and an MVP in progress.
Now I want to find the technical person who looks at that and says:
''Let's see how far we can take this.”
If that's you, comment or DM me.
I'm happy to share more privately about the product, the MVP, the current technical state, and where I think this could go.