Incorpo.ro is hiring a CTO
We are hiring a chief technical officer to help Incorpo.ro develop products faster, and pivot to the romanian market with our business registration service.
For the best reading experience, please use the English version of the article.
This involves more risk than an usual work-for-hire position, but means you have the possibility of earning significantly more, provided the project succeeds.
Video Summary of Position
You can use the index by topic below.
Video index by topic
Below, an index made through OpenAI Whisper & Anthropic (for summarizing). This is not perfect, but can help you skip to relevant areas with a ± 30-second error rate.
| Time | Topic |
|---|---|
| 00:00 - 00:31 | Introduction and overview of the video content |
| 00:32 - 02:08 | Background on Incorpo.ro and Stefan's professional history |
| 02:09 - 03:01 | Explanation of the business registration market in Romania |
| 03:02 - 08:19 | Challenges faced and solutions found for business registration |
| 08:20 - 10:41 | Technical requirements and development stack (Svelte, AI integration) |
| 10:42 - 20:09 | Demonstration of the current product and its features |
| 20:10 - 23:57 | Future plans and potential expansions (accounting, contract generation) |
| 23:58 - 25:32 | Long-term vision for the company and need for a complementary skill set |
| 25:33 - 28:18 | Personal challenges and need for a collaborative partner |
| 28:19 - 29:39 | Transparency in business practices and relationship with authorities |
| 29:40 - 31:17 | Opportunity for legal professionals to join the project |
| 31:18 - 32:11 | Closing remarks and invitation for interested candidates |
Position Overview
We've summarized keypoints from our longer video available above, to make it easier to skim the position.
Role Description
Incorpo.ro is seeking a visionary and hands-on Chief Technology Officer (CTO) to lead our technical efforts in revolutionizing business registration and management services in Romania.
As CTO, you will be instrumental in shaping our product strategy, architecture, and development processes from the ground up.
You will work directly with the founder to transform our existing prototype into a robust, scalable platform that simplifies the complex business registration and management process.
This role requires not just technical expertise, but also an entrepreneurial mindset and the ability to thrive in a fast-paced, sometimes ambiguous startup environment. You should be comfortable wearing multiple hats, solving complex problems, and navigating the challenges of building a product in a highly regulated industry.
As an equity-based position, this role offers the potential for significant financial upside as the company grows. We're looking for a partner who is excited by the challenge of building something transformative and is willing to share both the risks and rewards of this venture.
The ideal candidate will bring not only strong technical skills, but also a passion for simplifying complex systems, a commitment to ethical business practices, and the resilience to tackle the unique challenges of the legal tech space.
Key Responsibilities:
- Lead technical development of the business registration platform
- Improve and maintain the Svelte-based frontend
- Implement AI features for document processing and contract generation
- Collaborate on product strategy and expansion into new services
- Develop the backend and frontend for our project up until launch, and for the first months before we expand our team.
Required Skills:
- Senior Level Experience in Development:
- Understand, predict, and bring proposals to improve business functionalities.
- Focus on results, finding the most time-effective ways to implement features.
- Clean development style and understanding of why this is important from a business perspective.
- Good understanding of the reason for policy decisions and their implications for the business side of work. Engineering decisions are business decisions, and you must make them well.
- Web Development Experience:
- History of working on web development projects (independent of tech stack)
- Ability to quickly adapt to new projects and different tech stacks.
- Understanding of TypeScript, JavaScript, BaaS concept
- Organizational Skills:
- Ability to manage people, organize work, do project management.
- Ability to self-organize and do work based on loose plans and schedules.
Preferred Experience (Optional):
- Proficiency in Svelte and SvelteKit
- Experience and/or willingness to learn how to do AI integration in web applications (for automatic document validation, see video)
- Strong software architecture and system design skills
- Familiarity with AppWrite or similar backend-as-a-service platforms
- Familiarity with business ownership in Romania, including bureaucratic aspects, and a understanding of how Romania's regulatory space works.
- Experience working with Startups either as a core member or as a service provider.
- Experience working as a project manager, software architect or similar in a corporate environment
Project Status and Challenges
Below, I've summarized requiring tasks for Incorpo.ro to be able to succeed as a business.
Current Progress
- Developed a functioning prototype of the business registration platform using Svelte and AppWrite.
- Implemented key features including:
- Real-time company name availability checking
- AI-powered document reading and information extraction
- Basic user dashboard for managing registered companies
- Integration with qualified electronic signature providers
- Successfully registered about 20 companies, including for foreign clients from various countries.
- Established good working relationships with the Romanian Registry of Commerce.
- Resolved major regulatory hurdles through lobbying efforts and legal work.
Key Challenges
- Product Completion: The Svelte application is approximately 70% complete.
Remaining tasks include:- Improving the configuration options for company registration
- Enhancing the payment system with server-side validation
- Developing scripts for automatic submission of documentation
- Implementing additional functions in the dashboard for user company management
- Regulatory Navigation:
- Ongoing efforts to ensure compliance with legal requirements for business registration services
- Current court case at the High Court of Cassation and Justice regarding the legality of automating certain accounting processes
- Market Adaptation:
- Pivoting focus from foreign to primarily Romanian market
- Need to scale operations and marketing for the local market
- Financial Constraints:
- Currently pre-revenue, requiring careful resource management
- Need to achieve profitability to sustain operations and growth
- Team Expansion:
- Current reliance on founder and limited team
- Need to build out a technical team to accelerate development and support growth
- Ethical Considerations:
- Balancing business growth with strict ethical standards, including turning away potentially lucrative but risky clients
- Product Expansion:
- Plans to develop additional services such as automated accounting tools and AI-driven contract generation, requiring significant development effort
Compensation and Equity
We've built a tool to help you estimate the amount you'll earn back, based on market conditions and our success in taking a cut of the market.
We used Preact to make it load faster and embed it into our server-side GhostCMS instance
Assumptions Table:
Below is an AI-generated explanation of the assumptions we used in code, as well as it's "third party", neutral opinion on risks and likelyhood of accuracy of this simulation model.
| Assumption | Description | Risks | Likelihood of Truth |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total Market Size | The total market size is assumed to be 1,250,537 firms. This is a fixed value used in the estimator based on ONRC stats for active companies as of Jul 2024. | - The actual market size may be different, either larger or smaller. - Market size may change over time due to economic factors, business trends, or regulatory changes. |
Moderate to High, depending on the source and timeliness of the market size data. |
| CLO Equity Percentage | The CLO (Chief Legal Officer) is assumed to always have 25% of the remaining equity after the CTO's share. | - The actual equity distribution may be negotiated differently. - The roles and responsibilities of the CLO may change, affecting their equity share. |
Moderate, as equity distributions can vary based on individual agreements and company policies. |
| Monthly Fee Range | The monthly fee is assumed to range from €15 to €100, with a default of €20. | - The optimal pricing may fall outside this range. - Customer willingness to pay may vary based on the perceived value of the service. |
Moderate to High, based on market research and competitive analysis of similar services. |
| Profit Margin Range | The profit margin is assumed to range from 20% to 40%. | - Actual profit margins may be lower due to unforeseen costs or market pressures. - Higher profit margins may be possible through cost optimization or premium pricing. |
Moderate, as profit margins can fluctuate based on various business factors and market conditions. |
| CTO Equity Range | The CTO's equity share is assumed to range from 5% to 30%. | - The CTO may negotiate for a higher equity share based on their experience and value contribution. - Offering too little equity may make it difficult to attract top CTO talent. |
High, as the equity range aligns with common startup practices and allows for flexibility in negotiation. |
| Churn Rate | The annual churn rate is assumed to range from 0% to 20%, with a default of 5%. | - Actual churn rates may be higher if the product fails to meet customer expectations. - Lower churn rates may be achieved through exceptional customer service and product value. |
Moderate to High, depending on the quality of the product, customer satisfaction, and competitive landscape. |
| Growth Cut | The percentage of profit allocated for growth is assumed to range from 35% to 60%. | - Allocating too much for growth may limit short-term profitability. - Allocating too little for growth may hinder long-term market share and competitiveness. |
Moderate, as the optimal growth cut depends on the company's growth strategy, market conditions, and investor expectations. |
Negociation guidelines
We value transparency and direct communication at Incorpo.ro. As we discuss the terms of your potential role as CTO, we want to be upfront about our expectations and what we can offer. Our goal is to find a mutually beneficial arrangement that sets the stage for a productive and successful partnership.
Equity Allocation
As the founder, I will maintain at least 51% equity to ensure the stability and strategic direction of the company. We are offering a 10-20% equity stake for the CTO position, depending on your experience, skills, and contributions. The exact percentage will be determined through our discussions and will be subject to vesting schedules and performance milestones.
Time Commitment and Availability
We expect a significant time commitment and availability from you, given the critical nature of the CTO role in a fast-paced startup environment. This may involve full-time work and possibly availability to travel (eg: for investor meetings). However, we are open to discussing alternative arrangements if it aligns with the company's needs and your personal circumstances.
For example, if you decide to outsource your technical work to a Upwork team you manage and pay from your cut, we are willing to allow it. Results matter, the road to it is up to you, as long as we respect the law and we are ethical.
Decision-Making Process
We value collaboration and shared decision-making. Your input and expertise will be crucial in shaping the technical direction of the company.
While I, as the founder, retain the ability to make final decisions when necessary, I will do so transparently, with clear rationale and explanation. Your opinions will always be carefully considered.
We will work on documenting all of our decsional process through recording meetings and summarizing with AI, in order to ensure everyone understands the discussion and decisions made.
Review & Iteration
We will implement a regular review process to assess your performance, compensation, and equity vesting based on achieved milestones and company progress. As the company grows and secures new funding, we are open to re-evaluating your equity stake and other compensation components to ensure fairness and alignment with market standards.
We believe that your technical expertise, leadership skills, and entrepreneurial spirit will be invaluable in driving our success and revolutionizing the business registration and management process in Romania.
How to apply:
You can check my Bio (including contact links) at the end of the article, to contact me.
Please prepare information such as:
- Your CV/resume
- Brief note explaining your interest in Incorpo.ro and how your experience aligns with our mission and this role
- Links to any public code repositories, projects, or additional information you'd like to share
We'll review all applications and reach out to shortlisted candidates to arrange an initial conversation with our founder.
Email (For CVs): [email protected]
