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On 2026-04-08 Tanay (@tankots) says a 20-year-old with no prior experience DM'd…
Brief
Tanay (@tankots) recounts hiring a 20‑year‑old with no prior experience after a 10am Saturday DM: he interviewed the candidate for 45 minutes, asked him to start immediately, and by Sunday the candidate had delivered thousands of lines of code for a feature normally estimated at 1.5 days. Tanay contrasts this hire with resumes from senior engineers at Uber and Meta and argues founders should favor demonstrated initiative over credentials.
Why it matters
On 2026-04-08 Tanay (@tankots) says a 20-year-old with no prior experience DM'd him on Twitter; after a 10am Saturday message Tanay invited him to the office two hours later and they spoke for 45 minutes.
Key details
- The candidate began work immediately, pulled an all-nighter, and by Sunday delivered a fully functioning feature comprising thousands of lines of code for a task Tanay says would normally take 1.5 days; the hire is now one of the team's highest-performing engineers.
- Tanay notes they regularly get inbound interest from senior engineers (staff engineers at Uber, principal scientists from Meta) but argues founders too often filter by credentials (school, past employers) instead of hiring people who 'do more than what's asked.'