A founding engineer, on LinkedIn alone
Jolus Lutete is an independent technical recruiter who places engineers at early-stage startups. This search was a full-stack founding engineer: a role that needs real technical depth and the resilience to build from zero.
Before Vamo, he sourced on LinkedIn and through his own network.
He went after talent nobody else was chasing
Jolus looked for high-potential engineers with zero to three years of experience, before larger recruiting pipelines found them. Less competition, and a relationship built early, sometimes before graduation.
The engineer he placed would never have made his shortlist from LinkedIn alone. His Vamo profile and the depth of his GitHub work were the signal to look closer.
Strong replies from a handful of sessions
Between February and the placement, Jolus logged in about five times and reached out to 80 engineers. 30 to 40% replied, and 70 to 80% of those replies were positive. Engineers who get fewer messages read the ones they do get.
A battle-tested hire
The engineer he placed went through one of the most rigorous processes on the search:
- 01 A live technical interview.
- 02 A two-day take-home, submitted in one day.
- 03 A two-day on-site with the team.
Signed in under a month
He was interviewing at other companies at the same time and took this offer. First login was early February 2026. The offer was signed in early March.
