We’re not
hiring right now.
We will be. Until then, this page tells you what we look for, why we don’t have open roles yet, and how to make sure you’re on the list when we do.
Honest about stage. Even on a careers page.
Imali is in pilot. Chingu is pre-seed. The engineering org is one person plus contractors. The first hire we make has to make the next year materially better, not paper over a gap.
We will be hiring before the end of 2026. Probably:
-
SA-based field lead for Imali · spends Saturdays in Soweto and Mitchells Plain. Speaks isiZulu or isiXhosa. Knows merchants by name.
-
Korean-native voice researcher for Chingu · sits across the table from real halmonis (할머니) and harabeojis (할아버지) in Daegu kitchens. Eldercare or social-work background preferred.
- Backend engineer (any continent) · Postgres, TypeScript, Python. Comfortable shipping in two product surfaces: WhatsApp and voice.
- Designer / writer (one role) · the playbook makes them inseparable. Likes Bricolage. Reads voice playbooks for fun.
Stack is taught faster than empathy.
Proximity to the user.
You’ve spent time with the population the work serves. Not as a researcher airdropped in, but in the kind of way that ruined how you read “market opportunity” pitches.
Plain over polished.
You write the way the voice playbook asks. Specifically. With numbers. Without “leverage,” “synergy,” or “ecosystem.” If your CV says “disruptive,” cut that line first.
Ships solo, plays well in a duo.
The team is small. You’ll make decisions without a meeting. You’ll also pair on hard things. Both modes need to feel natural.
Comfortable saying we don’t have it yet.
If you can name what’s broken about your last role without dressing it up, we trust you with the same posture about the work here.
Three lines is enough.
We don’t need a polished CV. We need to know who you are, what you’ve actually shipped, and which of the four likely roles you’re writing about.
Send to contact@ebstar.co. Subject line: the role you’d most like to do, even if it isn’t open yet.
We read every email. We won’t reply with a polite-no template. If we’re not the right fit, we’ll say so, in plain words, with a specific reason.
Things we won’t hold against you.
- No CS degree. Several of the best engineers we know didn’t finish one.
- No startup background. The brief is the user, not the resume shape.
- No prior fintech / voice-AI specifically. Imali is fintech. Chingu is voice. Neither needs a category specialist on day one.
- A gap year, a kid, a caregiving year, a crisis year. Real lives have those. We’re fine with the resume that says so.
- No portfolio site. A two-paragraph email beats a Wix page nine times out of ten.