Brand & Community

You should join koodos labs for the people and our mission.

We aspire to build the best team of the 2020s. Just like PayPal in the 90s, Google in the 00s, and Stripe in the 10s, we want to be known as “a place where it’s good to be from.” If you join us, we promise to be the best place to grow your career — with the best people you’ve ever worked with. We’re also working on a very bold mission.

We think the most important problem and opportunity in information technology is accelerating the inevitable transition from a world where users go to many functional applications, each of which has a siloed view of that user, to one where apps/agents/services come to a user controlled data store and are composed into useful solutions for that user. And we’re looking to get there by building something really fun and useful that people choose to use regularly as they go about their life.

Shelf helps users passively track their consumption, connect with others through shared interests, and gain insights about themselves from their data. And, in return, users get a personal data store and the ability to provision access to their credentials and data at-will, gaining a passport to a more agentic internet. We’ve helped >400,000 users re-aggregate >1B data points so far (i.e. Jad watched S2E1 of Severance). Check us out on the iOS app store (Android coming soon!)

Shelf is powered by our platform connections solution: DataMover, a “Plaid for Personal Data”. Beyond Shelf, it’s now used by a select group of 3rd party apps and agents to power novel experiences.

The future is personalized experiences powered by user-controlled data, this depends on dynamic and transportable user data. We’re building a future where apps and services come to you and your data—not the other way around. See our latest paper here.

Your mission is to make sure Shelf is positioned to become more than just a product—it can be a category-defining brand and cultural force. A strong brand presence will drive recognition, trust, and long-term user adoption. This role is foundational.

Right now, what’s missing is:

Your role is about bringing that vision to life and making s* happen. Your will architect the strategy, build the frameworks, execute on them, continuously come up with initiatives, and collaborate with the team to ensure brand and community strategies become tangible experiences and campaigns in market — and translate to app downloads, new customers, user advocacy & brand resonance. And do this on a shoestring budget.

Shelf has the chance to be more than just a ‘cool girl’ product—it can be a movement, a brand that people deeply connect with, and an inevitable “key” to a more agentic internet. Your role is to craft that world, bring the right people together, and make Shelf something people don’t just use, but believe in.

We’re a small, but mighty team with backgrounds at YouTube, BeReal, Harvard, and Cambridge, as startup founders and as early members at companies like Improbable and Lyft. We’ve come together around a shared vision.

We’re a well-resourced (unannounced rounds) Series A company & backed by top-tier investors, including the backers of companies like Airbnb, Pinterest, Snap, and Twitter, as well as the founders of companies like Zynga, VSCO, and Scale and the people behind artists like Miley Cyrus, Justin Bieber, Lorde, Logic, and Panic! At The Disco, and many others. Our team is advised by the founders of Pinterest, Dubsmash (now Reddit), as well as pioneers of digital marketing and market design from Harvard.

We care about building a genuinely diverse team. We are a majority-first gen immigrant team and sponsor visas — we think that’s important as we build towards enabling easier digital migration.

We have a very high bar for talent and hire for slope over intercept. When bringing folks onto our team, these are some attributes we look for:

You’re likely a good fit if you are great at:

*What Does “Strategic Coolness” Actually Mean? Cool isn’t just aesthetics, it’s about cultural resonance and effortless connection. Ensure: [1] Shelf establishes a clear, differentiated brand identity rather than chasing trends. [2] Shelf’s brand feels human, creative, and relevant, not just another tech product. [3] People don’t just recognize Shelf—they trust it, talk about it, and advocate for it.

In the Future: You’ll become a senior leader at koodos labs. We expect the early team to grow into high-impact roles as the company scales.

We lean heavily on prior experience, demonstrated ability, and references (we’ll be asking around about you).

Screening: We start the interview process with a conversation with our CEO to hear more about your prior experience and goals, and to tell you more about koodos labs.

We’ll be assessing you on our core principles here. We may schedule a follow-up call if there’s a need to double-click anywhere.

At this point, we conduct a short 1st Round Take-home project Screener that’ll test core brand building skills and center real problems. You’ll have 5 days and expect candidates to spend anywhere from 2 to 4 hours on it. We provide a $150 Amazon gift card for your time here.

Final round interviews: We’ll invite you to meet some of the team! It’ll be a series of practical whiteboarding sessions or discussions with 2-3 team members.

References: After the 2nd stage, we’ll start likely reach out to other folks that you’ve worked with in the past, so please do let us know if there’s anyone we shouldn’t reach out to. We’ll make sure to be respectful of their time; most calls take about 15 minutes. And we also offer you the opportunity to reference check us!

Decision: This part’s on us, and we promise to move fast.