Founder: “I’ve got it. The gap in the market everyone missed. With the new Agentic AI workflows, we can automate the entire middle-ware layer. It’s a billion-dollar play.”
Me: “The architecture sounds solid. Who’s building it? Where’s your CTO?”
Founder: “I’m talking to a brilliant lead dev from [Big Tech Co]. He’s ready to jump in… as soon as we close the seed round.”
I see this pattern more often now that Vibe Coding lets you create an MVP faster than ever. If your “co-founder” is waiting for a paycheck to join your mission, you don’t have a partner. You have a mercenary. Vibe coding is great for prototyping, but it doesn’t replace a technical pillar who owns the roadmap, attracts top technical talent and builds a technology moat (if that is even possible).
Yes, AI makes building faster. Yes, prototypes are cheaper. Yes, a lot of things that used to need a team can now start with one person.
But “vibe coding” is not the answer when what you’re actually missing is:
- Technical ownership
- Architecture decisions
- Security + reliability instincts
- Product-engineering judgment
- The ability to ship week after week after week
A demo is not a company. A prompt is not a roadmap.
Mercenaries vs. Visionaries
In the early stages, you aren’t just hiring talent; you are building a DNA.
- Visionaries see the inevitable future you’re building. They are willing to eat glass and take the equity risk because they’d rather own 20% of a revolution than 0% of a “safe” job.
- Mercenaries wait for the de-risking event. They want the startup upside with the corporate safety net. If someone “loves the idea” but won’t commit without funding, they’re not necessarily a bad person… but they are telling you the truth about their relationship to the mission.
When a technical lead conditions their involvement on funding, it tells me two things:
- Low Conviction: They don’t actually believe the idea is a winner.
- Low Persuasion: As a founder, you haven’t sold them on the “why” enough to make them quit their day job.
If you can’t convince your own CTO to join you, how will you convince the next 50 employees? Or your first 10 enterprise customers?
AI has lowered the barrier to entry, but it has raised the bar for leadership. Don’t pitch a “team” that’s actually just a payroll-pending waiting list. Find your visionary first—then come talk to me about the fundraise.
He is a former General Partner at Google Ventures (GV) in Europe, former head of Google for Entrepreneurs in Europe, and founding head of Campus London, Google's first startup hub. Eze writes on Israeli tech, venture capital, artificial intelligence, and founder strategy.
He is also the founder of Techbikers, a nonprofit that brings together the startup ecosystem on cycling challenges in support of Room to Read.
