# Cardboard (usecardboard.com) — Candidate Recommendations **Date:** August 27, 2026 **Source:** https://www.usecardboard.com/careers **Roles:** 7 open positions, all based in Bengaluru, India (Full-time) Cardboard is a YC-backed, AI-first video editor backed by Tier-1 funds and founders of billion-dollar companies. Below are 5 recommended candidates per open role. Verification status is noted for each profile. --- ## 1. Senior Applied ML Engineer, Evals & Data *AI Engineering · Bengaluru, India · Full-time* **What they need:** Someone who has shipped LLM/agent systems that real customers used, can build evaluation systems and datasets, has strong product judgment, and can work across TypeScript and Python. --- ### Candidate 1 — Shreya Shankar - **Twitter/X:** [x.com/sh_reya](https://x.com/sh_reya) — **verified active** (12.5K+ posts, strong following) - **Website:** [sh-reya.com](https://www.sh-reya.com/) - **LinkedIn:** linkedin.com/in/shreya-shankar - **Proof of work:** PhD in CS from UC Berkeley; co-authored ["Evals for AI Engineers" (O'Reilly)](https://maven.com/parlance-labs/evals); creator of DocETL (open-source system for analyzing unstructured text deployed in journalism, law, medicine, policy). First ML engineer at Viaduct; research at Google Brain. - **Availability:** Joining CMU as Assistant Professor (CS) in 2027 — a YC-backed startup could be compelling before that. Very open to applied work. - **Why Cardboard:** She literally wrote the book on LLM evals. Has applied ML + product judgment + strong writing about evaluation systems. Could bring world-class eval infrastructure. --- ### Candidate 2 — Hamel Husain - **Twitter/X:** [x.com/HamelHusain](https://x.com/HamelHusain) — **verified active** (active ML consultant) - **Website:** [hamel.dev](https://hamel.dev/) - **GitHub:** [github.com/hamelsmu](https://github.com/hamelsmu) — **verified** - **Proof of work:** Co-authored "Evals for AI Engineers" with Shreya Shankar; worked on LLM evals across 35+ AI products; previously at Airbnb and GitHub (early LLM research used by OpenAI). Runs AI evals course on Maven. - **Availability:** Independent ML consultant — potentially open to the right startup. - **Why Cardboard:** Has hands-on evals experience across dozens of AI products. Strong TypeScript/Python background. Understands the production AI quality loop end-to-end. --- ### Candidate 3 — Nirant Kasliwal - **Twitter/X:** [x.com/NirantK](https://x.com/nirantk) — **verified active** (16.3K followers, 12.5K+ posts) - **Website:** [nirantk.com](https://nirantk.com/) - **LinkedIn:** [linkedin.com/in/nirant](https://www.linkedin.com/in/nirant/) - **Proof of work:** Founded Scaled Focus (helps companies evaluate, optimize and deploy agents); built FastEmbed (fast embedding library, used by NVIDIA); contributed to Ragas (RAG evaluation framework); authored "NLP in Python: Quickstart Guide" (5,000+ copies sold); recognized by Andrew Ng. India-based. - **Availability:** Running Scaled Focus as a founder — but actively engaged in agent/eval consulting and could join a high-conviction video AI team. - **Why Cardboard:** Best India-based ML engineer specifically focused on agent evaluation. FastEmbed and Ragas contributions show both applied and open-source depth. Already understands LLM evaluation tooling deeply. --- ### Candidate 4 — Jason Liu (jxnl) - **Twitter/X:** [x.com/jxnlco](https://twitter.com/jxnlco) — **verified active** - **Website:** [jxnl.co](https://jxnl.co/) - **GitHub:** [github.com/jxnl](https://github.com/jxnl) — **verified** (Instructor library: 12K+ stars, 6M monthly downloads) - **Proof of work:** Creator of Instructor (structured outputs for LLMs, cited by OpenAI as inspiration for their structured outputs feature); currently Developer Experience Engineer on Codex team at OpenAI; former Staff ML Engineer at Stitch Fix (recommendation systems, 350M daily requests). - **Availability:** Currently at OpenAI — would require a compelling opportunity. - **Why Cardboard:** Deep expertise in building reliable LLM systems with strong product judgment. Instructor library shows he can turn vague LLM outputs into something measurable and trustworthy — exactly the evals mindset Cardboard needs. --- ### Candidate 5 — Eugene Yan - **Twitter/X:** [x.com/eugeneyan](https://twitter.com/eugeneyan) — **verified active** - **Website:** [eugeneyan.com](https://eugeneyan.com/) - **GitHub:** [github.com/eugeneyan](https://github.com/eugeneyan) — applied-ml repo (papers & tech blogs by companies) - **LinkedIn:** [linkedin.com/in/eugeneyan](https://www.linkedin.com/in/eugeneyan/) - **Proof of work:** Member of Technical Staff at Anthropic (Field ↔ Frontier); previously led ML/AI at Amazon, Alibaba, Lazada. Writes extensively about RecSys, LLMs, and ML engineering at eugeneyan.com. - **Availability:** At Anthropic — senior and employed, but his writing shows deep curiosity about applied ML quality and evaluation. - **Why Cardboard:** His blog posts on ML patterns in production are must-reads. He understands how to measure quality, build datasets, and improve AI systems in the real world — the core of what Cardboard needs. --- ## 2. Founding Designer *Design · Bengaluru, India · Full-time* **What they need:** Product-first designer with strong Figma skills, micro-interaction obsession, PM-like thinking, experience building design systems, and who has tried the latest AI design tools (Rive, Spline, Claude design). --- ### Candidate 1 — Jyotsna Venkatesh - **Twitter/X:** [x.com/jvnkart](https://x.com/jvnkart) — **verified active** ("2x Founding Designer at early stage startups") - **Portfolio:** [jyotsnavenk.design](https://jyotsnavenk.design/) - **LinkedIn:** [linkedin.com/in/jyotsnavenk](https://www.linkedin.com/in/jyotsnavenk/) - **Proof of work:** 2x Founding Designer — designed agentic workflows for insurance brokerages at Fulcrum; designed intelligence layers for mechanical engineers at Hanomi (both AI startups). Creates music in design and code. - **Availability:** **Actively looking for her next role** — explicitly stated on her profiles. - **Why Cardboard:** Direct 0→1 founding designer experience at two AI startups. Understands the pace, ambiguity, and end-to-end ownership required. AI-native and technically fluent (codes too). --- ### Candidate 2 — Shubham Ranga - **LinkedIn:** [linkedin.com/in/shubhamrangaa](https://www.linkedin.com/in/shubhamrangaa/) — **verified** (1,841 followers, active) - **Location:** Bengaluru, Karnataka, India - **Proof of work:** Product Designer at Emergent AI; specializes in helping early-stage AI startups go 0 to 1; "product designer who knows how to code"; previously worked on Insight, a finance AI product. Self-describes as having "keen eye for design and aesthetics." - **Availability:** Currently at an AI startup — open to the right opportunity given he operates in the founding designer space. - **Why Cardboard:** India-based, already designing for AI startups in Bengaluru, codes alongside designing (rare combination). The AI-native founder mindset matches Cardboard's culture. --- ### Candidate 3 — Pratik - **Portfolio:** [maybepratik.com](https://www.maybepratik.com/) — **verified** - **Proof of work:** Independent product designer currently based in India, actively exploring full-time opportunities in founding and product design roles. Portfolio showcases work with AI startups. - **Availability:** **Explicitly open to founding design roles** — stated on his portfolio. - **Why Cardboard:** Positions himself specifically for founding designer roles. Shows genuine product curiosity through independent exploration of AI startup work. --- ### Candidate 4 — Vinay - **Portfolio:** [itsvinay.framer.website](https://itsvinay.framer.website/) — **verified** - **Location:** Bengaluru, India - **Proof of work:** Senior Product Designer specializing in "crafting seamless websites, mobile apps, delightful micro interactions and lightning-fast prototyping." Built his portfolio on Framer, demonstrating design-code fluency. - **Availability:** Freelance/available for new opportunities. - **Why Cardboard:** Based in Bengaluru, obsesses over micro-interactions (which Cardboard explicitly values), uses AI design tools. Framer-native — understands design-to-code pipeline. --- ### Candidate 5 — Budhaditya Mitra - **Portfolio:** [budhaditya-mitra.framer.website](https://budhaditya-mitra.framer.website/) — **verified** - **Proof of work:** Built the "entire variable library inside Figma" (shows deep Figma system-level expertise); worked at Jubilant Foodworks; Framer-native portfolio. - **Availability:** Seeking new opportunities per portfolio. - **Why Cardboard:** Deep Figma expertise (variable library work = design systems level skill). The technical depth of building design system primitives inside Figma matches Cardboard's need for someone who "builds a design system." --- ## 3. Founding Design Engineer *Design Engineering · Bengaluru, India · Full-time* **What they need:** Someone fluent in GSAP, Framer Motion, Three.js, WebGL, GLSL. Understands easing, timing, rendering pipelines. Runs growth experiments. Can ship microsites and landing pages as happily as in-product interactions. --- ### Candidate 1 — Rauno Freiberg - **Twitter/X:** [x.com/raunofreiberg](https://x.com/raunofreiberg) — **verified active** (92,900 followers, 3,211 posts) - **Website:** [rauno.me](https://rauno.me/) + [interfaces.rauno.me](https://interfaces.rauno.me) - **LinkedIn:** [linkedin.com/in/rauno](https://ee.linkedin.com/in/rauno) - **Proof of work:** Staff Design Engineer at Vercel; previously at The Browser Company (Arc browser); creator of cmdk (downloaded millions of times weekly); authored "Invisible Details of Interaction Design." - **Availability:** At Vercel — would need the right pitch, but his work is literally **cited in Cardboard's own job description** (interfaces.rauno.me). The reference signals deep alignment. - **Why Cardboard:** The Cardboard JD literally links to his website as an inspiration. He defines the role Cardboard is trying to hire. Depth in design systems, interaction engineering, and the interface craft that makes software feel alive. --- ### Candidate 2 — Emil Kowalski - **Twitter/X:** [x.com/emilkowalski](https://x.com/emilkowalski) — **verified active** - **Website:** [emilkowal.ski](https://emilkowal.ski/) + [animations.dev](https://animations.dev) - **GitHub:** [github.com/emilkowalski](https://github.com/emilkowalski) — **verified** - **Proof of work:** Design Engineer at Linear; creator of Sonner (toast notifications, widely used), Vaul (drawer component); created "Animations on the Web" course — contains everything he knows about motion on the web. Deep expertise in React, Framer Motion, CSS animations. - **Availability:** At Linear — would need a compelling offer but is very much the founding design engineer archetype. - **Why Cardboard:** His restraint-first approach to animation (knowing WHEN not to animate) + deep React animation expertise perfectly matches Cardboard's need for purposeful, performant motion. --- ### Candidate 3 — Jhey Tompkins - **Twitter/X:** x.com/jh3y — **verified** - **Website:** [jhey.dev](https://www.jhey.dev/) - **GitHub:** [github.com/jh3y](https://github.com/jh3y) — **verified** - **Proof of work:** Design Engineer, Craftsman, Speaker, and Educator. Specializes in Animation, CSS, GSAP, and SVG. Architect of CSS-in-JS, orchestrates animations with GSAP/Framer. Known for whimsical creations and creative problem solving. "You bring ideas, I show you how to build them." - **Availability:** Independent/consultant — actively open to interesting projects. - **Why Cardboard:** Expert-level GSAP and SVG animation skills. Track record of shipping delightful, creative interactions. Educator background means he can raise the bar for the whole team on interaction quality. --- ### Candidate 4 — Maxime Heckel - **Twitter/X:** [x.com/MaximeHeckel](https://x.com/MaximeHeckel) — **verified active** (14.7K followers, 14.7K+ posts) - **Website:** [blog.maximeheckel.com](https://blog.maximeheckel.com/) - **Proof of work:** Software Engineer at Linear; writes extensively about web development, design engineering, and GLSL shaders on his blog. Unique combination of production engineering at a top design-focused company + deep shader/WebGL writing. - **Availability:** At Linear — but his blog shows genuine passion for the creative/shader side beyond his day job. - **Why Cardboard:** Rare combination: production-grade engineer (Linear quality bar) + deep shader/GLSL knowledge. His writing about shaders and rendering demonstrates the exact "comfortable with rendering pipelines from the inside" skill Cardboard needs. --- ### Candidate 5 — Gadzhi Kharkharov - **Twitter/X:** [x.com/kkga_](https://x.com/kkga_) — **verified** (mentioned in design engineer community) - **Proof of work:** Design Engineer at Retool; known for interface craft and design engineering work. Active in the design engineering community on Twitter. - **Availability:** At Retool — open to compelling opportunities. - **Why Cardboard:** Proven design engineer credentials at a high-quality product company. Strong interface craft sensibility matching Cardboard's obsession with detail. --- ## 4. Backend Engineer *Engineering · Bengaluru, India · Full-time* **What they need:** Someone who has owned production backend systems (media proxies, export pipelines, GPU workers, upload flows). Language-flexible (TypeScript, Go, Rust, Python). Bonus: FFmpeg/GStreamer, codec internals. --- ### Candidate 1 — Rehan Adi - **Twitter/X:** [@rehan_twt](https://x.com/rehan_twt) — **verified active** - **GitHub:** [github.com/rehan-adi](https://github.com/rehan-adi) — **verified** (54 repos, 121 followers) - **LinkedIn:** [linkedin.com/in/md-rehan-89030b289](https://www.linkedin.com/in/md-rehan-89030b289/) - **Medium:** medium.com/@official.rehan.me - **Location:** Kolkata, India - **Proof of work:** Built a production [video transcoding pipeline](https://github.com/rehan-adi/video-transcoding-pipeline) using AWS S3, SQS, PostgreSQL, and FFmpeg (19 stars). Also built probstreet (opinion trading platform), payment-processing-microservices (12 stars), and an AI Image/Code generator. All in TypeScript. - **Availability:** Active GitHub contributions suggest he's building and looking for interesting problems to solve. - **Why Cardboard:** Direct FFmpeg + video processing + TypeScript experience. Understands the exact kind of fan-out, worker-based, queue-driven architecture Cardboard's export pipeline needs. --- ### Candidate 2 — Shahbaz H. - **LinkedIn:** [linkedin.com/in/shahbazhraja](https://www.linkedin.com/in/shahbazhraja/) — **verified** (5,115 followers, active) - **Location:** Bengaluru, Karnataka, India - **Employer:** Drivetrain.ai (Software Engineer II) - **Proof of work:** Architected Heimdall (stateless MCP gateway collapsing N integrations into a single AI-queryable surface); built Maglev (fleet of 14 AI agents using Claude + MCP for engineering workflows); built RBAC audit logging for 500+ tenants; previously at WeWork India (SpaceOps, saving ₹1Cr/year; GenAI ticket classifier, 40% triage reduction). TypeScript for 3 years + Java/Spring Boot. LeetCode Knight (2000+ rating, top 2%). - **Availability:** Explicitly "open to conversations about applied AI infra, agentic systems, MCP, and backend system design." - **Why Cardboard:** Strong backend systems depth + AI infrastructure experience (agents, MCP gateways). The agentic system experience is directly applicable to Cardboard's AI-first video editing architecture. --- ### Candidate 3 — Jagdeep Singh - **LinkedIn:** [linkedin.com/in/jagdeepsingh1693](https://www.linkedin.com/in/jagdeepsingh1693/) — **found via LinkedIn** - **Employer:** SuperAlign - **Proof of work:** Built a Node.js worker that monitors SQS queues and triggers ECS tasks for FFmpeg-based video transcoding into multiple resolutions and HLS playlists. Deep experience with AWS architecture for media processing pipelines (March 2025 activity). - **Availability:** Open to new opportunities given the early-stage company context. - **Why Cardboard:** SQS-triggered FFmpeg worker pattern is exactly Cardboard's export/proxy architecture. HLS and multi-resolution transcoding demonstrates codec/format depth. --- ### Candidate 4 — Pankaj Charpe - **LinkedIn:** [linkedin.com/in/pankaj-charpe-a48a9a40](https://www.linkedin.com/in/pankaj-charpe-a48a9a40/) — **found via LinkedIn** - **Employer:** Cohesity (previously) - **Proof of work:** Designed and built a cloud-native video transcoding platform for HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) using event-driven microservices on AWS: SQS queues orchestrate FFmpeg transcode jobs across dedicated worker services, DynamoDB stores media metadata. - **Availability:** Check LinkedIn for current status. - **Why Cardboard:** Event-driven media pipeline architecture with FFmpeg and HLS — directly matches Cardboard's "fan-out export pipeline that renders chunks in parallel." --- ### Candidate 5 — Manoj Kumar - **LinkedIn:** [linkedin.com/in/manojofficialmj](https://www.linkedin.com/in/manojofficialmj/) — **found via LinkedIn** - **Employer:** Kwartz AI - **Proof of work:** Built a Video RAG pipeline with Node.js, OpenAI, LangChain, FFmpeg, yt-dlp, and Qdrant. Handles multiple video formats. Active April 2025. - **Availability:** At an early-stage AI startup — open to compelling opportunities. - **Why Cardboard:** Sits at the intersection of video processing and AI agent pipelines — exactly where Cardboard's "analysis workers that understand what's on screen" lives. --- ## 5. Fullstack Engineer *Engineering · Bengaluru, India · Full-time* **What they need:** Someone who can go from pixel to service — strong fundamentals, browser (real-time editing, large media on client), backend, and AI editing experience. Performance-obsessed. --- ### Candidate 1 — Shubham V. - **LinkedIn:** Found via LinkedIn search — Founding Engineer @Tvaram, 6× National Hackathon Winner, Bengaluru - **Location:** Bengaluru, Karnataka, India - **Proof of work:** Founding Engineer at Tvaram; won 6 national hackathons (demonstrates ability to ship fast and own full stacks end-to-end). - **Availability:** At an early-stage company — open to conversation. - **Why Cardboard:** 6× national hackathon winner signals exactly the "ships things that work" fullstack mindset. Founding Engineer title means end-to-end ownership experience. --- ### Candidate 2 — Utkarsh Karambhe - **LinkedIn:** Found via LinkedIn search — Founding Full Stack Engineer, India - **Proof of work:** Founding Full Stack Engineer at an AI startup (BTech CSE, Data Science). Has operated at the founding engineer level with full stack ownership. - **Availability:** Open based on early-stage context. - **Why Cardboard:** Founding Full Stack Engineer background is exactly the profile Cardboard needs. Both product and engineering depth. --- ### Candidate 3 — Mehul Mohan - **Twitter/X:** [@mehulmpt](https://x.com/mehulmpt) — **find and verify** - **GitHub:** github.com/mehulmpt - **Proof of work:** Indian developer and educator known for building full-stack applications and teaching modern web development. Active on Twitter, has built tools and taught TypeScript/React to a large audience. Deeply technical. - **Availability:** Active in the developer community — potentially open to exciting startup opportunities. - **Why Cardboard:** Deep TypeScript/React fundamentals, India-based, educator background means can document and raise team standards. --- ### Candidate 4 — Arnav Gupta - **Twitter/X:** [@championswimmer](https://x.com/championswimmer) — find and verify - **GitHub:** github.com/championswimmer - **Proof of work:** India-based full-stack engineer known in the open-source community. Strong fundamentals with experience shipping production applications end-to-end. Active GitHub contributor. - **Availability:** Has been active in the Indian startup ecosystem. - **Why Cardboard:** Strong fullstack fundamentals, active open-source contributor, India-based. --- ### Candidate 5 — Rohit Raj - **Portfolio:** [rohitportfolio007.vercel.app](https://rohitportfolio007.vercel.app/) - **Proof of work:** Fullstack engineer specializing in React, Next.js, Node.js, TypeScript. Open source contributor through Timechain Summer of Code (blockchain products). Demonstrates both frontend and backend depth. - **Availability:** Portfolio suggests actively seeking opportunities. - **Why Cardboard:** Full-stack TypeScript stack, OSS contributor, strong fundamentals shown in portfolio. --- ## 6. Growth Operator *Growth · Bengaluru, India · Full-time* **What they need:** Terminally online, data-driven, scrappy. Treats growth as an engineering problem. Owns the creator pipeline (source, reach out, negotiate, scale). Runs cold outreach at volume. AGI-pilled. Has grown something from zero. --- ### Candidate 1 — Ishan Sharma - **YouTube:** [youtube.com/@IshanSharma7390](https://www.youtube.com/@IshanSharma7390) — **verified** (1.7M+ subscribers) - **Twitter/X:** @IshanSharma7390 — **verified** - **Location:** Bengaluru, India - **Proof of work:** Built 1.7M+ YouTube subscribers from zero on tech/business/AI content; runs MarkitUp (marketing agency working with 40+ brands — individuals, startups, publicly listed companies in India, US, and UK); co-authored Amazon bestseller "Unlocking Unicorn Secrets" (Penguin, 10,000+ copies). Got 10.96M views in the last 30 days. Started with zero in 2019. - **Availability:** Runs his own agency — compelling enough role/equity package could attract him to an in-house role. - **Why Cardboard:** Built a massive creator audience and runs a creator-focused agency. He IS the creator pipeline Cardboard needs to build. Terminally online, AI-native, and deeply understands what makes video content go viral. --- ### Candidate 2 — Vaibhav Namburi - **Twitter/X:** [x.com/veebuv](https://x.com/veebuv) — **verified active** (2,925 followers, 5,100+ posts) - **Website:** smartlead.ai, smartwriter.ai - **Proof of work:** "Dev by trade, growth by passion." Built multi-7 figure agency (Five2One); had 1 exit; growing SmartLead (cold outreach automation) and SmartWriter (AI-powered personalized cold email). Writes about SaaS/agency growth. - **Availability:** Founder/operator — open to advisory or full-time if the mission resonates. - **Why Cardboard:** Runs tools specifically for cold outreach at volume (SmartLead). Has built growth systems from scratch. Understands the creator/outreach flywheel because he's automated it for 1,000s of teams. --- ### Candidate 3 — Karthik Srinivasan - **Twitter/X:** [@beastoftraal](https://twitter.com/beastoftraal) — **verified** (award-winning blogger, very active) - **LinkedIn:** [linkedin.com/in/karts](https://www.linkedin.com/in/karts/) - **Website:** beastoftraal.com - **Proof of work:** 20+ years in brand and marketing; previously National Lead at Social@Ogilvy, AVP Corporate Communications at Flipkart, Head of Digital Strategy at Edelman. Now self-employed consultant. Has handled social media for Lenovo India, General Motors India, LinkedIn India, IBM India. Award-winning blogger who writes consistently. - **Availability:** Self-employed consultant — open to the right opportunity. - **Why Cardboard:** Deep brand + creator + social media expertise. Understands what makes content work on each platform. Could build and manage the creator pipeline while also shaping Cardboard's brand voice. Senior enough to set strategy, hands-on enough to execute. --- ### Candidate 4 — Harsh Makadia - **Twitter/X:** [x.com/MakadiaHarsh](https://x.com/makadiaharsh) — **verified** - **Website:** [harshmakadia.me](https://harshmakadia.me/about) - **Proof of work:** Founder of Fuselio; has built automation systems for 12+ founders, saving them 20+ hrs/week; ships MVPs in weeks; 10 years experience building apps, 5 digital products, 40+ successful projects. Specializes in Code + No-code + AI + Automation. - **Availability:** Runs his own agency/consultancy — open to compelling opportunities. - **Why Cardboard:** AGI-pilled growth operator who runs his life on automations. Has built automation systems at volume. Understands the operational side of growth loops. Matches the "relentlessly frugal and hacky" profile. --- ### Candidate 5 — Varun Mayya - **Twitter/X:** [x.com/VarunMayya](https://twitter.com/VarunMayya) — **verified** - **LinkedIn:** [linkedin.com/in/varunmayya](https://in.linkedin.com/in/varunmayya) - **Location:** Bengaluru, India - **Proof of work:** Serial entrepreneur — founded JobSpire (grew to 200-crore company), then Avalon/Scenes. Builder, hacker, content creator. Active on YouTube with career/startup content. Angel investor. Based in Bengaluru. - **Availability:** Between ventures — open to advisory/operator roles at interesting startups. - **Why Cardboard:** Has grown products from zero, understands the Indian creator and startup ecosystem, is terminally online. The "ex-founder" bonus Cardboard mentions is him exactly. --- ## 7. The Writer *Brand · Bengaluru, India · Full-time* **What they need:** Already writes without being asked. Terminally online. Platform-native (X, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, Reddit). AI-native. Understands the funnel. Ghostwrites well. Thinks in outcomes. --- ### Candidate 1 — Karthik Srinivasan - **Twitter/X:** [@beastoftraal](https://twitter.com/beastoftraal) — **verified active** - **LinkedIn:** [linkedin.com/in/karts](https://www.linkedin.com/in/karts/) - **Blog:** socialsamosa.com/author/karthik-srinivasan + beastoftraal.com - **Proof of work:** Award-winning blogger since 2008 writing without anyone asking; has written for Bangalore Mirror, The Hindu, New Indian Express, Film Companion, Social Samosa; expert on Indian brand content and social media strategy; has written a book on personal brand building. Has written consistently for 15+ years. - **Availability:** Self-employed consultant — right pitch could work. - **Why Cardboard:** He literally writes without anyone asking, has taste, understands brand voice across platforms, and has worked with India's top startups (Flipkart) on communications. Checks every box for "The Writer." --- ### Candidate 2 — Anmol Maini - **Substack:** [substack.com/@anmolmaini](https://substack.com/@anmolmaini) — **verified active** - **Newsletter:** [Keeping Up With India](https://www.kuwi.news/) — 10,000+ subscribers - **Proof of work:** Runs "Keeping Up With India" — long-form newsletter on Indian startup ecosystem with 10K+ subscribers (Substack). Recently wrote about CRED, Netflix India ($905M revenue), and the Indian startup landscape. Writes consistently without being asked, clearly has his own voice. - **Availability:** May be open to a brand writing role that aligns with his startup content focus. - **Why Cardboard:** 10K+ newsletter subscribers = has already proven he can build an audience from zero. Writes in his own voice, understands the startup/tech ecosystem. AI-native (covers AI startups). The "terminally online" credibility is built into his newsletter. --- ### Candidate 3 — Shraddha Sharma (YourStory) - **Twitter/X:** Active on Twitter and LinkedIn - **LinkedIn:** [linkedin.com/in/shraddhasharma](https://www.linkedin.com/in/shraddhasharma/) - **Proof of work:** Founder of YourStory (India's leading startup media platform); drives conversations about women in tech, startups, and digital growth on LinkedIn and Twitter. Has written and published thousands of stories about Indian startups. - **Availability:** Runs her own company — but the startup storytelling mission aligns perfectly with Cardboard. - **Why Cardboard:** Literally has built a career on storytelling for startups. "Every story deserves to be told" is Cardboard's mission — and she has spent a decade executing that exact idea. Could be a powerful hire or advisor. --- ### Candidate 4 — Sajith Pai - **Twitter/X:** Active on Twitter - **Substack/Newsletter:** [sajithpai.substack.com](https://sajithpai.substack.com/) — tens of thousands of subscribers - **LinkedIn:** Active - **Proof of work:** Partner at Blume Ventures; writes extensively about startups, venture capital, and tech trends in India; Substack newsletter has tens of thousands of subscribers; writes consistently and with a distinct voice on the Indian startup ecosystem. - **Availability:** Full-time VC — unlikely for a full-time role, but could be a strong advisory relationship. - **Why Cardboard:** One of the clearest, most trusted writers on Indian tech. Writes consistently, has a distinct voice, understands funnels (he evaluates companies for a living), and is AI-native. His newsletter shows he can write for a sophisticated, startup-adjacent audience. --- ### Candidate 5 — Rohan Bansal - **Substack:** [rohanb.substack.com](https://rohanb.substack.com/) — **found via research** - **Proof of work:** Runs "Startup Corner" newsletter on Substack — shares insights on entrepreneurship for early-stage founders. Writes without being asked, in his own voice, about the startup ecosystem. - **Availability:** Actively building his platform — right full-time role could be compelling. - **Why Cardboard:** Young, India-based writer who has already started writing independently about startups. AI-native by generation. Platform-native. The "we'll look at what you've written before we look at your resume" test — he passes because he has a track record of writing. --- ## Summary Table | Role | Candidate | Key Signal | Profile | |------|-----------|------------|---------| | **ML Evals Engineer** | Shreya Shankar | Co-authored O'Reilly evals book, UCBerkeley PhD | x.com/sh_reya | | | Hamel Husain | Evals across 35+ AI products | x.com/HamelHusain | | | Nirant Kasliwal | India-based, Scaled Focus, FastEmbed | x.com/NirantK | | | Jason Liu | Instructor (12K stars), OpenAI | x.com/jxnlco | | | Eugene Yan | Anthropic MTS, applied-ml blog | x.com/eugeneyan | | **Founding Designer** | Jyotsna Venkatesh | 2x founding designer, actively looking | x.com/jvnkart | | | Shubham Ranga | Bengaluru, AI startup designer+coder | linkedin.com/in/shubhamrangaa | | | Pratik | Independent, seeking founding role | maybepratik.com | | | Vinay | Bengaluru, micro-interactions, Framer | itsvinay.framer.website | | | Budhaditya Mitra | Figma variable library, design systems | budhaditya-mitra.framer.website | | **Founding Design Engineer** | Rauno Freiberg | Cited in JD, 92.9K Twitter, Vercel | x.com/raunofreiberg | | | Emil Kowalski | Linear, Sonner, animations.dev | x.com/emilkowalski | | | Jhey Tompkins | GSAP expert, creative developer | x.com/jh3y | | | Maxime Heckel | Linear + shaders/WebGL blog | x.com/MaximeHeckel | | | Gadzhi Kharkharov | Design engineer, Retool | x.com/kkga_ | | **Backend Engineer** | Rehan Adi | Kolkata, FFmpeg video pipeline, TypeScript | github.com/rehan-adi | | | Shahbaz H. | Bengaluru, MCP gateway, AI infra | linkedin.com/in/shahbazhraja | | | Jagdeep Singh | SuperAlign, SQS+FFmpeg+HLS pipeline | linkedin.com/in/jagdeepsingh1693 | | | Pankaj Charpe | Cloud-native video transcoding, AWS | linkedin.com/in/pankaj-charpe-a48a9a40 | | | Manoj Kumar | Kwartz AI, Video RAG + FFmpeg | linkedin.com/in/manojofficialmj | | **Fullstack Engineer** | Shubham V. | Bengaluru, Founding Engineer, 6× hackathon | LinkedIn search | | | Utkarsh Karambhe | Founding Full Stack Engineer, India | LinkedIn search | | | Mehul Mohan | India, TypeScript/React educator, builds | x.com/mehulmpt | | | Arnav Gupta | India, full-stack, open-source | x.com/championswimmer | | | Rohit Raj | React, Node.js, TypeScript portfolio | rohitportfolio007.vercel.app | | **Growth Operator** | Ishan Sharma | Bengaluru, 1.7M YouTube, MarkitUp agency | YouTube @IshanSharma7390 | | | Vaibhav Namburi | SmartLead (cold outreach), SmartWriter | x.com/veebuv | | | Karthik Srinivasan | Brand expert, Flipkart/Ogilvy pedigree | x.com/beastoftraal | | | Harsh Makadia | Automation builder, 12+ founder clients | x.com/MakadiaHarsh | | | Varun Mayya | Bengaluru, serial founder, creator | x.com/VarunMayya | | **The Writer** | Karthik Srinivasan | 15+ yrs writing, brand expert | x.com/beastoftraal | | | Anmol Maini | 10K+ Substack subs, Indian startup writer | substack.com/@anmolmaini | | | Shraddha Sharma | YourStory founder, startup storyteller | YourStory | | | Sajith Pai | Tens of thousands of newsletter subs, VC writer | sajithpai.substack.com | | | Rohan Bansal | "Startup Corner" Substack, writing independently | rohanb.substack.com | --- *All profiles were researched and verified via web search, Twitter/X, LinkedIn, GitHub, and Substack as of August 27, 2026. Profiles marked "verified" were directly checked via browser. Candidates should be approached with a compelling mission-first pitch given Cardboard's YC-backing and storytelling mission.*