Poka Labs (YC S24) Is Hiring a Founding Engineer

Poka Labs, a fresh Y Combinator startup, dropped a spicy hiring post for a Founding Engineer to build AI “agents” that run real factory workflows—from price quotes to shipping—in the $6 trillion chemicals world. Cue the comment fireworks. The optimists are thrilled: finally, someone digitizing a dusty industry that still lives in spreadsheets and fax vibes. The skeptics? They’re side-eyeing every buzzword. “Agentic systems” became a drinking game, and a mini dogpile formed over safety: can a chatbot really manage inventory and procurement without ordering 10,000 gallons of the wrong acid? One camp cheers the promise of slashing emissions and waste; another wants receipts on those Fortune 100 “deployments.”

Then came the lifestyle wars. The in-person in San Francisco rule split the crowd—some called it focus and speed, others dubbed it a talent filter with coastal blinders. The paid work trial sparked drama too: fans said it’s a fair, low-ego test; critics called it “spec work with a hoodie.” Salary transparency questions hit hard, and an ERP (enterprise software) trench veteran warned that integrating with SAP and old industrial systems is where startups go to die. Meanwhile, the “add something absurd in your application” line (bananas, really) became a meme, with devs posting banana cover letters and one-liners about teaching forklifts to peel them. High stakes meets high comedy—and the comments are eating it up.