February 8, 2026
Startups, Salesmen & Spicy Takes
Toma (YC W24) Is Hiring Founding Engineers
AI for car dealers? Big money, bigger opinions
TLDR: Toma, a YC startup, is hiring early engineers to build AI tools for car dealerships with $17M from a16z. Commenters are split between excitement for fixing the dealership mess and skepticism about “cheap founder” vibes, long hours masked as perks, and safety worries around voice-driven AI agents.
Cue the popcorn: YC-backed upstart Toma just raised $17M from a16z and wants “Founding Engineers” to build an AI platform for car dealerships—think tools that talk, track, and help non‑tech folks run AI agents. The community instantly split into cheer squad vs. chaos patrol. Hype crew says this is the rare “AI meets real world” play, begging someone to fix the dreaded dealership experience. Skeptics clap back: AI agents in high‑stakes settings (like fixing your brakes) plus “non‑technical users” sounds like a recipe for hallucinated invoices. The perks—16" MacBook Pro M4 Max, free lunches/dinners, equity, unlimited PTO—got oohs and side‑eye. “Free dinner = you’re still there at 8pm,” one commenter winked. The job asks for TypeScript wizards and even name‑drops Bun (a faster JavaScript runtime), which triggered the classic “resume‑driven dev” meme. The “Founding Engineer with 1+ year experience” line lit the thread on fire: fans say early hires are about ownership and hustle; critics say it reads like “cheap cofounder”. Toma’s “Avengers” team (including a pro Valorant player) spawned jokes about adding aim‑assist to code reviews, while others rolled eyes at “we’ve never owned cars.” The interview loop ends with a “flexible work trial,” which sparked a fairness debate—enthusiasts call it pragmatic; skeptics asked, “paid or nah?” Meanwhile YC diehards chant: ship fast, fix dealerships, make the bots haggle.
Key Points
- •Toma (YC W24) is hiring founding engineers to build a platform that deploys and monitors AI agents, initially targeting the automotive industry.
- •The company raised a $17M Series A from Andreessen Horowitz (a16z).
- •Responsibilities include building dashboards, real-time voice AI, and support tooling, using TypeScript across Next.js and Bun.
- •Preferred qualifications span the T3 Stack (Next.js, React, Prisma, PostgreSQL, NextAuth, tRPC), low-level Node.js (Bun), and 1+ years of full-stack experience.
- •Benefits include high-end hardware, meals, competitive salary with equity, comprehensive insurance, unlimited PTO, and a multi-step hiring process with a flexible work trial.