The opportunity

Most independent used-car dealers run their business on a pile of tools that don’t talk to each other. A DMS, a few spreadsheets, a separate CRM, a separate desking tool, a texting app, and a folder full of PDFs. Aerolot replaces all of that with one system: inventory, the sales and F&I funnel, deal desking, lender submission, compliance, and messaging, plus an AI copilot that coaches the dealer while they work a deal. The goal I keep coming back to is that a dealer should never have to open a spreadsheet again.

The product already works. It’s about 85% to 90% done and going to market in the next month or two with pilot design partners. What it needs now is a technical co-founder to take it over, get it to launch, and build it out, including the mobile apps that get Aerolot off the desktop and onto the lot.

About Aerolot

Aerolot is a multi-tenant SaaS platform built specifically for independent used-car dealers, starting in Miami. I built it solo. I know this business from the inside: the sales and F&I funnel, how a DMS actually gets used day to day, lender relationships, F&I product economics, and the compliance rules that touch every deal. That knowledge is the hard part, and a lot of it is already baked into the product.

Today the platform has a working inventory and cost system, a deal desk with correct tax and lender math, credit pulls and lender submission, real-time messaging, and Aero, an AI copilot that reads a deal and explains it in plain language. The web app is live in v1. Mobile hasn’t started yet.

Why now

A few reasons this is worth your time:

The product is built and close to shipping. You inherit a large, working codebase instead of a blank repo, and you call the shots on where it goes from here.
Pilot dealers start in Q3 2026, so your work lands in front of real users fast and the feedback loop is short.
The domain is the hard part, and it’s already worked out. Desking, F&I, lender math, and compliance are mapped, so you get to build good software on top of foundations that are already correct.
This is a founder seat with founder equity. You run engineering and own the technical direction of the company from day one.

What you’ll own

You are the whole engineering team and the company’s technical voice. That means:

All the code. Frontend, backend, and mobile (iOS and Android). The full stack is yours.
Technical direction. Architecture, stack, tooling, infrastructure, security, and the engineering roadmap. You set the standards and the pace.
Getting it shipped. Taking the product from where it is now to pilot launch, then making it reliable and scalable.
Mobile from scratch. The iOS and Android apps don’t exist yet. You design and build them.
The AI layer. Keeping Aero and the rest of the AI features accurate and dependable.
Bringing me the real options. For any big decision I want the choices, the trade-offs, the costs, and your recommendation, so we make smart calls.

What you’ll build

Web platform

Take the web app the rest of the way. Harden it, scale it, and extend it across inventory, the sales and F&I funnel, deal desk, lender workflows, compliance, and messaging. Tenant isolation is not optional, ever.

Backend and infrastructure

Own the APIs, the data model, background jobs, integrations, and the infrastructure that keeps a dealer’s day running. Several live third-party integrations (credit and lending, telephony and SMS, payments, market data) have to stay reliable and compliant.

Mobile (iOS and Android)

Build the mobile experience from nothing. Dealers spend their day on the lot, not behind a desk, so mobile is how they’ll actually use Aerolot. You pick the approach, native or cross-platform, and own it through to the app stores.

AI features (Aero)

AI isn’t the first thing you’ll touch and it isn’t most of the job, but it’s a feature we have to get right, because it’s where Aerolot does things the old tools can’t. You’ll keep Aero accurate, fast, and trustworthy. You’ll also use AI in your own day-to-day to build faster.

Who you are

Must-haves

Senior and full-stack. You’ve shipped production web apps end to end and can run both frontend and backend on your own.
You can do mobile. You’ve shipped iOS and Android before, or you can pick it up and build from a standing start.
You actually build with AI. You code with AI tools every day and know how to ship AI features that hold up. Ideally you know this area at least as well as I do.
You think like a founder. You want ownership, not a ticket queue, and you’re fine with pre-revenue risk and equity upside.
You’re in Miami, in person. You’re here, or you’re moving here. Two people building something move faster in the same room.
You can talk to a non-engineer. You can explain a trade-off and its cost to me and give a straight recommendation, not a shrug.

Bonus points

Background in automotive, fintech, lending, payments, or anything compliance-heavy.
You’ve been a technical co-founder or first engineer and know what the job really takes.
You already know our stack (Next.js, Postgres, Drizzle, Vercel), though range and judgment matter to me more than any single tool.
You’ve taken a product from its first customers to a lot of them and know where things tend to break.

How to apply

Send me a short note about why this is the thing you want to build, and anything that shows you can do the work: GitHub, products you’ve shipped, apps in the stores, something you’re proud of. You don’t need a formal cover letter. I read every message.