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. It only analyzes a deal, it never acts on the dealer’s behalf. You’ll also use AI in your

own day-to-day to build faster.

The stack you’ll inherit

You can change any of this. Here’s what’s running today so you know exactly what you’re walking

into:

Layer Today

Web / app framework Next.js 15, React

Database & ORM Neon Postgres, Drizzle ORM

Auth & multi-tenancy Clerk, with explicit per-tenant isolation

Hosting & edge Vercel, Cloudflare R2 for storage

Cache / queue Upstash / Valkey, Redis

AI & search LLM copilot (Aero), Qdrant vector DB, Voyage AI embeddings

Comms Telnyx (SMS), Resend (email)

Lending & data 700Credit integration, MarketCheck, compliance scaffolding

Payments Stripe

Observability Sentry

Mobile Greenfield. Your call (iOS and Android)

How we’ll work together

I’m the founder, and I’m moving into the CEO role: product, sales, customers, and the domain. I’m

handing you the technical side. That’s a real hand-off. You set engineering direction, and I’ll lean on

your judgment instead of telling you how to build.

A few things I want to be straight about up front, because this is what keeps a co-founder

relationship from blowing up later.

• You own the how. Architecture, stack, tooling, process, and where the engineering effort goes.

That’s your territory, and I won’t second-guess your implementation.

• I make the final call on the big stuff. Major strategy and money decisions come to me. Your

job is to lay out the options, the trade-offs, the costs, and a recommendation. I’ll weigh that

against my own research and decide. I keep final control, but I’d much rather be convinced by a

good argument than pull rank.

• I’m still going to be in the code. I built this, and I’ll always have a hand in it. I’ll even ask you

where my time is best spent there. I’m not disappearing. I’m giving up the wheel and sitting next

to you.

• Small team, a lot of trust. Right now it’s the two of us. You get huge ownership and zero

bureaucracy, and in return we have to talk straight and talk often.

If a founder who stays in the code sounds like a problem, we’re probably not a match, and it’s better

we both figure that out now. If it sounds like a CEO who actually understands what you’re building

and will get out of your way on the how, let’s talk.

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.