The side project imperative
Polishing your resume won't get you hired. Building might.
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Everyone wants in. Thousands of candidates are chasing the same roles you are at breakout startups, and most of their resumes check the same boxes as yours. Whether you’re an engineer or operator, everyone comes back to the same question: how do you prove you’re someone a founder can bet on?
The answer isn’t a new trick or novel strategy. It’s not a clever email hack or a viral tweet. Technical or not, there’s one thing that consistently helps candidates stand out: the tried-and-true side project.
For the nontechnical
It seems like every week I hear some version of this question: “I’m at a big consulting firm… I recently got my MBA… I’ve spent my entire career in finance — how can I switch to a startup?” It’s a fair question, and it usually comes with a short blurb to send to founders: “I’m a self-starter with an entrepreneurial mindset”. Here’s the thing: if you’re waiting until the interview to prove you have these instincts, you’re too late.
Are you really a self-starter? Are you truly an innovator? Prove it. A side project can give some sort of evidence on why this is true. It’s one of the clearest ways to demonstrate you can take initiative, work independently, and follow something through from start to finish without waiting to be asked. It bridges what you say and what you’ve actually done.
At a startup, you’re rarely handed a neat list of things to work on each day. It’s completely fine if you’re not used to that level of agency yet, but you need to show that you can thrive in it. In the startup ecosystem, the fact that you consulted at a Big 3 firm or hold a top-tier MBA doesn’t carry the same weight it does in other job markets. You’re playing in a different field now, where proof matters a lot more than potential.
Take Ashvin, one of our community members who recently found himself back in the circus of job hunting. When you meet him, it’s clear he’s built for startups — he asks sharp follow-up questions, connects dots between seemingly unrelated problems, and carries that particular brand of curiosity that founders seek. These qualities don’t translate well to a resume though, especially without a referral to cut through the noise to an interview. Furthermore, he was eyeing a switch into the energy space, and with no industry experience needed a way to build credibility in an industry that requires deeper domain knowledge.
How could he signal that he’s a curious guy that knows the industry well, even without official work experience? He started writing. His first article explored something he’s excited about in energy: how small modular reactors can finally make nuclear energy scalable, affordable, and widely accessible. It’s a topic he’s been researching on his own for months, and writing about it on his own showcases that depth in a way that feels genuine and substantial.
This is what he used to gain credibility in the space, eventually landing his new job as a product manager at electric grid startup Gridware (watch their FYSK video here!).
What if you’re not a writer? What if you want to work at a super technical place and don’t have an engineering degree? A few years ago, side projects were mostly the domain of engineers and designers to show what they could build. Building, however, is no longer constrained to engineers anymore. In the age of generative AI and agentic workflows, there’s no excuse not to build something to show what you know.
Furthermore, it’s likely many of the startups you want to work at are targeting people like you to use their product — nontechnical operators looking to do more with less. Take this opportunity to see their product from the user’s perspective and reflect on how it could be improved. Want to run growth at Lovable? Build a website on their platform for a mock product and document your experiments with different conversion strategies. Aiming for ops at ElevenLabs? Record a video explaining why you’re a good fit, and dub it in three languages using their tools. It doesn’t even have to be serious. Want to stand out for a recruiter role at Clay? Build, tag, and filter a database of your dating life. The point is: “having potential” doesn’t get you far anymore. You need to show you’re the kind of person who puts in the work without being asked to, and AI tools have made it 100x easier to do so.
Does this mean every job hunting product manager should start a Substack or vibe code in Replit? For the sake of my inbox, please no. Content for content’s sake is oversaturated online, and lazy, rushed work signals you’re not willing to invest time in something you claim to care about. No one wants to read listicles that take 15 minutes to write or browse through a database that doesn’t seem thought-through. It can take time to write a well-researched article or build a thoughtful app, but that’s exactly the point — it demonstrates dedication, persistence, and the ability to see projects through to completion.
So what should you work on? Do what feels natural to you. You shouldn’t force yourself to write (or have Claude write) a blogpost because you feel its what you should do. If data analysis is your sweet spot, dive into a dataset you’re curious about and report your findings. If you’re a great verbal communicator, film a video breaking down an industry concept. This doesn’t need to be some polished, public-facing masterpiece either. Don’t let perfect be the enemy of the good here — the point is demonstrating proof of genuine interest and ability to take initiative. Hiring managers can tell the difference between someone who ships imperfect work they care about and someone who doesn’t care to ship at all.
For the technical
Side projects are something our technical community is a bit more familiar with, but a tricky problem arises when recruiting: you’ve done all this work at your previous company, but you can’t share any of it publicly when job seeking. Furthermore, while you may have the technical chops to build something that can be publicly shared, sometimes what you want to work on is collaborative or requires a few other minds.
This is where being a part of a community of engineers becomes particularly valuable. When you have peers you can collaborate with on open source projects or community discussions, you demonstrate real-world teamwork and problem-solving skills in an technical environment. You essentially recreate startup environment conditions.
When you’re actively contributing, sharing ideas, and solving problems in public, it becomes easier for founders and hiring managers to recognize your potential. In many cases, the connections, endorsements, and visibility made through community projects can open doors that qualifications alone cannot.
For everyone
Our community at Founders You Should Know thrives on collaboration. Many members actively bounce ideas off each other and find teammates for their side projects within our community, turning solo efforts into collaborative growth. We even have a dedicated sub channel devoted to vibe coding side projects to find support when you’re stuck, guidance when you don’t know when to start, or the first users on your new app.
Our channels are beginner friendly and welcome to all — our showcase emcee David King even livestreamed himself vibe coding an app from idea to TestFlight for community members that weren’t sure where to start.
So no matter what you build, the next step in your job search isn’t another resume tweak. It’s creating something real that shows what you’re capable of, and why founders should be eager to bring you on board.
Looking for a community where you can bounce ideas, get support on side projects, and connect with fellow engineers and operators? Apply to join the Founders You Should Know community here.
A big thank you to FYSK members Ashvin Dhawan, Aanya Salot, & Derek Chen for inspiring segments of this piece from our community conversations.