Built solo so far. Growing now.
AfriFoundry has been bootstrapped and run solo from Mombasa since June 2025. There isn't a team page full of headshots yet, because there isn't a team yet — that's the honest state of things, and it's changing now.
Who we're looking to bring on first
Software engineers, backend and full-stack
APIs, infrastructure, and the pipelines that keep training and serving running on unreliable networks and growing corpora.
+−
Software engineers, backend and full-stack
APIs, infrastructure, and the pipelines that keep training and serving running on unreliable networks and growing corpora.
What's expected
- Comfortable across the stack: today that's Next.js on the frontend, a TypeScript/Fastify API gateway, and a Python/FastAPI AI service, deployed on Railway.
- Can design for unreliable networks and a corpus that's growing daily, not a fixed dataset.
- Ships working code solo — there's no larger team to catch what a review would.
ML / data engineers
Fine-tuning, the hybrid router, and the self-building dictionary — real model work on real African data, not prompt tweaking.
+−
ML / data engineers
Fine-tuning, the hybrid router, and the self-building dictionary — real model work on real African data, not prompt tweaking.
What's expected
- Real experience with fine-tuning or training small/specialist models, not just calling an API.
- Comfortable building evaluation harnesses for languages with little existing tooling.
- Cares about the gating discipline — a domain only earns its own weights once it's actually tested.
Data analysts and verifiers
Checking and grounding ingested data — including native or near-native speakers who can verify language and market entries firsthand.
+−
Data analysts and verifiers
Checking and grounding ingested data — including native or near-native speakers who can verify language and market entries firsthand.
What's expected
- Native or near-native fluency in at least one African language Afri3B is ingesting.
- Meticulous with repetitive verification work — this is the job in the early stage, not a detour from it.
- Comfortable flagging "not verified yet" instead of guessing to fill a gap.
Early operators who want to build from zero
Comfortable with ambiguity, comfortable being the first hire in a function rather than joining a built-out team.
+−
Early operators who want to build from zero
Comfortable with ambiguity, comfortable being the first hire in a function rather than joining a built-out team.
What's expected
- Generalist instincts — ops, growth, or partnerships, wherever the gap actually is that week.
- Can work without a playbook, because one doesn't exist yet for most of this.
- Wants to build the function, not just work inside one that's already defined.
How joining actually works
- 1. Start the conversation — open a role above and click "Start application conversation," or email support@afrifoundry.com directly if you'd rather skip straight to a person.
- 2. A conversation with Afri3B first — the same Afri3B as the website, framed around the role you're applying for. It's a real conversation, not a scripted quiz, and it's not the decision-maker — a human reads the full transcript afterward.
- 3. Founding Circle — approved applicants join a smaller working group inside the AfriFoundry community first.
- 4. Core team — once you're embedded and contributing, you move into the main AfriFoundry team space.
Where things stand, honestly
AfriFoundry is bootstrapped and pre-revenue — there's no set salary band to quote yet. What's realistic today is a mix of contract work, deferred pay, and equity depending on the role and how it fits into what you're looking for. There's no fixed template for this — it gets worked out directly, person by person, based on what makes sense for both sides.