Sebastian Esquivel

MIT Alum | Chemical Engineer

[KJ Hardrict @KjHardrict]

A few months ago, the day after we launched @TalvyHQ, I asked my team the question I'd been avoiding.

"Do you regret leaving your six-figure jobs for this?"

Our CTO left Palantir to build with me.
Our founding ML engineer left Instagram.

Some of them even moved cities for this.

Wondering if this will all be worth it one day for them has been something I've carried since day one, especially because the team is made up of all my best friends.

Literally the people who are coming to my wedding this year.

So the day after launch was the first time I asked them straight up how they felt so far.

I was so nervous about what their answer would be, and it didn't help that I decided to ask the question just 24 hours after our site crashed on launch day and we had to spend all day putting out fires.

So if there was ever a day to regret joining, that was the moment.

Anyways — I filmed the whole day including the outage, the question, and their full answers in the video below.

...

I also dropped their answers in the comments in case you don't have the time to watch :)

[KJ Hardrict @KjHardrict]

I had bated breath when i asked the questions, so when they finally told me how they felt I felt a weight lift.

Because every single one of them was a resounding yes.

When i asked about the site going down @yoealefrem just said that "Fire is a part of the game. You just got to chalk that up to the game."

and @yaatehr reminded me how special it is to work with your friends, because most people don't get the chance to do something like this.

gotta mention @Sebasquivel here as well:

"I've been on other teams where we've had to grind for months and months for projects to be scrapped. This really cemented having meaningful work behind my day-to-day."

Like I said, these are friends I've had since college , people I expect to be in my life for a very long time. So when they say things like that, it warms my heart in more ways than one.

Grateful for what we're doing @TalvyHQ, and I can't wait to share more with you as the weeks go on!

[KJ Hardrict @KjHardrict]

@benln the originals, all worth a full read:
@benln https://t.co/PzWRPdVVa5
@dravishakatoch https://t.co/mKE7alJNEc
@olseneng https://t.co/if271TB7Ln

[KJ Hardrict @KjHardrict]

if you're job hunting right now, here are 3 takes from my feed this week that i found to be helpful:

@benln: "Skip LinkedIn."

by the time a role hits the big job boards, you're already one of a few hundred people who applied to it. his list helps you find these teams before the job is even posted. start following a few of them, pay attention to what they're building, and post your own work somewhere they can find it.

@dravishakatoch: "You don't need to disclose your previous salary to anyone. It's not legally required, and you can refuse it."

your old number just becomes the highest they're willing to go, and then they spend the whole time trying to talk you down from there. you don't owe anyone that history anyway. figure out what the role itself is worth to you, and let them put the first number on the table.

@olseneng: "I'd much rather hear someone say 'I don't know' over an elaborate word dump."

a good interviewer can usually tell when you're bs'ing within a few seconds. so just say "i don't know, but here's how i'd figure it out." it tells them way more than a confident wrong answer does, and it's the kind of thing that actually makes them want to work with you.

overalll takeaway: the hiring funnel kind of wants you to be so anxious that you're grateful for anyone who replies to you. don't fall for that trap. get paid what your worth by acting like you've got options, because most of the time you actually do.

good luck out there this week to everyone still in the search. genuinely rooting for you.

(PS: if you want your name in front of high-growth startups that are actually hiring, shoot me a DM or drop a comment on this post._

[KJ Hardrict @KjHardrict]

we pivoted our business model at @TalvyHQ few weeks ago, and have received the highest amount of inbound interest so far.

lesson learned:

never be so married to your initial business vision that you can't adjust to where the market is guiding you.

[KJ Hardrict @KjHardrict]

78% of resumes now have AI in them.

68% of enterprise HR teams now screen for AI.

nobody's reading anything anymore.

can we all like really take a breath here and realize how stupid this is?

such a horrendous use of AI by both sides of the hiring process.

[KJ Hardrict @KjHardrict]

At 22, I felt bulletproof.

Then I got diagnosed with a kidney disease.

Before that, it looked like everything was working from an outsiders perspective.

I was at Stanford, co-founding two startups, making more money than I'd ever made. Best shape of my life.

I had older engineers hyping me up, saying things like "are we talking to the next Elon Musk?"

at some point, I started to internalize what they were saying. The way other people looked at me started to become a part of my identity, and I had no idea what it was costing me to maintain it.

I was working like a dog before the diagnosis.

My body had been screaming at me for months that something was wrong. I was getting migraines, not sleeping well, more irritated at the tiniest things.

But instead of slowing down I decided to push harder.

Because I knew that everybody else was seeing a version of me that was successful, sharp, and "on the come up."

So I masked my suffering in my own head.

I told myself this pain was temporary.

It wasn't.

It hit a breaking point when I had moved into my apartment and saw that my wrist had ballooned in size.

Time wrinkled and I realized I had been hospitalized for weeks, and a year later I looked around to find that both startups had died.

I had to rebuild my life from the ground up after this, and that's part of the reason why I'm grateful to be where I'm at today with Talvy.

Because I write to you as someone who has been humbled.

When I reflect on that time, I find it crazy how I was able to so confidently ignore my body's decline because I was worried about how I looked on the outside.

and I think the lesson here is that:

Nothing on the outside is worth what it can cost you on the inside.

The only ground worth standing on is where you actually are, not where everyone else is putting you.

Stay present, and believe in yourself.

[KJ Hardrict @KjHardrict]

5 cool founders / companies who posted jobs today (May 20).

Eng, robotics, brand, AI infra, energy

Here's how to apply ↓

[KJ Hardrict @KjHardrict]

I closed my laptop in my childhood bedroom and I felt like I was feeding my team to wolves.

But there was no choice.

I had to make it to a wedding two hours up the coast, and my fiancee was in the 112th minute of her 2-hour prep session.

That meant I had 8 minutes to get ready. 2 more than I usually need.

But I still had two screens open. Claude Code on one, Slack on the other. And I was still trying to review PRs as they came in.

That's when the worry set in.

I knew more PRs were coming. And I knew that I'd be on the road for hours with no signal, then at a rehearsal dinner, then in family time for days.

But the fear wasn't that something would break without me. It was that I'd be the bottleneck for our team if they needed me for something.

But the "hurry up" glances from Michelle were growing more frequent.

So I made the difficult decision to close the laptop.

But about twenty minutes into the drive to Ventura, with our wedding playlist on and the freeway empty, I realized there was no reason to be worried.

Because my team is composed of all-stars.

I knew Sebastian could manage the disorganization perfectly fine without me, Lisa would handle any client call that came up, and that Yoeal and Yaateh were basically Shaq and Kobe with the dev stuff.

But just to be sure, I opened Slack as soon as I finished the drive.

And alas, nothing was on fire.

It's a bit of a weird feeling. To see that if I disappear for a little, everything keeps moving in the company.

But I think it's just a testament to the team and systems we've built so far, and how much progress we've made since starting.

I'm grateful I was able to be so present in those rare moments I get with my family, friends, and my fiancee.

I was able to smile, laugh, and dance with them all night without stress weighing down the moment.

And that's all because we've built a team that's so reliable we can always give each other time off, and still have peace of mind.

Thankful, as always.

That said, we're back to work!

[KJ Hardrict @KjHardrict]

94.3% of candidates got ghosted in 2026.

they spent an average of 44 minutes on each application.

btw candidates usually have to send out 30-200 applications on average to get a single offer from ANY job.

founders: how many of you are actually trying to stop ghosting in your hiring process?

curious to see who actually cares about people's time!

[KJ Hardrict @KjHardrict]

By Friday, these founders will be 200 applications deep. Most will be the same ChatGPT cover letter and the same resume PDF attached.

A @TalvyHQ profile shows actual work. The page holds the screens you shipped and the project files attached.

Give it a try:

https://t.co/7VVMcxCZTX

[KJ Hardrict @KjHardrict]

5 cool founders / companies who posted jobs yesterday (May 21).

Consumer apps, dev infra, robotics, AI safety, fintech

Here's how to land a role ↓

[KJ Hardrict @KjHardrict]

If you're cold-applying right now, your best case is 1-in-50. Worst case, 1-in-1,000.

And nothing about how hard you try moves you between those tiers.

I keep hearing from people who are 200 applications deep without a response, and the saddest part is that they're starting to think they're not talented enough.

But the problem isn't their skillset. It's the funnel their resumes are being forced into.

The floor and the ceiling of hiring in 2026:

- 0.1-2% of cold applications result in a hire.
- The average job posting now gets 250 applications. Entry-level often clears 400.
- The average person sends 32-200 applications before a single offer. Some send way more than that.

The thing that moves you between those tiers is no longer a cleaner resume, because the filter itself is clogged beyond repair.

You can rewrite the same resume 40 times and you will still be in the same percentile.

So when someone gets laid off and asks me what to do, I tell them this:

Take those same hours and put them into something that gives you "asymmetric visibility".

This is where one thing you build has the potential to reach hundreds of recruiters, rather than one recruiter going through an inbox filled with hundreds of applications.

Some suggestions:

- Create an online professional profile people can find to see how you think about your industry.
- Post your work so that recruiters can actually see what you're building.
- Reach out to start new conversations every week with people who are working in the rooms you want to be in.

The old way of hiring is broken, and the math won't shift because you tried harder inside the application pile.

It shifts when you decide to compete outside of it.

[KJ Hardrict @KjHardrict]

@TalvyHQ daily standup (may 14th)

talked about some big features shipping next week:

- ai layer v1. ask talvy in plain english ("find me a forward deployed engineer") and it pulls candidates from the whole video database with a one liner on each. ui-agnostic, so this could live inside a text box or even a twitter dm
- individual video sharing. share one unlisted video without exposing your whole profile. fixes the "youtube unlisted, 2 views, looks like a loser" problem
- digital business card. qr code to your talvy profile. a better way to get people to understand you after a networking event.

more stuff coming soon, love this team 🚀

[KJ Hardrict @KjHardrict]

If you're applying for jobs this weekend:

Here's what you need to stop doing ASAP:

TAILORING YOUR RESUME.

That’s not what gets you seen by recruiters anymore. Blame AI.

I know this because I work with them everyday.

These 3 qualities will though:

1. Motivation - by the end of your application a recruiter should know what makes you curious and why. If people believe you care about your passions, it’s easier to trust you'll bring that energy into your work. Talk about your interests the way you would to a friend.

2. Agency - showcase a project that tested your willpower. I mean that sincerely. People don’t want to hire someone who cannot handle adversity. So film a video explaining the decision-making progress you took towards something challenging. What obstacles have you overcome that only YOU could have?

3. Vibe - do not underrate this. Nobody likes working with someone whose energy they don’t get along with, and that goes both ways. So be yourself, FULLY! Laugh at your flaws, state your beliefs boldly, talk about what matters to you in life and why. You must give the recruiter a sense for who you are, because that’s what allows them to honestly envision how you might fit into their environment. You are likable, so be you!

If you can genuinely communicate these qualities about yourself to a recruiter, I promise you will be 1000x more likely to get hired by a company you’d love working for.

Good luck to all the job seekers out there, we’re cheering for you @TalvyHQ!

More thoughts in the video below ↓

(Feel free to send this to someone who might benefit from this advice)

[KJ Hardrict @KjHardrict]

the man on the right just piloted the first moon mission in 50 years: Victor Glover (@AstroVicGlover)

he's the first black man to fly to the moon.

when we met at Oak Bluffs, he told me that it was actually the man on the left who inspired him to even become an astronaut in the first place.

that's Dr. Bernard Harris Jr (@bernardharrisjr), the first Black man to ever walk in space.

watching someone touch back down to earth after fulfilling a dream that started with seeing someone who did it first is so inspiring.

we're still living in a world where certain groups are experiencing their "firsts."

but every time that happens, it makes the next moment so much more achievable for someone else.

Dr. Harris walked so Captain Glover could fly...

congratulations Captain Glover. you just showed an entire generation what's possible.

[KJ Hardrict @KjHardrict]

hey x, i'm looking to help creatives get hired at high growth startups.

Specifically:
- Writers
- Content Strategists
- Social Media Marketers

please tag the best storytellers you know and let's get them jobs 🙏

#startupcommunity

[KJ Hardrict @KjHardrict]

Building in public as a first time founder:

We reprioritized our entire GTM today @TalvyHQ

been learning how fast things shift day-to-day and that if we're not moving as a unified front we're wasting time.

the thing that stood out:

- how much work it takes to get a sales motion going from 0 to 1.
- how difficult it is to make the process repeatable and scalable.

we'll deal with that second part next.

rn, we're fully focused on the first.

---

founders, please share any advice you have for me here!

[Sebastian Esquivel @Sebasquivel]

@KjHardrict The highest performers I've seen aren't always the smartest, but instead have high urgency and great communication skills. It's impossible to source that from a resume ...

[KJ Hardrict @KjHardrict]

700 AI-generated applications sound impressive until you're the hiring manager who has to find the one real person in the pile.

AI is just making the problem worse for everyone.

employers — your keyword filters are screening out the people you actually want. the best person for the role probably didn't use the right buzzwords.

stop optimizing for resumes and start looking at how people think, talk, and solve problems. that's what actually predicts a good hire.

candidates — spamming 100 applications a day is not a strategy. it's a survival response to a broken system. and i get it. but the way you stand out now is by being impossible to ignore as a human.

show your work. talk on camera. let people see how your brain works.

your personality is the one thing AI can't generate for you.