Master of Bots Skills Assessment

We’re looking for a Master of Bots at Slow Ventures — someone who treats AI not as a tool, but as an operating system. This is not a traditional engineering role, and it’s not a pure product role. It’s a hybrid: part sysadmin, part builder, part product thinker. Your job is to design, deploy, and continuously evolve an internal ecosystem of AI-powered tools that make Slow Ventures operate faster, smarter, and with leverage that feels unfair. You will own the stack of bots, agents, workflows, and interfaces that power how we work — from internal research and deal flow to portfolio support and creative production. If you think in terms of systems, agents, and loops instead of features and tickets, this is your job. What You’ll Do 1. Build the Bot Stack - Design and deploy AI agents that automate real workflows (research, CRM enrichment, founder sourcing, diligence, content generation, etc.) - Build internal tools using APIs (OpenAI, Anthropic, AssemblyAI, etc.) and frameworks (LangChain, custom pipelines, etc.) - Create interfaces (Slack bots, web apps, internal dashboards) that make these systems usable 2. Own AI Infrastructure - Act as the internal “AI sysadmin” — managing APIs, keys, environments, and deployments - Optimize for reliability, latency, and cost across all AI usage - Set up logging, monitoring, and evaluation loops for AI systems 3. Ship Fast, Iterate Faster - Prototype quickly (hours/days), productionize what works - Continuously refine prompts, flows, and system design - Treat everything as a living system — nothing is ever “done” 4. Be Deeply Product-Oriented - Identify high-leverage problems across the firm and build solutions proactively - Obsess over usability — if people don’t use your bots, they don’t exist - Work closely with partners and team members to integrate tools into real workflows 5. Extend Beyond Slow - Build tools that can be shared with or deployed into portfolio companies - Help define how AI-native companies should actually operate - Occasionally build weird, experimental, or “unfair advantage” systems ----- What We’re Looking For Core Traits - You are bot-native: you instinctively think “this should be automated” - You are a builder — you ship constantly, not occasionally - You are highly curious and self-directed; you don’t wait for specs - You care about leverage, not activity Technical Background - Strong coding ability (Python and/or JavaScript preferred) - Comfortable working with APIs, databases, and basic infrastructure - Experience with LLMs and AI tooling (prompting, agents, RAG, etc.) - CS degree or equivalent experience strongly preferred Product Instinct - You have taste — you know what makes a tool actually useful - You can go from vague idea → working system without hand-holding - You understand workflows, not just code Bonus Points - Experience with Cloudflare Workers, serverless infra, or edge computing - Experience building internal tools or automation systems - Familiarity with data pipelines (Postgres, ETL, etc.) - Experience with voice/transcription systems (AssemblyAI, Whisper, etc.) - History of shipping side projects, bots, or weird hacks What Success Looks Like - Within 30 days: You’ve shipped multiple internal bots people actually use - Within 90 days: Core workflows at Slow are meaningfully faster / more automated - Within 6 months: Slow operates differently — more like a system than a firm - Long term: You’ve built a compounding “AI layer” that becomes a real advantage Why This Role Matters - AI is making software trivial to build — which means advantage shifts to how systems are designed and used. - We believe the best firms will not just “use AI,” they will run on it. This role is about making that real. Compensation - Competitive salary + meaningful upside - Flexible depending on experience and scope - Based in the Bay Area (preferred), but flexible for the right person