---
title: 'Founding Software Engineer at betterbasket.ai'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/founding-software-engineer-betterbasket-ai-san-francisco-20snkkav5n10'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-12'
---

# Founding Software Engineer at betterbasket.ai

- **Company:** betterbasket.ai
- **Location:** San Francisco, CA
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2025-06-05
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-12
- **Apply:** https://jobs.gem.com/betterbasket-ai/am9icG9zdDq39GWdtwU6j3bGdHlVpbmE

## Job description

Why not BetterBasket?

We don’t believe in wasting your time. Here are some reasons you should not apply:

- You are looking for a manager to be told what to do - how to fix a bug, the right approach for a problem, what’s next for your career. You will be accountable for your own work, but what is possible will be bound only by your ambition, ideas, and the $800bn grocery industry.
- You want a job with work-life balance. Recharging is essential, but we’re working on such exciting projects at the frontier of retail and AI (which our customers can’t wait to use!) that we can’t stop thinking about our next sprint.
- You question if things are “worth it” - if this job is worth the “opportunity cost” of a Big Tech salary, if grinding out a feature was worth a late night. You will be given everything needed to be comfortable and the upside of a founder, but we know exceptional things are only done with great sacrifice that compound over time.

What are you working on?

- BetterBasket is developing the first fully integrated pricing solution for grocers, coming from our founders’ experience launching Uber Eats’ global grocery delivery platform. We’re working on everything from pricing algorithms to digital price tags in order to create a revolutionary product to transform the $800bn grocery industry.
- We’re already working with 3 top 100 grocers in North America on dynamic pricing and market data, and from day one you’ll be working closely with leaders and subject matter experts at our customers on their top priorities.
- BetterBasket is backed by top investors like Y Combinator and Aito Capital as well as founders and C-suite executives at YouTube, Uber, Amazon, Tesco, and GoodRx.
- Our work environment is collaborative and inclusive, fostering growth and learning. If you’re eager to be part of a fast-moving, innovative team that values your development, we want you on our team.

What technologies do you use?

Core Competencies

- Python (ML libraries, concurrency)
- HTTP/REST API
- Javascript (Typescript, React, Node)
- SQL (Locks, Stored Procedures)
- Cloud / DevOps (Azure, Kubernetes, Docker, Redis)

## Nice to Have

- Product design (Figma)
- Inference at scale
- Scraping (Scrapy, Selenium)
- Wireless Communication Protocols

What can I work on? BetterBasket is developing the first fully integrated pricing solution for grocers. Problems that you could work on as a hands-on founding engineer include but are not limited to:

- How can we extract and classify data at scale from online stores towards a centralized product knowledge graph?
- How can we maximize profits for a grocer by modeling competitive prices, historical sales data, elasticity estimates, and external variables?
- How can price changes be triggered and performed automatically?
- What’s the best way to summarize and present the results of our actions?

What’s in it for me?

- Take ownership of products that will revolutionize the grocery industry
- Collaborate with a tight-knit team of talented builders
- Work closely with customers from day 1 and see the results of your work
- Launch products that directly impact people’s lives
- Work with the co-founders daily in-person in SF
- Competitive salary, equity, health insurance

If you’ve gotten this far and our culture and tech resonate with you, we want you to apply.

## About betterbasket.ai

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: BetterBasket provides an agentic AI platform that helps grocery retailers optimize pricing, promotions, assortment, and merchandising decisions end-to-end.
- **Entity Type**: Private (YC-backed startup, W24 batch)
- **Headquarters**: San Francisco, CA, USA
- **Founded**: 2023
- **Founders**: Leon Zhang (Co-founder & CEO), Vagelis Viskadouros (Co-founder & CTO)

## Core Business
- **Primary industry**: Retail technology / Grocery pricing & merchandising AI
- **Target customers**: B2B – grocery retailers, food and beverage businesses (e.g., Supermercado Econo)
- **Mission/purpose**: To modernize grocery pricing with AI agents that handle competitive data, elasticity modeling, automation, and analytics in one platform, helping teams boost revenue and manage margins.

## Products & Services
- **BetterBasket Platform (Athena)**: An AI-powered pricing decision engine that uses multiple AI agents to: collect competitor prices, match products, ingest & standardize data, identify pricing opportunities, execute price updates, and measure performance. The system can start with basic product/price/sales data and becomes more effective over time. Type: SaaS with AI agents.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not disclosed (early-stage startup)
- **Key Metric**: Total funding undisclosed (accepted into Y Combinator W24; likely received standard YC funding). Team size: 5 employees (as of YC profile).
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Y Combinator; advisors include Wharton (UPenn) researchers. First customer: Supermercado Econo (signed at Groceryshop 2023).
- **Growth Signals**: Graduated from Y Combinator’s W24 batch; founders previously generated $100M in revenue at Uber Eats’ grocery platform; currently expanding product capabilities (e.g., fresh produce matching, zone pricing).

## Competitive Advantages
- **Specific moats**: Purpose-built for grocery complexity (UPC, private-label, fresh produce matching); competitive data scraping + deterministic similarity scoring; ability to start with minimal data and improve over time; integration with POS and back-office systems; real-time AI-driven recommendations with projected revenue/margin tradeoffs.
- **Differentiators**: Agentic approach (multiple specialized AI agents) vs. disconnected tools or manual workflows; built by former Uber Eats grocery platform leads who understand operational pain points firsthand.

## Strategic Focus
- **Current priorities**: Continuing to refine AI agents for pricing, promotions, and assortment; expanding customer base among mid-to-large grocery retailers; enabling automated price execution for online stores and physical stores with digital price tags. Open to meeting potential hires but not actively recruiting for specific roles.

## Why Work Here
- **Culture highlights**: Early-stage startup (5 people) with YC pedigree – high ownership, direct impact on product and customers. Founders have strong operational experience (Uber Eats grocery platform). Emphasis on solving a real, large-scale problem (95% of US consumers changing habits due to volatile prices).
- **Remote/hybrid/office**: Likely in-person/hybrid in San Francisco (based on YC listing and office location). Not explicitly stated.
- **Notable perks**: Not listed, but typical early-stage perks include equity, flexible schedule, and the opportunity to shape the company’s direction. Engineering roles posted with salary range $120K–$160K (San Francisco); intern roles $6K–$10K/month.

## Sources
1. [ycombinator.com – BetterBasket job](https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/betterbasket/jobs)
2. [betterbasket.com – Company page](https://betterbasket.com/company)
3. [ycombinator.com – BetterBasket profile](https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/betterbasket)
4. [betterbasket.ai – Product features](http://betterbasket.ai/)

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