System design interviews used to be my favorite part of the full-stack engineering hiring process. They were the one place where senior engineers—the ones who actually understood how the internet worked, how data flowed, how systems behaved under pressure—could shine. And the best part was always the format: just two engineers talking through a problem, asking questions, exploring constraints, and stress-testing each other’s ideas. Exactly how real system design happens in the real world. ...

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been brushing up on LeetCode to prepare for interviews. And something happened that I genuinely didn’t expect: I was enjoying myself. I was getting that old hit—the “holy shit, it works” dopamine spike I haven’t felt during my day-to-day work in years. Maybe a decade. That feeling didn’t come from my job. It didn’t come from a product I’m building. It didn’t come from shipping a ticket or closing a Jira task. ...

Every startup divides equity based on contribution. A technical co-founder might get half the company because they build the product. A business co-founder might get half because they handle distribution, sales, partnerships—the work that actually puts the product in front of customers. Even early employees get meaningful ownership when they take on responsibilities that directly create value. Equity, in other words, matches contribution. You give up a piece of your company when someone takes on a core function of it. ...