Growing Ventures
AI Changed What We Build. Then It Changed Who We Hire.
I recently worked with a person on a client's venture project who was shipping faster and with better judgment than people with twice their experience.
They weren't a senior product manager nor were they a full-stack engineer – and I couldn't tell you what to call their role.
At Waterglass, AI has changed how we acquire, build and grow ventures. That's not news anymore. But what caught me off guard is just how much it has changed the kind of people we want to work with.
For years, the hiring playbook was simple: You needed a product manager? You looked for someone with ten years of product management experience. A software engineer with deep expertise in one stack? The roles were clearly defined, the titles were familiar and the more senior the hire, the better.
You found someone who fit the box on the org chart and moved on, but that playbook no longer holds.
What I saw on a recent project with a client
We recently finalized a venture building collaboration with one of our clients. On their side was a young, AI-native person with a growing sense of engineering and a sharp feel for how to get the most out of AI tools.
Not classically senior in any discipline. But genuinely fluent across several, because AI extended their reach into areas that would have previously required separate specialists.
And here's the thing that stuck with me: they were outperforming people who, on paper, should have been miles ahead. Not because they were smarter. Because they knew how to leverage AI as a multiplier across product thinking, engineering, and execution – all at once.
I had not seen this profile before. Not like this.
The profile that actually matters
The person who thrives right now is genuinely hard to describe in a job posting. It looks something like this:
- Fluent in AI and aware of its limits,
- Strong product instincts paired with engineering literacy
- Not a specialist in one domain, but effective across several
(because AI extends their reach)
You can't filter for this kind of talent on LinkedIn. You recognize it when you see it in action, in the speed of their output, the quality of their judgment calls and how naturally they move between disciplines.
I think founders who are still hiring strictly for "Senior PM" or "Full-Stack Engineer" are working from an outdated map. Those titles made sense when each role required years of deep, isolated expertise to be effective, but AI has compressed that curve dramatically.
The hard part isn't convincing yourself this is real. It's figuring out how to find these people when they don't fit any standard job title.
What I'd suggest
- Stop screening for years of experience in a single discipline. Instead, screen for range and AI fluency instead
- Pay attention to how someone uses AI in their workflow during the interview process – and maybe even restructure your interview process altogether
- Consider younger, non-traditional profiles who grew up building with AI tools rather than without them
- If you see someone who moves fluidly between product, engineering and AI, don't let them go
Find someone at the intersection of product sense, engineering literacy and AI fluency and your team becomes almost unstoppable.
I'm still figuring out what to call this role, but I know I want more of them around.