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How to Actually Get Hired
Who reads applications, which channel gets a reply, and what they screen for.
Don't make these mistakes
Sending a generic crypto enthusiast email. Sid has been very specific in every interview about what the problem is and why existing privacy solutions fail to solve it. He is dismissive of anything that doesn't take compliance seriously alongside privacy. If you haven't read the Payy Network whitepaper at docs.payy.network, don't reach out yet. The Hacker Engineer role specifically says 'ex-founder,' so if you have built something, lead with that, don't bury it in the third paragraph.
What gets their attention
The CEO told The Block directly: Payy "plans to hire across business development and engineering roles." That is not boilerplate. The company has 12 people and is heading into a mainnet launch, an enterprise sales push into financial institutions and fintech platforms, and the onboarding of a dozen design partners already building on testnet. Two engineering roles are live on the careers page at polybaselabs.com/careers. The Rust Engineer role signals that the core protocol and networking layers are being built or rebuilt in Rust, which is standard for high-performance ZK infrastructure. The Hacker / Ex-Founder Engineer role is the more distinctive signal: they are specifically looking for someone with a founder background, not just a strong engineer. That role title is a direct statement of culture and operating expectation. At 12 people heading into a mainnet launch, every hire needs to make decisions autonomously and ship without a lot of oversight.
Why applying the normal way doesn't work
At this size (<50 people), PAYY has no recruiting function. Founders handle hiring alongside everything else. Reach them directly or get lost in the inbox.
Who to contact at PAYY
Founding team
Sid is one of the more technically credible consumer privacy advocates in crypto, which is a combination that's rarer than it sounds. He spent his formative engineering years at Apple, specifically on iOS privacy products, and also worked at Cruise, the Waymo competitor, before pivoting into web3. Those two environments, Apple's consumer product culture and Cruise's high-stakes systems engineering culture, are visible in how Payy is built: a custom chain built from first principles for privacy, but wrapped in a product experience that is explicitly designed to be usable by people who have never touched crypto. He has been blunt in public about his motivations in ways that most founders aren't: 'Either I'm crazy or everyone else is crazy, because you just can't build a financial system without the core pillar of confidentiality.' He has given interviews to CoinDesk, The Block, and The Rollup, and maintains an active presence on X. The Payy card also features an embedded OLED screen powered by NFC energy harvesting, which is either the most extra hardware flex in DeFi or genuine product vision, depending on your perspective.
Calum is the quieter but deeply experienced engineering half of the founding pair, and his background is notably non-linear. He studied Management Studies (not computer science) at the University of Sheffield, then spent time at Accenture as a consultant and analyst, then at Virgin Media as a technical project manager, before pivoting into building. His first company was Zeplo, a webhook queuing service that he built and which became the legal incorporation vehicle for Polybase Labs (the company is still incorporated as Zeplo Inc.). His second was Snapboard, a no-code internal tools platform he took through YC Winter 2020 as a solo founder, described by TechCrunch as 'Airtable, but with all of your data already in there.' Snapboard was itself born from a 'build one product a week for a year' personal challenge, which says something about how he operates. He brought that same systematic, builder-first approach to Polybase, co-authoring the technical architecture for a custom ZK rollup chain with no prior blockchain infrastructure experience in his background. The pivot from no-code tools to ZK cryptography is unusual enough that it's worth asking about directly.
What to show them
The Payy Network is a custom ZK rollup built from scratch outside of EVM. That is serious systems engineering territory. Rust is the language of choice for the core protocol work, which aligns with the broader ZK infrastructure stack where Rust dominates (Risc Zero, Aztec, StarkWare all use Rust extensively). This role is likely touching the core networking, proof generation, or settlement layer of the protocol ahead of mainnet. Core skills: Rust, zero-knowledge proof systems (Plonky2, Halo2, Groth16 or similar), EVM-adjacent or custom blockchain development, cryptographic primitives, systems programming, performance-critical distributed systems. Proof of work: Write a brief technical explainer (500 words or a GitHub gist) on one design tradeoff you'd make when building a ZK-proof settlement layer for private stablecoin transactions, specifically around the tension between proof generation speed and privacy guarantees. Send it to hello@polybase.xyz. It directly engages the engineering problem Payy is solving and shows you've read the whitepaper at docs.payy.network.
A cold email that works at PAYY
What PAYY screens for
What they look for: The CEO told The Block directly: Payy "plans to hire across business development and engineering roles." That is not boilerplate. The company has 12 people and is heading into a mainnet launch, an enterprise sales push into financial institutions and fintech platforms, and the onboarding of a dozen design partners already building on testnet. Two engineering roles are live on the careers page at polybaselabs.com/careers. The Rust Engineer role signals that the core protocol and networking layers are being built or rebuilt in Rust, which is standard for high-performance ZK infrastructure. The Hacker / Ex-Founder Engineer role is the more distinctive signal: they are specifically looking for someone with a founder background, not just a strong engineer. That role title is a direct statement of culture and operating expectation. At 12 people heading into a mainnet launch, every hire needs to make decisions autonomously and ship without a lot of oversight.
Don't send a generic CV to PAYY. Mirror the job posting's language to get past automated screening.
Mistakes that kill applications
At <50 people, a copy-paste CV is immediately obvious. It's an instant no.
Lead with their problem, not your ambition. PAYY is focused on Stablecoins are approaching $300B in market cap and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has projected the market growing to $3 — show you understand that.
Don't apply and wait. The median Fintech application gets no response ever. One follow-up at day five roughly doubles reply rates.
Frequently asked questions
How do I apply to PAYY?
Through the roles on our PAYY jobs page, or directly to a founder or department head if you can reach them. At <50 people, direct outreach outperforms the form.
Does PAYY respond to cold emails?
We're still collecting cold email data for PAYY.
Who is the hiring manager at PAYY?
At this size, hiring is usually run by a founder or department head.
How competitive is it to get hired at PAYY?
<50-person Fintech companies see ~50-100 applicants per role in two weeks. The 72-hour window is your advantage.
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