From small-town India to a $20M US startup: Ayush Jaiswal on building Pesto Tech

Executive overview

Most global engineering talent never gets discovered by companies that need them. Pesto Tech bridges that gap by creating a vetted marketplace where software engineers from anywhere in the world can access jobs at US and global companies.

Ayush Jaiswal pivoted from an income-share training model to a subscription-based matching platform after realising AI had shifted demand away from junior engineers and toward proven, self-directed talent. The platform uses AI-powered code analysis to replace manual recruiter workflows entirely.

The core insight: AI will do for recruitment what Google did for search — turning a slow, high-volume process into instant, high-precision matching.

The pivot from income-share to marketplace

• Pesto originally trained engineers and took a percentage of future income, similar to Lambda School's model
• Early cohorts saw engineers achieve 7x pay increases within three months — but 50%+ of participants didn't get equivalent outcomes
• By design, income-share creates misaligned incentives when supply outpaces demand
• AI reduced demand for junior engineers, making training-plus-placement economically fragile
• Pivoted in 2023 to a free-for-engineers, subscription-for-companies platform
• The new model focuses on one problem: connecting already-capable engineers to opportunity

How the platform works

• Engineers apply, complete a take-home coding challenge, and are vetted via AI code analysis
• Accepted rate is ~3%: 700 accepted from 30,000 organic applicants across 23 countries
• Companies pay a subscription fee and get instant AI-matched profiles to a job description
• A copilot feature lets companies say "show me more people like this candidate" — AI maps skill sets and surfaces similar profiles
• No recruiter middlemen; target is to eliminate the 35–60% marketplace take rate so more value flows to developers

AI and the future of software engineering

• AI will reduce demand for certain lower-level engineering tasks, not engineers overall
• Engineers will shift toward higher-value, more meaningful work — similar to how frameworks eliminated repetitive boilerplate
• Skills are becoming more measurable with AI, making degrees progressively less relevant as a hiring proxy
• The engineers best positioned for the transition are those who build continuously and adapt fast
• Pesto's thesis: within a few years, hiring will work like food delivery — describe what you need, get matched instantly

On remote work

• Remote work is viable but introduces added complexity — not recommended for a startup's first or second hire
• At scale, large companies are already functionally remote across floors and offices
• The real requirement is discipline, which an office enforces structurally but can also be built consciously
• Remote gives developers the ability to stay near family and avoid high urban rent costs
• Hybrid will remain dominant in volume, but fully remote is here to stay for the right roles and teams

Advice for engineers and aspiring founders

• Build things you can showcase publicly — portfolios matter more than credentials
• Learn constantly and move with the market; skills are what employers increasingly measure
• Travel early, before family constraints increase logistics — exposure expands your frame of reference
• Don't wait until you've built something that works before coming to Silicon Valley; come first and build here
• Ask for help directly — more people will show up to support genuine founders than you expect
• The Silicon Valley ecosystem is uniquely open to helping early-stage founders who are actively building

On the geopolitical shift and India's rise

• India is increasingly producing top founders and executives, especially in tech (several Bay Area CEOs cited)
• India leads on delivery speed and digital infrastructure for daily services — groceries and medicine in under 10 minutes
• The US remains dominant in software and AI ecosystems; the Bay Area energy post-2023 is unprecedented
• Long-term, a multipolar world is already forming — US, China, and India as distinct innovation centres
• India's global posture (vaccines, aid, soft power) is distinct from debt-trap diplomacy used by others