How we helped Colare hire a Full-Stack Engineer in 3 days, interview to offer
February 2026
About Colare
Colare is a San Francisco startup building a hiring platform for deep-tech engineers. It runs simulation-based assessments across mechanical, electrical, and software disciplines, with real CAD and EDA tooling streamed to candidates' browsers.
The platform is built around a custom simulation environment. It streams Onshape and KiCad sessions over Docker and VNC, serves dynamic assessment UIs from S3, and exposes APIs to the team's AI pipeline. To build that out, founders Nain Abdi and Esther Thomas needed a Full-Stack Engineer who could own the simulation platform end-to-end.
The Challenge
The role asked for a rare combination. Production React, Next.js, and TypeScript, Node plus Prisma and Postgres on the backend, plus hands-on experience with Docker, VNC, and streaming GUI applications, session-based and real-time systems on WebSockets, and operating workloads on AWS. Most full-stack candidates had the web half but not the streaming-GUI half.
On top of that, the engineer would be the only person owning the simulation platform initially. They had to be senior enough to architect it, but scrappy enough to debug Guacamole session management and S3 artifact pipelines themselves.
"The new full-stack role requires a rare combination of skills. All of these in one candidate is going to be rare."
How TechKareer Helped
We re-scoped sourcing around the streaming-GUI signal rather than generic "full-stack at a startup," and screened on real systems candidates had built, not buzzwords.
- Signal-driven sourcing. We prioritized engineers who had shipped browser tab streaming, remote desktop, screen-share, or interview-platform style products in production.
- Architecture-style screens. Instead of trivia, we asked candidates to walk through their existing implementations and propose how they would extend them to new tools (for example, from browser-tab streaming to desktop-app streaming).
- End-to-end candidate concierge. Interview scheduling, timezone coordination, prep, and reminders all run from our side, so founder time was spent on evaluation only.
- Offer and notice negotiation. Once Colare wanted to move forward, we landed comp at the candidate's expectation, worked his short notice period into a clean start date, and held him through the Rippling offer flow.
The Outcome
Sanchit stood out immediately. In his current role he had shipped both a browser tab streaming system and a desktop activity agent, and during the screen he walked through how he would evolve the tab-stream architecture to also support full desktop-app streaming. That was exactly the trajectory Colare's simulation platform was on.
Colare interviewed him, decided to move forward the same day, and the founders were happy to stretch the comp band for an A-player fit. We landed terms quickly, navigated his short notice period into a clean start date, and he joined on his target date in February 2026.
About a month later Esther came back with: "Hey Harsh, can we also recruit for another full stack? Like Sanchit, he is phenomenal." That was the strongest signal the placement was working.
Meet the hire
Sanchit Wadehra
LinkedInFull-Stack Engineer at Colare
Already shipping the things Colare needed in production. A browser tab streaming system and a desktop activity agent at his previous role. In the screen he walked through how he would evolve the tab-stream architecture into full desktop-app streaming, which is exactly the trajectory Colare's simulation platform is on. Three days between the founder interview and a signed offer.
What Colare Said
"Can we also recruit for another full stack? Like Sanchit, he is phenomenal."