Tom Smykowski is a remote founding engineer based in Poland with nearly two decades of experience in product delivery, combining deep engineering, UX, and product thinking. He is the ideal hire for founders, CTOs, and executives seeking an ownership-minded partner to take a product from discovery through production, particularly for teams in the EU, UK, and US needing a reliable technical co-founder or early-stage technical leader.
What a Remote Founding Engineer Actually Does
A remote founding engineer is more than just the first technical hire. This role embodies the technical co-founder spirit, taking full ownership of the product's technical vision, architecture, and execution. The responsibilities span from translating founder ideas into a viable MVP, making critical technology stack decisions, and building the initial team, to establishing engineering practices that will scale.
For a remote-first or distributed startup, this role carries additional weight. The founding engineer must excel at asynchronous communication, create clarity across time zones, and build systems that are maintainable and well-documented from day one. Tom's experience working remotely with international teams at companies like Croissant and Printify, and his own SaaS venture, Websoul, demonstrates his proficiency in this exact environment. He understands how to foster collaboration and maintain momentum without the crutch of a physical office.
The output is not just code, it's a functioning, scalable product and a foundation for future engineering growth. This involves setting up CI/CD pipelines, defining coding standards, implementing monitoring, and often wearing hats across frontend, backend, DevOps, and even product management. It's a role defined by extreme ownership and a bias for action.
Core Skills for a Founding Engineer
Technical breadth and depth are non-negotiable. A founding engineer must be comfortable across the stack, making decisions that balance speed, scalability, and maintainability. Tom's expertise spans modern frontend frameworks like Vue.js and React, TypeScript for type-safe development, backend and API design, and database architecture with platforms like Supabase. His work on complex data interfaces using tools like AG Grid and building design systems ensures the product is both powerful and user-friendly.
Beyond pure coding, strategic product thinking is paramount. A founding engineer must constantly evaluate trade-offs, question requirements, and propose solutions that align with business goals. Tom's background includes direct partnership with CEOs and CTOs, as seen in his staff engineer role at Croissant, where he worked on compliance and collaboration features critical to the business model. This product-minded approach ensures that every technical decision serves a clear business objective.
Finally, leadership and communication are critical, especially in a remote setting. A founding engineer sets the technical culture, mentors early hires, and acts as the bridge between the founding team and the technical implementation. Tom's experience in technical writing, public speaking, and mentoring provides him with the tools to articulate complex concepts clearly and build a cohesive, informed team from the start.
Proven Impact from Discovery to Scale
Tom's track record demonstrates the full lifecycle impact a founding engineer can deliver. At Websoul, which he founded, he built a marketing automation SaaS from the ground up, scaling it to serve over 32,000 businesses. This involved everything from initial architecture, frontend development in Vue and TypeScript, backend services, and go-to-market strategy, providing a complete case study in taking a product from zero to scale.
His work as a staff software engineer at Croissant involved deep partnership with the CTO on core platform features, directly impacting the product's compliance and collaboration capabilities. At Printify, he contributed to a large-scale design system and rebrand ahead of a significant merger, working within a frontend team of around 60 engineers. This shows his ability to not only build from scratch but also to integrate into and modernize complex, high-scale environments.
Earlier projects, like leading frontend at Fream for an industrial SaaS product, involved creating map-based interfaces and conversion-focused UX, solving real-world problems for business clients. These experiences across startups, scale-ups, and enterprise clients like GE Healthcare and Unilever provide a well-rounded perspective on what it takes to build a product that survives and thrives in the market.
Why Remote Founding Engineers are a Strategic Advantage
Hiring a remote founding engineer, particularly one based in an EU country like Poland, offers distinct strategic advantages. It provides access to a global talent pool, unconstrained by geography, allowing you to find the perfect skillset and cultural fit for your vision. This model also aligns with modern, distributed startup practices, building a remote-first culture from inception, which can be a significant long-term asset for talent acquisition and operational resilience.
For EU, UK, and US-based teams, a Poland-based engineer like Tom offers convenient time zone overlap. Collaboration with US East Coast teams and full-day overlap with UK and Western European teams is seamless. This facilitates real-time communication when needed while also supporting focused deep work. The remote model also often translates to cost efficiency without compromising on world-class expertise or commitment.
Perhaps most importantly, a remote founding engineer brings an external, objective perspective. Free from the echo chamber of a single location, they can challenge assumptions and introduce diverse practices gleaned from a global career. Tom's work with teams across continents and industries equips him with a broad toolkit of solutions and patterns that can be uniquely valuable to a nascent venture.
Engagement Models for Founding-Level Work
Founding engineer engagements are highly collaborative and can take several forms depending on the stage and needs of the business. Tom is open to full-time employment, long-term B2B contracts, and project-based engagements that provide the deep focus and ownership this role requires. The key is establishing a partnership model where he can embed deeply within the founding team and share in the mission and outcomes.
For early-stage startups needing to validate an idea or build an MVP, a project-based or part-time B2B contract can be an ideal way to gain senior-level expertise without a full-time commitment. This allows founders to test the working relationship and make significant technical progress before scaling the team. Tom's experience building MVPs and his product-focused approach make him particularly suited for these exploratory phases.
For more established startups seeking to scale or modernize their technology, a full-time or retained fractional leadership role may be appropriate. Here, the focus expands from pure execution to include technical leadership, hiring, and process design. Tom's background in setting up AI-assisted software factories, improving developer productivity, and mentoring engineers positions him to build not just a product, but a high-performing engineering organization around it.
When This is a Good Fit
Engaging Tom as your remote founding engineer is a strong fit if you are a founder or CTO with a compelling product vision but need a technical partner to execute it. It is ideal if you value ownership, product-minded engineering, and clear communication, and if your team operates remotely across the EU, UK, or US. This partnership works best when there is mutual respect for the blend of technical depth, strategic thinking, and leadership required to transform an idea into a scalable, market-ready product.