At the earliest stage, Liquid was building the foundation of its product with a lean team. The first in-person engineer was a pivotal hire: someone who could build the initial infrastructure, get the product off the ground, and help define the engineering culture from day one.

What Liquid needed was specific. The company runs on autonomous individual contributors, engineers who clear a high technical bar and execute relentlessly without needing much oversight. Wang had tried hiring on his own and through other channels, but those routes did not produce the caliber of engineer Liquid was after.