Anton Osika, cofounder and chief executive of Lovable, the Stockholm vibe-coding startup last valued at $6.6 billion, used a LinkedIn post this week to tell laid-off Big Tech workers that the prestige jobs they lost were never as secure as they thought. His message to engineers cut from Meta, Microsoft and Google was blunt: stop wondering if you are next, and come build at Lovable instead. The company plans to hire hundreds of people globally this year.
The pitch lands on a contradiction Osika has not tried to hide. Lovable sells software that lets anyone write apps by typing plain English, a product premise that treats trained engineers as increasingly optional. Now the man behind it wants to hire those same engineers by the hundreds, and he is selling a job at a venture-funded startup as the safer choice over a paycheck from the four richest companies in tech.
Osika’s Reframing of the ‘Safe’ Job
The recruiting post, shared on the cofounder’s verified feed, aimed straight at workers caught in this year’s cuts. Osika told them the calculus that sent a generation toward Big Tech no longer holds.
The era of American big tech as the safe, prestigious choice is over.
That line, from the Lovable cofounder’s LinkedIn feed, framed the rest of the appeal. “If you are on the job market this month or tired of wondering if you are next, consider Lovable,” he wrote, adding that the company wants people who want to do the best work of their careers in an extremely fast-paced environment.
The timing is deliberate. Silicon Valley is shedding workers at a pace not seen in years even as its biggest names pour record sums into artificial intelligence. Osika is betting that the gap between those two facts, mass layoffs alongside record spending, has shaken loose enough disillusioned talent to staff a fast-growing company. He is not the only founder making that wager, but few have stated the thesis quite so directly.
A Vibe-Coding Firm Hiring Coders by the Hundreds
Here is the part that does not square neatly. Lovable’s whole reason for existing is that you should not need a computer science degree to ship software. Osika has said as much repeatedly, arguing that AI strips away the years of training that used to gate the profession.
“Curiosity, adaptability and shipping high-quality products quickly can matter more than credentials,” he told Business Insider last year, describing a world where anyone with an idea can prompt a model to build it. The company’s tagline leans into the same promise: turn a sentence into an app, no engineers required.
And yet the hiring plan is built on engineers. Lovable is recruiting across sales, product and engineering, with reports putting this year’s target near 400 new staff. A firm telling the market that coding talent is becoming a commodity is simultaneously competing hard for the best of it. The resolution, such as it is, sits in the kind of talent Lovable wants: the people who build the AI tools that let everyone else skip the training, not the people doing the boilerplate work those tools now absorb. That distinction mirrors a broader shift in the industry’s pivot toward chips, data centers and the harder infrastructure layer of AI, where demand for specialists has only grown.
So the irony is real but narrow. Lovable is not saying engineers are worthless. It is saying a specific tier of engineer is now worth chasing, and the rest can be replaced by the product it sells.
Inside Lovable’s $6.6 Billion Sprint
The confidence behind the pitch rests on one of the steepest growth curves in recent software history. Lovable, founded in 2023 and shipping its main product in late 2024, closed a $330 million Series B in December that valued it at $6.6 billion. The round drew an unusually deep investor bench.
- $330 million raised in the December Series B, led by CapitalG and Menlo Ventures’ Anthology fund.
- $6.6 billion valuation, with NVIDIA’s venture arm NVentures, Salesforce Ventures and Databricks Ventures all participating.
- $400 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR, the yearly value of subscription contracts) reported by the company by March, after crossing $100 million within eight months of launch.
- 100,000+ new projects built on the platform every day, with customers including Klarna, Uber and Zendesk.
Numbers like these, detailed in Lovable’s own Series B funding announcement, are what let Osika frame a startup job as a safe one. A company doubling revenue this fast can promise the kind of upside that a mature trillion-dollar firm structurally cannot. Whether that growth holds is the open question buried inside the pitch.
The 10% Raise and the Retention Math
Lovable has paired the recruiting push with a retention promise that reads as a direct shot at how Big Tech treats loyalty. Earlier this month, head of growth Elena Verna said every employee will get a 10% pay bump on each annual work anniversary. A company spokesperson later clarified that the 10% figure is the standard equity grant for staff meeting expectations, with bigger awards for those who outperform.
“Because we don’t take retention for granted,” Verna wrote. “It’s treated as compounding value that is actively recognized and rewarded. You don’t have to re-prove your worth every cycle.”
Set against the wider labor market, the figure stands out. The average U.S. raise runs around 3.6%, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data, and recent payroll figures show loyalty rarely pays. People who stayed put saw smaller gains than those who jumped ship.
| Group | Annual pay increase | Source and period |
|---|---|---|
| Lovable anniversary grant | ~10% | Company policy, 2026 |
| U.S. job-switchers | 6.6% | ADP, April 2025 to April 2026 |
| U.S. job-stayers | 4.4% | ADP, April 2025 to April 2026 |
| U.S. average raise | ~3.6% | Bureau of Labor Statistics |
The payroll processor ADP put the switching premium at 2.2 points in its April private-sector employment report. Lovable’s standing offer beats both the stayer and switcher rates, which is exactly the contrast Osika wants a wavering Meta engineer to sit with.
The Risk on Both Sides of the Pitch
The trouble with calling a startup the safe choice is that the data says otherwise. Roughly one in five U.S. businesses fails within the first year, and about 48.4% are gone within five years, according to federal survival statistics. Lovable is far past the garage stage, but venture-backed startups carry their own fragility: they depend on the next funding round, on growth that justifies a stretched valuation, and on a market that can turn cold fast.
The case Osika is making, and the case against it, both have weight:
- For the move: faster promotions, real equity, direct work on frontier AI, and raises that triple the market average.
- Against it: startup mortality is high, a $6.6 billion valuation sets a punishing bar for future rounds, and a single bad year can erase the equity upside that makes the offer attractive.
- The wildcard: Big Tech’s own “safe” reputation is the thing collapsing, which is what makes the pitch land at all.
That last point is where the irony resolves into something sharper. Tech layoffs have topped 142,000 this year, with Amazon cutting at least 30,000 roles since October and Meta moving on thousands more, even as the four largest platforms commit close to $700 billion in capital spending, most of it aimed at AI compute. The badge that once guaranteed stability now sits next to a spreadsheet where headcount is the line item funding the data centers. The shape of tech work is changing with it, a shift visible in how AI jobs are migrating from sleek headquarters toward the noisier work of running infrastructure. Osika did not create that anxiety. He is just the founder willing to put a recruiting URL on it. You can weigh the odds against the government’s business-survival data before deciding which bet you trust.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Lovable and what does it do?
Lovable is a Stockholm-based AI startup that makes “vibe coding” software, letting users build apps and websites by typing plain-English prompts instead of writing traditional code. It launched its main product in late 2024 and was valued at $6.6 billion in a December funding round.
Why is Lovable’s CEO recruiting laid-off Big Tech workers?
Anton Osika argues that Big Tech is no longer a safe or prestigious bet after waves of layoffs, and he wants disillusioned engineers and product staff to join a faster-growing company. Lovable plans to hire hundreds of people this year across sales, product and engineering.
What is the 10% raise Lovable is offering?
Lovable says employees receive about a 10% equity grant on each annual work anniversary if they are meeting expectations, with larger awards for outperformers. That figure is well above the roughly 3.6% average U.S. raise and beats both the 4.4% pay growth for job-stayers and 6.6% for job-switchers reported by ADP.
How risky is joining a startup like Lovable?
Startups carry real risk: about one in five U.S. businesses fails within a year and roughly 48% within five years. Lovable is well-funded and growing fast, but a $6.6 billion valuation raises the bar for future rounds, and equity upside can vanish if growth stalls.
How many tech jobs have been cut in 2026?
Tech layoffs have topped 142,000 so far this year. Amazon has cut at least 30,000 roles since October, and Meta has moved on thousands more, even as the largest platforms commit close to $700 billion in capital spending, much of it on AI.
If Lovable’s revenue keeps doubling, the engineers who trade a Meta badge for a Stockholm startup will look prescient. If the growth curve flattens before the next funding round, the word “safe” in Osika’s pitch will end up meaning something very different.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and is not career, financial or investment advice. Startup employment and equity carry significant risk, including the potential loss of value. Readers weighing a job change should consult a qualified professional. Figures are accurate as of publication.
