Fuse Energy founder insists on interviewing every engineer

Fuse Energy co-founder and chief executive Alan Chang says he personally interviews every engineer joining the energy company, arguing that founders should remain directly responsible for recruitment standards.

The approach has divided respondents on LinkedIn, as reported by BusinessCloud on 17 October 2026. Critics questioned whether keeping the founder involved in every engineering appointment helps a growing company maintain standards or restricts its ability to expand.

What happened

Chang said candidates who clear his interview receive an immediate job offer, rather than waiting for a subsequent decision. His account puts both assessment and the offer directly in the hands of the chief executive.

He also takes candidates through Fuse’s business plan himself. That discussion covers financial figures, forecasts and the choices on which the company’s strategy depends, giving prospective employees information about the business before they commit to joining.

Chang presented that disclosure as an obligation to people considering spending several years of their working lives at Fuse. His argument extends beyond testing technical suitability: candidates should understand the company they are being asked to back with their careers.

The background

Chang established Fuse with Charles Orr in 2022. The company subsequently secured a multibillion-dollar valuation following a Series B investment round in December 2025, led by Balderton Capital and Lowercarbon Capital.

The recruitment comments appeared on LinkedIn, where Chang has more than 40,000 followers. The responses came from other business and engineering leaders, making the exchange a debate about management responsibility rather than a reported dispute with applicants or employees.

What people are saying

Chang’s position was uncompromising. He said a founder who stops interviewing every engineer has “already given up on quality”. That treats personal involvement as a test of commitment to hiring standards, rather than simply one possible recruitment model.

James Mahy challenged the trust behind that position. He interpreted the approach as suggesting the founder lacked confidence in the team’s ability to identify strong recruits.

Founder and chief executive Hernan Guitart Iturriaga took a more conditional view. He argued that the relevant question was where a founder’s time could have the greatest effect at the company’s current stage. Personal interviews could be justified, but developing a team capable of applying the same standards independently could be more valuable.

That question of when to transfer responsibility also features in Pavlo Phitidis’s advice to founders on delegation before succession.

Head of engineering Anil Dave focused on the capacity of the recruitment process. He argued that engineering leadership should build a trusted hiring team, warning that continued dependence on the founder could slow recruitment as the business grows.

What happens next

In the comments reported, Chang gave no timetable for handing engineering interviews to colleagues or threshold at which he would reconsider his involvement. The account also provided no hiring target, interview volumes or measures of recruitment performance against which to assess the competing arguments.