Entrepreneur in Residence (EIR) | Contractor

ABOUT THE ROLE We are a venture studio. We research and validate ideas in-house, then bring in an Entrepreneur in Residence to turn the strongest of them into real companies. Each venture starts with a clear thesis, a budget and a small team already in place. As EIR, you lead one venture from early build to a standalone business. You work with a small cross-functional team across product, growth, sales and engineering, test quickly with real customers, form the company, and hand it to a long-term CEO once it is ready to raise. You are the single accountable owner from start to handover. This is a hands-on operating role, not an advisory one. You push forward when the evidence supports the venture and recommend stopping early when it doesn't. KEY RESPONSIBILITIES Build - Take a validated concept and start executing from week one - Lead the product build with a small cross-functional team - Use AI and no-code tools to ship product, research and assets quickly - Set clear owners, deadlines and weekly milestones for every workstream Validate - Launch an MVP and measure real behaviour: usage, conversion, payment and retention;Run short test-and-learn cycles and drop what the data doesn't support - Build the evidence case for continued investment - Recommend stopping the venture early if traction isn't there External Relationships - Lead conversations with partners, early customers, suppliers and service providers - Drive early business development and first commercial deals - Manage contractors and specialists who don't report to you directly - Keep leadership and investors informed with regular, concise updates Company Formation - Set up the legal entity, payments and core operating systems - Put basic finance, legal and reporting processes in place - Recruit the venture's first hires - Document decisions, systems and metrics so the business can run without you Transition - Help recruit the venture's long-term CEO - Hand over the business cleanly and on schedule - Flag risks early to studio leadership before they cost time or money - Share lessons learned to improve how the studio builds future ventures SUCCESS METRICS - MVP live with paying or active users within the first 90 days. - Clear traction evidence that supports further investment, or an early, well-reasoned stop recommendation - Consistent weekly delivery across all work streams - Entity, payments and first hires in place on schedule - Long-term CEO hired and handover completed within the agreed timeline MUST-HAVE EXPERIENCE - Built or led a venture from zero as a founder, early operator or EIR - A track record of fast, disciplined execution against a plan - Daily, practical use of AI tools to build, research and ship - Led small cross-functional teams, including contractors and external partners — Made the call to stop or pivot a product when the data required it CORE COMPETENCIES Execution Speed with structure End-to-end ownership of outcomes Judgement Decides on data, not opinion Comfortable making hard calls early Leadership & Communication Leads without formal authority Clear, proactive written communication Benefits - Fully remote. No office, no commute, just you, the operating system, and wherever you do your best work. - This isn't about inheriting an established company. It's about building and continuously evolving the operating system that future ventures will run on. - Core collaboration hours: 9:00 AM–12:00 PM PST, ensuring consistent overlap with the founding team. - Contractor engagement, paid in USD. - Full compensation details will be shared directly with shortlisted candidates.