Venture Builder (Product Lead/Product Design Engineer)

Contract: 2-Year Fixed Term (with potential for full-time transition)

Location: London, United Kingdom

Founders Factory builds and funds startups together with exceptional entrepreneurs and the world's leading companies. Created by IPO-exited founders and named Startup Hub in the UK by the Financial Times, we offer founders capital, operational support from a team of hands-on experts, and unrivalled access to a coalition of industry leading corporate partners. Since 2015, our 300+ portfolio companies have raised $900mm follow on funding from a roster of notable investors.

Who are we looking for?

At Founders Factory, we believe that exceptional founding teams aren't just born-they're built. That's why we've created the Fast Track Program, a two-year immersive experience designed to equip ambitious individuals with the skills, mindset, and network needed to launch and scale startups.

As a Venture Builder, you'll play a hands-on role as part of a founding team, working side-by-side with a founder to turn early-stage ideas into high-growth startups. You'll take ownership of shaping and validating new business concepts, rapidly building MVPs, testing with real users, and iterating toward product-market fit.

You'll bring a strong blend of product thinking, design, and technical understanding, along with a deep interest in technology, entrepreneurship, and solving meaningful problems.

This is a rare opportunity for aspiring founders to experience the full journey of building a startup from 0 to 1.

• Product development: Taking ownership of the end-to-end product build, including validating, ideating, building and launching an early MVP in market and bringing to life the customer experience and business vision/mission
• Experimentation : Own, plan and execute experiments that build momentum in the business and help us validate assumptions
• Customer definition: Be the voice of the customer. Having a human-focused approach to building technology businesses, balancing the customer needs and the business requirements
• Vision/Mission: Ensure there is a clear vision and purpose and we are embodying and communicating the values
• Cheerlead your venture: You will be aware of the studio stage gates and support the founders in working towards a positive IC decision
• Stakeholder management: Communicate progress and share updates to the rest of the studio team, work with our corporate partners to unlock unfair advantage to the rest of the team

• Product Development - Ability to take ownership of the end-to-end product lifecycle, from ideation to MVP launch
• Experimentation & Validation - Experience with running rapid experiments, analyzing results, and iterating based on data
• User-Centered Design - Strong understanding of UX/UI principles and the ability to build products with a human-focused approach
• Technical Acumen - Knowledge of tech stacks, product architecture, and working with development teams to bring concepts to life
• Entrepreneurial Mindset - Passion for startups, innovation, and venture building, with a proactive and problem-solving approach
• Strategic Thinking - Capable of aligning product development with the broader vision, mission, and business goals
• Stakeholder Management - Strong communication and collaboration skills to work with founders, investors, and corporate partners.
• Experience in a Startup or Venture Studio - Prior experience in an early-stage startup or venture-building environment

• Previous founding and/or fundraising experience
• Experience with Corporate Partnerships - Ability to leverage relationships with corporate partners to create business advantages
• Growth Hacking & Marketing - Knowledge of user acquisition, retention strategies, and growth tactics (e.g. setting up and tracking ads or building sales playbooks)

What You'll Gain

• First-Hand Startup Experience - Work alongside seasoned founders, operators, and investors
• Founder playbook - Access company wide learnings from across the operations team including partnerships, sales, growth, talent, product, fundraising, venture design
• Founding Team Readiness - At the end of the 6 month sprint, you will have the opportunity to spin out and join a founding team

• Quick thinking and intuition, someone who can balance creativity with objective data
• A passion for creating products people love, caring about product performance is key
• The ability to adapt and operate in an ambiguous environment
• Comfortable with taking risks
• Wanting to continuously improve your skills and productivity, challenging yourself when you can
• Strong leadership that drives outcomes
• Being approachable and optimistic

• 30 minute introduction with Kyling (Venture Builder)
• 30 minute case study presentation with Kyling and Claire (Chief Studio Officer)
• 1 hour task based on a historic project to simulate the role
• Culture interview - have a chat with others in the Venture Builder team to get a feel for the culture and the people you'll be working with