Founder & CEO
Founders Factory is a global venture studio and accelerator that builds and funds startups alongside exceptional entrepreneurs and the world's leading corporations. It provides capital, operational support from a 60+ person team of operators, and access to a coalition of corporate partners, focusing on sectors like Fintech, Health, Industrials, and Deep Tech.
About Founders Factory
Founders Factory backs visionary founders with capital, dedicated support from a team of 60+ operators, and unrivalled access to a coalition of industry-leading corporate partners. It operates a Venture Studio (co-founding new companies with the backing of its team and partners) and an Accelerator (helping startups raise capital and grow in pre-seed and seed stage investment programs). Its platform spans Capital (funding startups at idea, pre-seed and seed stages), Operational Support (co-founder level support to help find product-market fit, build companies, and raise rounds), Corporate Partners (access to distribution, market intelligence, commercial partnerships and follow-on capital), and Community & Network (operating at the centre of Europe's tech ecosystem with a global community of founders, investors and corporate innovators). The company runs multiple sector-specific accelerator programs globally (e.g. Northwestern Medicine Healthcare Accelerator, Aviva Fintech Accelerator, Rio Tinto Mining Tech Accelerator, MSWA MS & Neurological Care Accelerator, HSBC Industrial Innovator Programme, Blue Action Accelerator) and has built a portfolio of 450+ startups across Fintech, Health, Deep Tech, Climate, Mining Tech, AI, Media, and other sectors, with notable exits including Monolith, Landvault, Fluidstack, Flourish, Feedr, and Honest Health.
Skills
About the Role
You will step in as Founder & CEO to build and scale MeisterMatch, an AI-native recruiter designed to solve Germany's acute skilled trades labor shortage. You will lead the company from zero to one with Founders Factory's backing and Vonovia as your first customer and design partner. You'll drive the development of the platform's conversational AI agents, one that onboards tradespeople via WhatsApp and voice without requiring a CV, and another that delivers qualified candidate shortlists to hiring managers within 48 hours. You'll build out the taxonomy mapping for over 130 recognized German crafts and the international qualification standards behind it. You will build a world-class team, attract enterprise customers, and raise venture funding to grow the business. You'll need to move comfortably between conversations with C-suite executives at Vonovia and tradespeople on construction sites, turning your market insight into a defensible, compounding talent network.
Requirements
- Experienced founder or builder capable of operating from zero to one in the HR-tech or marketplace space
- Unique market insight into the German "Mittelstand" or the skilled trades sector
- Proven ability to build a world-class team, attract enterprise customers, and raise venture funding
- Strong product/tech instincts to lead the development of conversational AI and qualification mapping engines
- A clear vision for how to engage a mobile-first, non-desk workforce
- High IQ and EQ
- Deep understanding of the German market and German language fluency
- Evidence of thriving in ambiguity with a high aptitude for building defensible network effects
Responsibilities
- Lead MeisterMatch as Founder and CEO from zero to one
- Build a world-class team
- Attract enterprise customers
- Raise venture funding
- Lead development of conversational AI and qualification mapping engines
- Engage a mobile-first non-desk workforce
- Map international qualifications to German craft standards
- Build defensible network effects through referral mining
Benefits
- Co-found a company with Founders Factory's team of IPO-exited founders and entrepreneurs
- Access to an expert team through the Venture Studio and 6-month accelerator programme
- €760k combined cash and hands-on support
- Dedicated studio budget including founder stipend, specialist resource and infrastructure budget
- Access to Vonovia's technical services division as a design partner and first customer