Founder's Associate

Ankar

The way companies innovate is broken. The systems built to create and protect ideas can’t keep up with the pace of change. Today, 90% of S&P 500 company value is intangible (e.g., IP) — yet R&D and IP teams spend half their time buried in manual work, sifting through patents and paperwork instead of pushing the frontier forward. The tools of creating and protecting are stuck in the past. We’re here to fix that. Ankar is building the AI Platform for the Trillion Dollar Innovation Economy — a suite of tools that helps inventors explore, create, and protect ideas. We’re removing the friction from the invention process, starting with IP protection and expanding toward creation and exploration. We’re already seeing this vision come to life: * We’ve raised >$24M to date from Tier-1 VCs like Atomico, Index Ventures, Norrsken, Daphni, and angels like the Founder of Hugging Face, CEO from Datadog, and Leaders from DeepMind and OpenAI. * We’re already working with the world’s most innovative companies including Fortune 500 company L’Oréal and global law firm Fenwick * Expanding our world-class team with alumni from Palantir, Amazon, and BCG to tackle the $1T+ innovation market. We’re just getting started. Ankar is looking for a highly organised, execution-focused Founder's Associate to work across growth, marketing, hiring, and operations. You will act as a force multiplier across some of the highest-leverage areas of the business as we scale. This is a true generalist role for someone who is hands-on, pragmatic, and energised by variety. You will help remove bottlenecks, build repeatable processes, and drive forward core business priorities across Hiring and Growth/Marketing. What you’ll be doing: * You’ll work closely with the team to support Ankar’s next stage of scale. The role will span multiple workstreams, sitting between Growth & Marketing, Hiring, and Operations. You’ll be expected to bring structure, momentum, and extremely high standards of follow-through. Your responsibilities will include: * Hiring: build a hiring machine that attracts the best people with a drive for the mission * Supporting hiring across the business, including screening calls and candidate coordination * Helping source strong talent through employer brand and related events * Growth & Marketing: make Ankar a respected and desirable brand * Supporting growth and GTM initiatives across sales and marketing * Helping plan, prepare for, and execute events, conferences, and external-facing company moments * Supporting inbound lead generation and improving the systems around it * Managing and supporting company LinkedIn content and distribution * Working closely with our Founding Growth team on priority commercial initiatives * Operations: ensure we operate in a world-class way * Automating manual operational workflows and improving internal systems * Building and redesigning operations processes so they are repeatable, scalable, and resilient * Providing finance, execution, and general operational support where needed What we are looking for * A highly organised, systematic operator with exceptional execution discipline * A true generalist who can move quickly across different workstreams throughout the year * Strong attention to detail and the ability to create order from ambiguity * Someone who can act as a force multiplier across high-pain-point areas of the business * Excellent communication skills and comfort working closely with founders and senior leaders * Strong judgement, high agency, and the ability to operate without needing heavy direction Ideally, you would also have: * Experience in an early-stage or high-growth company, either as an early hire, founder, or operator * Experience building or significantly improving an operations function from scratch * Some exposure to hiring, recruiting, or talent operations * A strong understanding of GTM as an end-to-end function across sales and marketing * Experience supporting events, conferences, employer brand, or content distribution * Familiarity with automating workflows and making manual processes scalable Culture at Ankar: Culture at Ankar is how we think, build, and operate. We’re building a generational company that redefines how the world’s best R&D teams create and protect ideas. * Contrarian - we think from first principles: We think deeply, question assumptions, and build from first principles. The best ideas come from clarity and rigour. * Creative - we build with taste: ****We’re building the R&D tools for the AI era and shaping what applied research looks like over the next 20 years. We care about precision, quality, and systems that last. * Competitiveness - we play to win: We move with urgency and set a very high bar for ourselves and each other. Every win raises the bar. Every challenge sharpens us. This role is not for you if... * You need a highly structured environment, a predefined playbook, regular working hours, or a schedule that never requires travel. We operate with high autonomy and ownership, expect our team to go above and beyond, be obsessed with our mission and thrive in ambiguity rather than wait for direction. * You prefer long planning cycles and certainty before acting. We move quickly, ship often, and adapt based on customer feedback and new information. * You want to manage the work rather than do the work. We're builders first, and everyone is expected to contribute directly to creating exceptional products. * You take it personally when ideas are challenged, priorities shift, or work gets redirected. We care more about finding the right answer than defending a particular one. What we put behind our people Building at the frontier takes exceptional people. We invest accordingly. * Health Insurance : Full private health & dental coverage for you and your dependents. * Pension: Flexible pension scheme with up to 5% employer matching on qualifying earnings. * Food on us: Team lunches twice a week, plus dinner when working late in the office. * Cycle to work: Green Commute initiative scheme (up to £3k) to help you get a new bike tax-free. * Way we work: We combine deep, in-person collaboration (3 days/week in our Shoreditch office) with flexibility and trust. What matters is ownership, impact, and results, not where you work from. What else you might want to know * Compensation: We pay competitive salaries and will reward you with a substantial equity package. * Hiring process (the process can be as fast as you want it to be): * (1) 30min introductory chat with Operations Lead * (2) 30min introductory chat with Founder * (3) onsite: 45min with Founder and 45min case study with Operations Lead

HSPG

HSPG is a social impact real estate company. Our mission is simple: Building partnerships, creating homes, developing communities. There is a critical shortage of affordable housing across the UK. We partner with Local Authorities and institutional investors to acquire and manage high-quality, demand-driven homes across multiple tenures. Across our Living Sector platforms, we are on track to acquire 12,000 homes by 2030. These homes are grouped into portfolios, professionally managed by our team, and funded by long-term institutional capital. We deliver this through two specialist operating platforms: Seahorse and PPHA. Seahorse acquires, develops and manages homes for homeless residents across England through its Homeless Affordable Rent product, meeting urgent housing need with professionally managed, high-quality accommodation. North Star: creating over 5,000 homes by 2029. PPHA, the Group’s Registered Provider, partners with local authorities, housebuilders and investors to deliver Section 106 and grant-funded Affordable Rent and Shared Ownership homes, expanding supply and creating lasting social value. North Star: creating homes for over 8,000 families or individuals by 2030. Together, these platforms enable HSPG to meet housing need at scale, creating meaningful social impact for customers and residents, while delivering sustainable, long-term returns for our partners. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Core behaviours ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Core Mission Your core mission is to protect the CEO’s time and thinking bandwidth by owning the detail, follow-up and exploratory work beneath current and future-facing ideas. You turn early-stage thinking into structured decisions, fast experiments or clear no-go conclusions, working with the internal teams, without slowing the wider business down. This role exists so the CEO can focus on strategy, capital and impact, while nothing slips underneath. This is a high-trust, high-standards leverage role. Not a yes-person, not a shadow executive, but a force multiplier. Make it your mission to make it fun. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Obsess You obsess over: * Clarity from ambiguity: turning half-formed ideas into structured thinking. * High-leverage output: outcomes over activity. * Relentless follow-up: nothing dropped, nothing drifting. * Commercial, mission-driven judgement: balancing impact and financial reality. * Speed from idea to action: reducing friction between thinking and execution. * If you are not obsessed with these, this role is not for you. Excel You excel at: * End-to-end ownership: taking workstreams from first question to final decision. * BLUF communication: bottom line up front, concise summary followed by relevant detail. * Sharp questioning: joining dots quickly and challenging constructively. * Operating at pace: progressing work without constant prompting or supervision. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Accountability You are accountable for: * Early-stage research. * Meeting preparation, action capture and structured follow-through. * Delegating and tracking actions across internal and external stakeholders. * Owning CEO-adjacent project workstreams. You are not accountable for: * Platform P&L ownership. * People management. * Culture leadership. * Brand or marketing direction. * Operational process design across platforms. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Specific experience * Experience in investment, consulting, real estate, corporate strategy or similar high-intensity environments. * Proven experience working closely with senior decision-makers. * Strong analytical and financial modelling capability welcomed, but not essential. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Progression * This is a high-leverage launchpad role. * There is no fixed progression path, which is deliberate. * If you crush this role, you will outgrow it. * Strong performance can lead into multiple areas of the business including investment, development, capital, operations or platform leadership. * Progression is not time-based. It is impact-based. * As you demonstrate sustained leverage, ownership and judgement, wewill work with you to. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 90 day wins * Early traction and proof of control. * CEO time is materially protected from research, admin and follow-up. * 100 percent of relevant meetings captured with actions owned, delegated and tracked. * At least one initiative delivered end-to-end without CEO involvement. 12 month impact outcomes * Material impact and results within first 12 months. * CEO consistently operating at strategy, capital and impact level. * Clear track record of disciplined experimentation, ideas launched, tested, iterated or intentionally killed. * Time from idea to model to decision materially reduced across projects (utilising skills internally). * SLT confidence in leverage, reliability and execution speed materially increased. * Demonstrable business impact directly accelerated by ownership and structured follow-through These outcomes are bonus-linked and reviewed monthly. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Seamflow

ABOUT SEAMFLOW We’re removing one of the last great barriers to progress in the physical world. While software moves fast, industries like healthcare, aerospace, and energy are still slowed by outdated, manual systems. Our vision is to unlock enormous value for Testing, Inspection, and Certification customers globally. The market is vast, the problem is real, and we're just getting started. We're rapidly growing with mid six-figure revenue and a 14x oversubscribed $4.5M seed round backed by Tier 1 investors including Northzone and Initialized Capital. These funds backed the founders of Coinbase, Reddit, Klarna, and Spotify. We're seeing significant traction in the market; demand is outstripping our supply, and we're building fast to keep up. THE TEAM Our team includes former unicorn founding engineers, as well as former X, Google, Amazon, Yandex, and McKinsey employees. We are looking for people who move fast, think clearly, and hold themselves to a high bar. The standard here is genuinely high, and we're looking for someone who raises it further. THE ROLE This is the role you take if you want to start your own company one day. We're hiring a Founder's Associate to work directly with the founding team on the highest-priority problems across the business. It's a full-time generalist role: part strategist, part operator, part whatever-needs-to-get-done. You'll have a front-row seat to every part of building a company, with real ownership and real responsibility. If you've spent time at McKinsey, BCG, Bain, or a top investment bank and found yourself wanting to build something rather than advise on it, this is the next step. You'll move faster, own more, and learn more here than anywhere else. Right now, our biggest challenge is converting a strong pipeline into closed deals. A lot of that work falls to the founding team, and we need someone who can take real ownership of that process alongside us. We're looking for someone who is high slope: gets up the curve fast, thrives in ambiguity, and is willing to get their hands dirty across whatever the business needs. The work will be varied, sometimes scrappy, and always meaningful. WHAT YOU’LL DO You'll work across the full business, going deep wherever the founders need leverage. You'll work with the CEO, CTO, and Chief of Staff on a daily basis. * Sales: Work directly with founders on customer conversations, synthesise insights, prepare materials, and help move deals to close. * GTM: Shape both strategy and execution of products in the pipeline. * Product: Gather deep customer insights, support discovery, map workflows, and collaborate with engineering on regulatory requirements. * Fundraising: Support outreach, build materials, prepare updates. * Expansion: Conduct market research and help define our expansion strategy. * Hiring: Lead hiring ops as we continue to grow our team. * Operations: Own internal workflows across legal/admin, tools, compliance, vendor management, and whatever the company needs to keep moving fast. WHAT WE’RE LOOKING FOR * 2–4 years at MBB, a top-tier investment bank, or a high-growth startup in an analytical or operational role. * Exceptionally organised with an obsessive attention to detail. * Sharp analytical thinker — fast on your feet, intellectually curious, quick up the learning curve. * Comfortable with ambiguity and proactive about solving problems that don't have a defined brief. * Willing to get your hands dirty and do what needs to be done, however big or small. * Strong with slides, Excel, and written communication. * Someone who wants to be in the room, not on a call. This role is in-person, full time at our Shoreditch office. WHAT YOU’LL GET * The closest thing to being a founder without starting your own company * Hands-on exposure to every part of building a business * A team that moves fast, works hard, and backs each other fully * Competitive compensation package * Lunch and dinner covered, 24/7 gym access, relocation support if needed