Founder Associate Intern

About the Role

This is a hands-on internship embedded directly within the founding team of a pre-seed AI recruiting startup, working to connect exceptional talent with career-defining opportunities at top VC-backed companies. You'll play a pivotal role in delivering an outstanding candidate experience and driving real outcomes at a critical stage of company growth. The role carries genuine responsibility and is ideal for someone who thrives in high-ownership, fast-moving environments.

What You'll Do

• Manage relationships with candidates end-to-end, from initial outreach through placement.

• Identify and engage exceptional talent seeking roles at high-growth startups.

• Collaborate directly with founders to match candidates to the right opportunities.

• Optimize and automate recruiting workflows to improve speed and quality of outcomes.

• Contribute to process improvements across candidate sourcing, screening, and communication.

• Support cross-functional initiatives as a generalist on a small founding team.

What We're Looking For

• At least 3 months of prior internship experience in a fast-paced environment such as consulting, sales, startups, or venture capital.

• Demonstrated ability to own initiatives end-to-end and deliver results with minimal oversight.

• Strong written and verbal communication skills, verifiable through professional or project work.

• Experience working in entrepreneurial, informal, and rapidly evolving team environments.

• Evidence of exceptional academic or professional performance — e.g., strong academic record, selective university attendance, substantial project work, or active technical contributions.

• Willingness to relocate to San Francisco and participate in a shared living/working (hackerhouse) setup for the duration of the internship.

• Comfortable committing to a six-day work week during the internship period.

• Prior experience in recruiting, talent acquisition, or candidate relationship management is a plus.

• Familiarity with the VC-backed startup ecosystem is a plus.

• Experience with workflow automation or process optimization is a plus.

Location

On-site in San Francisco, CA. This role operates from a shared hacker-house environment — you will live and work alongside the founding team. Relocation to San Francisco is required. Visa sponsorship is available.