Founder in Residence (Venture Studio)
About the role
A co-founding role with Badge Labs — the venture studio that builds your idea into a company. You have the idea. You just don't have the team. You've spent years inside an industry. You know exactly what's broken — you probably have a name for the thing that would fix it. You've thought about building it. Maybe you've even sketched it out. What stopped you is what stops every domain expert: no engineering team, no technical co-founder, no way to get from idea to something real without quitting your job and burning 18 months. We close that gap.
What This Is
Badge Labs is a venture studio. We're the technical co-founding team. You bring the idea, the industry expertise, and the network. We build the company with you — product, brand, go-to-market, the whole thing. You own the business. We own the build. Both sides have skin in the game. This is not a dev shop. It's not an agency. It's a co-founding partnership — a venture studio model where we build the company with you, not for you.
Gaps We See Right Now
- Legal — practice management, document automation, valuation, compliance
- Healthcare practice — dental, specialty, vet, physical therapy
- Property / real estate — brokerage ops, property management, HOA, title
- Trades — HVAC, electrical, plumbing, roofing
- Financial services — RIA ops, wealth, insurance, lending
- Field service & logistics — fleet, dispatch, supply chain
- Hospitality — multi-unit, franchise, food & beverage ops
- SaaS - reversing business models
Model Overview
Your idea is the seed — but step one isn't building, it's our 360° Idea Validation Report. Before a line of code, we run the concept through a full-circle validation — market sizing, competitive teardowns, customer research — that analyzes and rates the opportunity. If it scores, we sharpen it until it's more attractive than anything already out there. If it doesn't, we find the miss — the micro-pivot in the product, the audience, or the approach that turns it into something worth building. Either way, you get an honest, rated read before we build. Then we ship it in weeks, not the 18 months a traditional team would need.
How It Works
- Apply: Short form. Tell us the industry, the gap, and the idea (if you have one).
- 30-minute call: Real conversation, not a screen.
- Step one: the validation — Have an idea? Our 360° Idea Validation Report rates the opportunity, or find the micro-pivot in product, audience, or approach that makes it win. No idea yet? Our Founder-Fit analysis maps your strengths and shapes a company you can win at and be passionate about. Either way, an honest read before we scope.
- Scope: We scope the company together: product, go-to-market, capital structure.
- Build: We ship. You launch. Co-founding from day one.
What If It Doesn't Work?
If the market doesn't respond, you keep the IP and everything we built; our equity unwinds cleanly. No lockup, no friction — you're never trapped in something that isn't working.
To Apply
The full picture — how the economics work, the terms, the FAQ, and where to apply — is at justbadge.com/founding-ceo. Don't Send a Resume. Just Tell Us Three Things:
- The industry you know cold
- The broken thing in it — and your idea for the fix, if you have one (or your conviction, if you don't)
- Why a studio partnership beats starting alone for you