Founder Associate Intern

About the Role

This is a hands-on internship working directly alongside a small founding team at a pre-seed AI recruitment startup, helping connect exceptional candidates with career-defining opportunities at top VC-backed companies. You'll be embedded in every part of the talent pipeline — from candidate experience to workflow optimization — and your impact will be felt immediately in a team this size.

What You'll Do

• Manage relationships with incoming candidates, ensuring a high-quality, talent-first experience throughout the process.

• Coordinate introductions between vetted candidates and hiring teams at VC-backed startups.

• Own end-to-end initiatives with minimal oversight, taking projects from problem to solution.

• Support and improve internal recruiting workflows and processes, identifying opportunities for automation and optimization.

• Collaborate directly with founders on cross-functional projects spanning operations, growth, and candidate success.

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 deliver results with full ownership of initiatives from start to finish.

• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with evidence from professional or project work.

• Comfortable operating in informal, entrepreneurial team environments with high ambiguity.

• Evidence of high academic performance or meaningful project/technical contributions (e.g. selective university, strong GPA, or active open-source work).

• Willing to relocate to San Francisco and participate in a shared live/work hacker-house environment for the duration of the internship.

• Willing to commit to a 6-day work week.

• Prior experience in recruiting or talent acquisition is a plus, but not required.

• Familiarity with the VC-backed startup ecosystem and hiring practices is a bonus.

Location

On-site in San Francisco, California. The team currently lives and works together in a shared hacker-house — relocation and full participation in this arrangement is expected. Visa sponsorship is available.