Founders Associate

adaption • San Francisco, CA

1d

About The Position

As a Founders Associate at Adaption, you will serve as a right hand and force multiplier for the founding team, reducing operational burdens so the founders can focus on high-leverage decisions and accelerating the company’s early growth. The role spans operations, team strategy coordination, travel logistics, and live execution. It suits someone comfortable in an intense, fast-moving environment with constant ambiguity, frequent context-switching, and short-notice availability.

You will handle work across the full spectrum of company operations, build infrastructure and working systems, and own cross-functional special projects from first principles. You will also travel with the founders for investor meetings, conferences, hiring, and strategic offsites, managing logistics and changing needs on the ground.

Adaption is building AI systems that adapt in real time, with a focus on efficient, flexible, personalized, and accessible intelligence. The company values talent density and seeks builders and creative thinkers.

Requirements

• 1–6+ years of experience in operations, a founder's office, or special projects.
• Comfort with irregular hours, fast turnarounds, and last-minute travel demands during critical build phases.
• Ability to manage competing priorities, switch context smoothly, and keep initiatives moving without losing details.
• Low ego, high agency, a willingness to take on small tasks, and ownership of high-stakes projects.
• Strong organizational and logistical instincts, attention to detail, proactive anticipation of founder needs, and reliable administrative follow-through.
• Adaptability and a collaborative, bold, idea-oriented approach.

Nice To Haves

• Experience in a fast-paced, early-stage startup environment.
• Former founder experience.

Responsibilities

• Serve as a central point of leverage for the founders by removing operational friction, anticipating needs, and coordinating next steps.
• Handle tasks across operations, including procurement and team logistics.
• Build internal rituals, communication channels, and operational infrastructure to keep a fast-growing, distributed team aligned and efficient.
• Shift between strategic problem-solving and immediate tactical work according to founder priorities and urgent operational needs.
• Travel with the founders for investor meetings, conferences, key hires, and strategic offsites; manage travel logistics, schedule changes, and live operational needs.
• Own high-priority cross-functional special projects end-to-end, including ambiguous problems that require building working systems from scratch.

Benefits

• Flexible work, including in-person collaboration in the Bay Area, a distributed global-first team, and team offsites.
• Annual travel stipend to explore a country not previously visited.
• Weekly meal allowance for take-out or grocery delivery.
• Comprehensive medical benefits.
• Generous paid time off.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Entry Level
• Education Level: No Education Listed