Founders Factory builds and funds startups together with exceptional entrepreneurs and the world’s leading companies. Created by IPO-exited founders, we offer founders capital, operational support from a team of hands-on experts, and unrivalled access to a coalition of industry-leading corporate partners. Since 2015, our 300+ portfolio companies have raised $800mm follow-on funding from a roster of notable investors.
Our Studio partners with entrepreneurs on day one, developing new ideas, technologies and business models into high growth companies. Together with Nesta, the UK’s innovation agency for social good, we’re now creating ventures that deliver social impact by means of venture-backable scale.
We’re looking for an experienced technical operator with entrepreneurial ambitions to take a new concept created and validated by our Venture Design team into the Build Phase.
The Problem:
What we eat - its price, availability and nutritional value - is a product of the farming system that creates it. Our farming system is broken. ‘Conventional’ farming practices, such as the intensive use of agrochemicals, are driving negative outcomes for both our health and the environment.
There is a growing movement to transition towards regenerative farming practices that protects nature, improves health, fights climate change and builds national food security. 72% of UK farmers are looking to use, or being pushed by retailers, regulation and rising costs, to use some regenerative techniques. But there are major barriers to transition to regen ag:
1. Capital: Requires upfront capital (working and infrastructure) to manage the 3-5 yrs transition but traditional loans not appropriate.
2. Knowledge: Farmers need support in knowing how to transition from conventional farming to regenerative practices.
Data sits at the core of regen farming, but currently exists in a siloed and analogue format. Farmers monitor soil health to understand fertility, crop rotations and to maximise yields. These data sets correlate with the data sets used for credits, financing and evidencing provenance. By digitising the data we can reduce the admin burden for farmers and unlock new revenue streams by selling nature credits to organisations looking to offset their environmental impact. Ultimately making farming more profitable in the long run whilst having a positive impact on health and the environment.
The Solution:
RE:GENO - the data management tool that finances the transition to regen
Re:geno is an app that organises your farming data and financially rewards you for regenerative farming practices.
Centralising all your farm data into one dashboardUse that data to:Insights on farm interventionsEvidence provenance investors/ buyersSell ‘Nature Credits’ e.g. carbon creditsSecure a business loanAccess expert guidance on regenerative practices Monitoring and verification supportFlexible approach: go field-by-field
Why Now?
Post-Brexit agriculture policies focus on sustainabilityOn the cusp of new, high growth biodiversity credits marketRegenerative agriculture is a moving train
Technical Co-founder Role
As part of the founding team you will be an instrumental part of shaping the product & business strategy and will have a specific expertise in data science. You will own the tech strategy and manage day-to-day engineering execution. Looking ahead, you will be responsible for helping grow the team and set up the technical capabilities of the business for growth.
Responsibilities:
- Leading hands-on coding, testing and delivery of our MVP- responding adaptively to the changing needs of the business and our design partners/first customers.
- Spearheading future hiring and development of the tech team and its culture
- Taking ownership of platform development, making critical informed decisions on technical architecture and strategy
- Working with the rest of the team to prioritise our roadmap and deliver the MVP, enabling us to test, iterate and serve our growing membership base
- Ensuring the systems architecture and infrastructure is scalable and can support growth
- Feeding into product strategy and commercial goals to identify opportunities to quickly deliver customer value
- Ensuring that the product continues to use best practices, utilising advances in AI / machine learning
🫵 What you’ll bring
- Demonstrated experience developing data strategy and machine learning algorithms for consumer applications, preferably with a agtech focus
- Knowledge of the latest practices in AI / machine learning and can creatively apply them to a consumer application
- Demonstrated ability to deliver product in a tech startup environment and with speed
- Confidence to manage a tech team to develop a mobile app, and ability to inspire and build a team
- Experience of working within an agile environment
- Experience with API Integrations to pull data from multiple sources
- Knowledge of the challenges involved in developing an AgTech product, including the regulatory requirements and liaising with agronomists/researchers, would be a bonus
- Experience building full stack application (for example HTML, CSS, React, Node js, Python and Rest APIs)
Relevant Experience & Attributes:
- Background in agtech software (ideally you’ve worked on farm management tools, natural capital or carbon credits exchange) OR background in a financial/insurance product OR data product for farmers
- Commercially savvy operator - you can prioritise the right features to drive most value
- Entrepreneurial spirit, flexibility and willingness to work across a range of areas and grittiness to operate in a start-up environment
- Deep interest in nature-friendly farming / sustainable farming / nature credits
Nice to have:
- Credibility in farming community (you’re not an outsider), and in particular nature friendly farming
- Knowledge of farm workflows and priorities, in particular understanding food supply chain and retailer / farmer interactions, impact of sustainability targets and regulation on farmers
👀 What we’re offering
- Direct involvement in shaping the product’s technological direction.
- Being a leader in an early-stage VC-backed business
- Collaborative, creative and open work environment
- Hands-on operational support from dedicated team of experts, as well as support from the wider FF team, including fundraising, leadership, mentorship, and network access
- Unparalleled access to our corporate partners and wider network (for life!):
- Office space, co-located with other companies and our team
Note - We are reviewing applications on an ongoing basis. If your background and application meets our criteria, we will be in touch to schedule an intro call.
