Operating Partner

Location: Austin, TX

Type: Fractional / Part-Time (~40 hours/month to start)

Reports to: Direct to Managing Partner and Exec Chair; Dotted to Director of Portfolio Success

About Palm Venture Studios

Palm Venture Studios provides second-chance capital and hands-on operational support to promising startups. In the past 24 months, we've acquired meaningful interest in 30+ impact-driven companies —from farm-to-fridge grocery to matchmaking and from men’s wellness to solving the medical debt crisis and beyond.

Backed by a family office with a remarkable track record (35 companies, 30+ add-ons, 18 exits, 21x ROIC), we're looking for an Operating Partner to help turn these missions into durable consumer businesses, fast.

The Opportunity

This is a part-time role for someone who is ready to be all in.

We're looking for someone who is eager to help build out an impact-driven studio— perhaps an exited founder, an active angel, or a serial operator who misses the work but not the grind of doing it alone. You'll work hands-on with CEOs across the portfolio guiding strategic direction, digging into the details, and serving as a primary mentor and advisor. 

Responsibilities:

• Own the operating rhythm — a structured cadence of virtual CEO group support sessions, 1:1 advisory, portfolio reviews, and hands-on support between meetings, designed in partnership with a top executive coach
• Leverage your expertise, your network, and Palm's network to help founders move through the milestones that matter in D2C — ranging from validating the business thesis, to finding first customers, to nailing message-market fit, to proving unit economics, and scaling channels profitably.
• Interface with Palm leadership to share insights, proactively flag concerns, and inform portfolio-wide strategy and platform evolution 
• Spot gaps in resources, expertise, and/or experience and connect CEOs to the right resources fast, whether that’s Palm’s platform teams (legal, finance, recruiting), or a difference-making industry expert. 
• Coach founder-CEOs at regular cadence and as-needed, providing hands-on support — making decisions with balanced urgency and psychological safety.

Success means:

• CEOs achieve their milestones — and their missions — faster and with more joy and ease because of your partnership. This will show up in their performance, and in how they speak about you. 
• Palm principals get leverage. That means better visibility into portfolio health, clearer inputs for decision-making, a platform that evolves because of what you bring back from the field, and a network that grows richer through yours.

About You

You're an Austin-based serial consumer business builder who's been the operator in the room across diverse startups — before and after product-market fit — multiple times. You've lived the milestones our founders are pursuing from aligning plan to thesis, to finding first customers, to nailing message-market fit, to scaling channels profitably.

You likely bring the following:

• Been the operator in the room—Founder, CEO, COO, CMO, or Head of Sales—across multiple consumer startups, pre- and post-PMF.
• Scaled a brand from first customer through profitable channel at 2x+ ROAS.
• Architected the growth engine—acquisition, retention, brand positioning, CAC—plus the underlying mechanics: pricing, merchandising, forecasting, inventory, and cash flow.
• Built a "battle-tested" rolodex of experts they've called on when things got sideways.
• Coached founders through messy decisions with equal parts urgency and psychological safety.

Why this, why now? The money is helpful, but that's not why you'd say yes. You'd say yes because:

• A Leveraged Way to Help Compelling Companies Win. The highest possible leverage on your time - helping other CEOs working on compelling things win.  
• Challenge, Variety, Fun. A diverse portfolio of companies at different stages, not one problem on repeat.
• Equity, Board Trajectory, Expanded Scope. Relationships that open doors to future stakes, formal board roles, and more full-time work with Palm. 
• Network and Community. A tight, Austin-centered community of founders, investors and operators, backed by Palm's 30-year track record and startup studio infrastructure.

Want to build with us? Put your hat in the ring!