Lead a venture from day zero inside an AI-first venture studio

Some of the strongest entrepreneurs never get the seat that would prove it.

They've been in the early-stage room before as a founding product manager, a first general manager, or the third hire who ended up running half the company. They've shipped real things. They've sat across from customers and learned what nobody else in the building knew. They have an instinct for what could be a company and what shouldn't be.

But they haven't gotten to lead one yet.

If that's familiar, this is for you.

The Entrepreneur in Residence (EIR) program is a 6-month fellowship with Renaissance Philanthropy in partnership with Gitwit Venture Studio and part of the new Northwest Arkansas Innovation Fund from Renaissance Philanthropy. You will be part of Gitwit's new Northwest Arkansas office. This program is designed for the operator who has already been close to the work of building a company, and is ready to step into the seat that runs it.

This is not your typical fellowship. It's not a research role. It's not the version of EIR where you spend six months refining your own thesis. We're a problem-first studio. We find the problems. You'll lead the work of turning one into a real company.

You'll learn by doing the actual job: customer discovery, market validation, prototype direction, early sales, investor pitching, the whole sprawl alongside the partners, engineers, and design partners that make the studio engine run.

From Gitwit’s Perspective

Gitwit is an AI-first venture studio. We find problems worth solving, validate them rigorously, and build AI-native companies from the ground up. We're on pace to launch 15+ ventures in the next four years.

We're opening our Northwest Arkansas office in Bentonville in Summer 2026, and as we expand the studio engine, we want to find the region's hidden entrepreneurs. The operators we know are out there, doing impressive work as the second-in-command or running real things on the side, who would thrive in a CEO chair if they got the chance to step into it.

The Entrepreneur in Residence Fellowship is that chance.

The EIR Fellowship is also a structural investment in the NWA ecosystem. The more experienced venture leaders this region has, the stronger the next generation of companies built in Northwest Arkansas will be. The venture studio and its ventures will be the hands-on classroom that enables a real-world education and the muscle memory that will drive long-lasting impact on venture generation and employment in the region.

This is the closest thing to running an early-stage company before you actually have one. From day one, you'll be doing the real work of venture creation: talking to users, pressure-testing the problem, shaping the product, selling early, and figuring out whether what's in front of you deserves to become a company.

That includes:

Leading customer discovery. Getting in front of real users and design partners. Asking sharper questions than they're used to. Learning what the market actually says, not what you wish it said.
Doing first-person market research. Going deep into a problem space. Talking to operators, buyers, and adjacent players until you understand the terrain better than anyone we could hire to brief us on it.
Shaping the product. Working closely with engineers, designers, and partners to take a concept from raw idea to working prototype to product in users' hands.
Running early sales. Pitching to design partners and prospective customers. Closing them. Learning what makes them say yes, what makes them stall, and what makes them walk.
Building the pitch. Sharpening the story to investors, partners, and future hires the way an early-stage CEO has to.
Helping decide what's real. Sitting at the table when we decide whether a concept becomes a feature, a product, or a company, and bringing the conviction (or the cold water) that comes from doing the work.
Operating across the full surface area. Like any real early-stage CEO, you'll be jumping between five different functions in a single day. That's the role.

You won't have a curriculum. You won't have a structured program. You'll have access to the partners, the engineers, the design partners, and the systems that make Gitwit ventures work, and the expectation that you'll use them.

The Path Forward

This is where this role gets serious.

The 6-month fellowship length exists for a reason. It gives you a real shot at the work, and it gives us a real shot at seeing how you lead.

The primary outcome we're designing this program for is you becoming the founding CEO of a Gitwit venture. That's the path we want this to take. If the work goes well, the concept earns the right to exist, and the fit is there on both sides, that's how this ends.

It's not guaranteed. Venture timing, fit, and how the work goes all matter, but it's a real path, and we'll be honest with you about it the whole way.

And if the Gitwit venture path doesn't end up being the right move, you'll leave with something rare: months of running the early-stage CEO playbook for real, a portfolio of work and conviction that didn't exist before, and the chops to go start your own company. Either way, you'll be more equipped to lead a venture than the day you walked in.

The strongest candidates for this role will tend to have several of these traits:

They have evidence of operating. Maybe they were the founding product manager or first general manager at a startup. Maybe they ran a side venture for years. Maybe they shipped real things as a solopreneur. The form doesn't matter. "I lead the work of making things happen" does.
They have an instinct for what should be a company. They can sit with a problem space and find the sharp edges that matter. They know the difference between a feature, a product, and a company.
They are voracious learners. They go figure things out. They ramp on new domains fast. They can talk to an industry expert today and pitch the same industry tomorrow.
They move well in ambiguity. They don't need every variable resolved before making progress. They create clarity by doing the work.
They have taste. They care whether something is sharp, useful, and worth a customer's time and money. They have a point of view about quality.
They have founder instinct that hasn't been blunted. Whether they've been at a startup or quietly running things inside a bigger company, they still have the urgency, the ownership reflex, and a bias toward action that the work demands.
They want to be in the room. Collaboration, in-person presence, and real proximity to customers, partners, and the team are part of what makes this experience what it is.

You don't need a specific resume. But you should be someone who has been operating in the gravitational field of company-building for a while and is ready to step fully into it.

Gitwit

Entrepreneur in Residence Fellow

About the Job

Requirements

Responsibilities

About the Company

Gitwit

Recently Posted Jobs