One role open.

About us.

NZVC is one of the most active early-stage venture funds in New Zealand and Australia. Since 2021 we have run two funds, and 60 of the companies we back are announced on the portfolio wall. Alongside the fund we run a product studio called Antipodean Labs, where we build software, and we hold a pipeline of ideas ready to spin out. One of them is already live with paying customers. The rest are earlier.

The opportunity.

You work directly with the general partners and with Antipodean Labs to find the right bet and build it. If we find the thing, you run the company as co-founder with full founder-level equity. You get engineers who are already shipping, capital already committed, and direct access to one of the most active funds in the region and to everyone in its portfolio.

The structure.

• The contract runs three months and is paid.The base is modest. You are here for what comes after it.
• At the end we either have the company or we do not.If we have it, you run it as co-founder with full founder equity. If we do not, we part ways cleanly.
• Either way you spend three months alongside the partners.You learn how venture works from the inside, on live deals rather than in theory.

What you will do.

• Pressure-test the pipeline.You take the strongest ideas we hold and work them through with the partners and Antipodean Labs.
• Talk to customers and sell.You feed what you hear back into the product while it is still cheap to change.
• Set product direction day to day.You work with the engineering team we already have, not one you have to hire first.
• Own the commercial side.Go-to-market, pricing and the early fundraise for whatever we spin out are yours.

Who we want.

We care most about one thing: what have you actually done? Tell us about something specific, a company you ran, a number you moved, a system you hacked, or a thing you shipped that should not have worked.

We want somebody who can sell and who has taste for product. You do not need to be deeply technical, but you need to know good product when you see it, push back on engineers when something is not right, and sit across from a customer and close them.

You might be any of these:

• You founded a company and it did not work out.
• You were an early commercial hire at a startup that scaled.
• You are an operator who wants to build rather than run somebody else’s plan.
• You are a new graduate with a serious record of side projects, sales or shipped work.

Your CV, your age and your credentials do not matter to us. We read what you have done. This role will suit you if you are already obsessed with building and want a real shot at it. It will not suit you if you are looking for a job.

How to apply.

Fill in the form and tell us four things.

• The most impressive thing you have built, sold, shipped or pulled off.Give us specifics rather than adjectives, and numbers where you have them. One paragraph is enough.
• Why you, for this.Tell us what about the way you operate makes you the person we should bet on. Four sentences at most.
• Links to anything you have built, sold or shipped.Anything we can open and look at beats a description of it.
• Your LinkedIn, X or equivalent.One profile is enough. We read it for the track record, not the follower count.

Apply: the application form

Founders raising a round should write to the founders page instead, and investors looking at the fund should write to the investors page.