We're hiring an
idea runner

The role sits somewhere between researcher, product owner & mini-CEO. You'll build conviction — or kill it — through desk research, data analysis, expert calls & in-the-wild conversations with the people who would actually use, buy, or operate the product.

By the end of a sprint, you should have a clear, evidence-backed point of view on what the studio should do next: kill the idea, keep digging, or put it into the market. If the thesis holds up, you'll collaborate with the studio team — and, when relevant, an entrepreneur-in-residence — to design and launch a small-scale experiment. That often means running a version of the business by hand to see whether the idea holds up in practice.

"The best entrepreneurs know this: every great business is built around a secret that's hidden from the outside. A great company is a conspiracy to change the world; when you share your secret, the recipient becomes a fellow conspirator."
— Peter Thiel

A Runner's job is to find and pressure-test that secret. Every idea the studio pursues has a hypothesis at its core: something we believe to be true that the market hasn't fully recognized yet. Your job is to figure out whether we're right — and to be just as excited to discover that we're wrong.

• Own an idea end-to-end. Pick up a freshly sourced concept and drive it through the studio's validation process — from initial screening through deep research, conviction building & when warranted, experimentation.
• Get to the truth. Form hypotheses early, then try to break them. You're not building a case for an idea — you're building an honest picture of whether it holds up. Every important claim should be backed by data, a conversation, or direct observation.
• Go deep, fast. Run 4-to-8-week research sprints that may include industry analysis, expert network calls, competitive and incumbent mapping, financial analysis, and direct outreach to potential customers and supply-side operators.
• Talk to real people. Get out of the building. Cold-call franchisees. Walk into businesses. Interview operators. Pitch potential customers. A meaningful portion of your conviction should come from conversations that can't be Googled.
• Surface what's non-obvious. Identify the unique insight at the heart of an idea, the thing the market may not see yet, and determine whether the evidence strengthens it, changes it, or dismantles it.
• De-risk the idea. Identify the assumptions that have to be true for an idea to work, then systematically test them. Killing a bad idea early is just as valuable as validating a good one.
• Help design and run experiments. Collaborate with the studio team and in some cases, the entrepreneur-in-residence, to scope and run low-fidelity experiments. Often, that means operating the business manually at a very small scale before building much of anything.
• Wear many hats. In a single week, you might synthesize competitive intelligence, cold-email operators, build a financial model, vibe code a prototype, interview customers, or physically run a service. The work is varied by nature — that's the point.
• Collaborate across the studio. Work alongside studio leadership, other Runners & entrepreneurs-in-residence. Share findings openly, pressure-test one another's logic & contribute to the studio's growing institutional knowledge.

• Genuine curiosity that gives you energy. You’re the kind of person who gets a real charge from uncovering how an industry actually works, what's really driving a trend, or why a seemingly obvious idea hasn't been built yet. You’ll constantly jump into unfamiliar domains, and that should excite you rather than drain you.
• An investigative mindset. You’re naturally inclined to pull on threads, question surface-level narratives, and dig until you understand what's actually going on. You treat assumptions as hypotheses to be tested, not facts to be confirmed.
• Attention to detail. The difference between a good insight and a wrong conclusion often comes down to one data point, one conversation, or one assumption nobody bothered to check. You catch those things.
• Comfort with ambiguity. You'll regularly start a sprint knowing almost nothing about an industry and be expected to develop a well-reasoned, evidence-backed point of view within weeks.
• Bias toward action. You don't wait for permission to make the next call, send the next email, visit the next location, or test the next hypothesis. Velocity matters.
• Willingness to do whatever the work demands. Sales calls one day, design mocks the next, vibe coding a prototype after that, and writing a research brief the morning after. You don't have a fixed lane, and you don't want one.
• Strong communication skills. You can distill messy, ambiguous findings into a clear narrative, point of view, and recommendation.
• Intellectual honesty. You change your mind when the evidence warrants it, and you're comfortable saying so clearly.

Prior experience as a founder, CEO, or early-stage operator. You know what it feels like to own something end-to-end, make decisions with incomplete information, and move quickly with limited resources.

When an idea moves into experimentation, the Runner stays close to the work. You'll run experiments as a close partner to the entrepreneur-in-residence — or on occasion, run them entirely with the studio's direct support.

If an experiment becomes a launched company, the Runner transitions into a close advisor and thought partner to the founder of the spun-out venture. You won't disappear after the sprint — the knowledge you built during research and experimentation is too valuable for that. You'll stay connected as the company finds its footing.