Product Builder, New Venture Associate

Simple Ventures; Toronto; Hybrid; CAD 70,000 - 110,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Impact

Learning

Ownership

Health & dental coverage

Job summary

Simple Ventures, based in Toronto, seeks a Product Builder, New Venture Associate to source and validate new venture concepts. You will operate like a founder, running multiple ideas in parallel, testing in-market, and rapidly pushing promising concepts toward conviction.

The role emphasizes ownership, high intensity, and a bias for action, with collaboration across product, engineering, and growth teams in a hybrid Toronto environment.

Qualifications

• Relevant experience in building or launching ventures or products.
• Experience creating something from scratch (company, product, or meaningful side project).
• Exposure to early-stage company creation and fast-paced environments.
• Bonus – experience in disciplined, intense settings.
• Strong product and market judgment with pragmatic decision-making.
• Ability to execute quickly with high ownership and urgency.
• Clear written communication and ability to form opinions.

Responsibilities

• Sourcing ideas and testing them in-market across multiple concepts.
• Developing investment cases, memos, and early wedge/Go-To-Market plans.
• Building CEO-ready opportunities and partnering with execution teams.
• Using AI tools to accelerate research, prototyping, and outreach.
• Talking to users continuously to validate signals and iterate.

Skills

Startup experience

Early-stage

Product judgment

Execution speed

AI mindset

Ownership

Communication

Job description

About Simple Ventures

We founded Simple Ventures (SV) with the mission of building great Canadian companies. Our thesis is simple: Canada is overlooked and under-appreciated. Most companies around the world ignore Canada because of perceived market size, regulation, language, and powerful oligopolies. As a result, Canadians miss out.

Toronto

Simple Ventures /

Hybrid

But we know better. Canada is a top 10 global economy with many of the same consumer and business pain points as other markets. This creates an opportunity to bring the best product ideas to Canada - to see what’s working around the world and be first to execute for Canadians.

We’re funded and supported by Canada’s top leaders including the founders and leaders of Wealthsimple, Shopify, Ada, MindBeacon, TD and many more.

Our Approach

We are experts in sourcing, vetting and launching new companies. Once we have conviction in a specific concept, we find the best fit CEO for the company and partner with them to accelerate and scale the venture.

For CEOs, we significantly de-risk the prospect of starting a company. In particular, we help by: (a) validating the idea, (b) funding the concept, (c) unlocking a distribution advantage, and (d) bringing an extensive support network across product, engineering, marketing, and growth.

For LPs, we seek to drive returns through disciplined validation and capital efficiency. Our approach is industry agnostic, with a focus on: (a) market validation, (b) speed to insight, (c) attractive unit economics, and (d) defensibility in the Canadian market.

The Opportunity

This is a core builder role focused on validating new venture concepts from idea to conviction.

You will operate like a founder - sourcing ideas, testing them in-market, and determining which should become real companies. You’ll run multiple concepts in parallel and be responsible for quickly separating signal from noise.

This role is high ownership, high intensity, and fast-paced. You will be expected to move quickly, operate with limited structure, and push ideas to conviction.

There Are Three Main Aspects To The Role:

• New Venture Origination
• Ideation: Generate high-quality venture ideas from global trends, AI-driven shifts, and uniquely Canadian gaps
• Sourcing: Build your own pipeline of concepts through research, network, and non-obvious channels
• Point of View: Develop strong opinions on what should exist that doesn’t
• Rapid Validation with Product + Customers
• Run tight validation loops: customer interviews, landing pages, MVPs, and experiments
• Use AI tools to accelerate research, prototyping, and outreach
• Talk to users constantly and stay close to the market
• Kill weak ideas quickly and double down on promising ones
• Investment Case Development
• Synthesize insights into clear, opinionated memos
• Define the wedge, GTM, and early economics
• Build “CEO-ready” opportunities that can be handed off for execution

About You

We’re looking for a high-agency builder with strong judgment and a relentless drive to win.

You are energized by 0→1, thrive in ambiguity, and move quickly from idea to action. You care about getting to the right answer faster than others and are willing to do the work required to get there.

You Should Have:

• Relevant Experience
• Experience building something from scratch (company, product, or meaningful side project)
• Exposure to early-stage company creation
• Bonus - experience at a high discipline + intense environment
• Product & Market Judgment
• Strong intuition for what makes products and businesses work
• Ability to identify real problems and non-obvious opportunities
• Comfortable forming opinions with incomplete information
• High-Velocity Execution
• Operates with urgency and intensity - you move quickly and don’t get stuck in analysis
• Bias for action - you’d rather test something this week than debate it for a month
• Ability to run multiple workstreams in parallel
• AI-Native Mindset
• Actively use AI tools to research, build, and move faster
• Comfortable prototyping MVPs or workflows without heavy engineering support
• Strong awareness of how AI is changing company building
• Ownership & Drive
• Relentless drive to win - you push until you reach an answer or outcome
• Extreme ownership - you take responsibility for results, not just tasks
• High standards - you care deeply about the quality of your thinking and output
• You are not a 9–5 operator - you are intrinsically motivated and think about problems beyond assigned work
• Communication & Thinking
• Clear, structured thinker with strong writing ability
• Able to synthesize messy inputs into sharp, opinionated insights
• Comfortable defending your point of view

This Role is Not for You If

• You prefer structured environments with clearly defined scope
• You need constant direction or approval to make progress
• You optimize for stability or work-life balance over building
• You are primarily motivated by process, title, or predictability

Benefits & Perks

• Impact - Help build the next generation of Canadian companies
• Learning - Work closely with top founders and operators
• Ownership - Act like a founder across multiple ventures
• Benefits - Health & dental coverage

Application Process

As part of the process, you will be asked to submit a short memo on a new venture idea you believe should exist in Canada. This is the best way for us to understand how you think and operate.

We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, or assessing responses and identifying potential inconsistencies or verification signals in application materials based on available information. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please contact us.

Product Builder, New Venture Associate

Toronto

Simple Ventures /

Hybrid