Founder Associate

Creandum; Heidelberg; Vor Ort; EUR 60.000 - 90.000; Vollzeit

Zusammenfassung

Creandum in Heidelberg is seeking a commercially minded professional to work directly with the CEO on outreach, market research, and pricing strategy. You’ll help shape who we approach, why now, and how we position our AI infrastructure offerings to enterprise customers in Europe.

You’ll bridge the CEO and sales, keep the pipeline visible, and prepare clear options with defendable trade-offs for quick founder decision-making.

Qualifikationen

• German-speaking engagements with enterprise customers required (minimum B1/B2).
• 1–4 years in investment banking, consulting, private equity, venture capital, or startup sales/business development.
• Genuine interest in the commercial side of a business—how it sells, prices, and positions.
• Analytical depth: structure ambiguous questions and perform primary research.
• Clear, concise writing that conveys the CEO's voice and reasoning.
• Ability to work with a senior sales team and add value rather than just report.
• Ownership and judgement in deciding what deserves attention and action.
• Comfort in an early-stage company with evolving processes.
• Strong academic record from a highly regarded university.

Aufgaben

• Support the CEO's outreach: identify targets, research names, draft sequences and track conversations.
• Bridge the CEO and sales: provide pipeline visibility and carry priorities to the team.
• Research market structure, segments, pricing, partnerships, with defendable recommendations.
• Prepare for meetings/conferences with briefings and concrete next steps.
• Explain a complex product to a semi-technical audience in decks and narratives.

Kenntnisse

German language

Investment banking

Consulting

Venture capital

Startup sales

Analytical thinking

Written communication

Ownership

Judgement

Early-stage

Academic excellence

Ausbildung

Top-tier university degree

Jobbeschreibung

OVERVIEW

We're a venture-backed AI infrastructure company building software that helps organisations get far more out of their compute.

You work directly with the CEO on the commercial side of the company: the outreach he runs, the visibility he needs into our sales activity, and the research behind where we take the business next.

Much of it is leverage: you prepare what the CEO takes into the market, keep him close to what our sales team is doing, and pick up the work he hands over. The rest is analytical — the research and thinking behind who we sell to, how we position, and at what price.

WHAT YOU WILL DO

Supporting the CEO's outreach.
He opens doors himself — to customers, partners, and people worth knowing. You make that outreach work: who is worth approaching and why now, the research behind each name, the drafts, the sequencing, and the tracking that keeps conversations from going cold.

The link between the CEO and sales.
Our sales team runs its own motion in Europe. You give the CEO a clear picture of it — what is in the pipeline, where the important deals stand, what actually needs him — and carry his priorities and input back into the team. Where he decides to get involved, you prepare the ground.

Research the Founders act on.
Deep dives on the questions in front of them: market structure, competition, customer segments, pricing, which segments to prioritise, which partnerships are worth the effort. The output is not a summary — it is a set of options with the trade-offs made explicit and a recommendation you can defend, so the Founders can decide quickly.

Preparing for meetings and conferences.
Before a conference, customer meeting, or partner conversation, you make sure the CEO walks in fully briefed: who is in the room, what they care about, what we want out of it. Afterwards you turn what came out of it into concrete next steps.

Making a complex product explainable.
Our platform is technically involved. You turn it into something a semi-technical audience can follow — what it solves, how it works, why it matters commercially — in the decks, one-pagers, and narratives used in front of customers and partners.

WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR

• Professional working proficiency in German (minimum B1/B2) is required, as you’ll support engagements with German-speaking enterprise customers.

• 1–4 years minimum in investment banking, consulting, private equity, venture capital, or startup sales / business development.

• Genuine interest in the commercial side of a business — how it sells, prices, and positions — rather than analysis at a distance.

• Analytical depth: you can structure an ambiguous question and work through primary research without being handed a template.

• Writing that works: a brief the CEO reads once and understands, and outreach in his voice that gets answered.

• The standing to work with a senior sales team — asking the right questions, adding to their work rather than reporting on it.

• Ownership and judgement: you decide what deserves attention and carry it to a conclusion.

• Comfort in an early-stage company where the process for what you are doing often does not exist yet.

• A strong academic record from a highly regarded university.

USEFUL, NOT REQUIRED

• Experience in an early-stage company, ideally around a B2B sales motion.

• Exposure to pricing, business cases, or commercial deal work. Familiarity with AI, infrastructure, SaaS, or deep tech.

• An entrepreneurial track record of your own — a venture, a serious project, an initiative you actually built.

This role is on-site in Heidelberg and requires some travel for customer meetings, partners, and conferences.