Founder Associate (Intern)

Norma; Paris; Hybrid; EUR 11,000 - 15,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Paid internship

International environment

English-first workplace

Work directly with founders

Job summary

Norma is an early-stage climate-tech startup building a breakthrough supercapacitor carbon capture technology. The Founder Associate joins the business team with high autonomy to move fundraising, go-to-market, and operations as we scale.

Starting date: January or March 2027. The role supports the CEO and Chief of Staff across funding, GTM pipeline, and internal operations, with an internship contract and paid compensation. English is the working language in an international team.

Qualifications

• M1/M2 student in Business or Engineering school.
• At least one internship in Strat & Ops in an early-stage startup, or in a strategy role in VC or consulting.
• Nice to have: technical background in chemical/industrial engineering.
• Fluent in English; experience with Notion, Slack and Excel.

Responsibilities

• Funding: assist in preparing investor materials and managing the investor pipeline.
• GTM: participate in strategic analysis and build the customer pipeline.
• Internal operations: support HR Ops and Financial Ops and other needs.

Skills

Fluent in English

Notion

Slack

Excel

Analytical thinking

Strong organization

Education

M1/M2 student in Business or Engineering

Tools

Investor materials preparation

Job description

Norma is pioneering Supercapacitive Carbon Capture, using supercapacitor technology to store and reuse the energy required to capture carbon. Instead of consuming energy, we recover it, making carbon capture dramatically more efficient and scalable. The result: 5x lower energy use and cost than first-generation Direct Air Capture systems. We target Direct Air Capture, point-source CCS, and CO₂ utilisation.

In just months, we went from first prototype to outperforming current leaders. We've raised a $1M pre-seed round, secured early pre-purchases with Milkywire and filed two patents. We are backed by top tier ClimateTech VCs: Marble and Counteract VC.

Norma is led by Mónica Larrazábal (MIT MBA, ex-McKinsey, 5 years in carbon capture) and Dr. Silvia Pugliese (Chemistry PhD at Collège de France, repeat founder in climate tech). We are now looking for a Founder Associate (Intern) to help our founders move faster on funding, go-to-market and operations as we scale.

Starting date: January or March 2027

The mission

The Founder Associate joins the Business Team at the earliest stage of a technology built to capture gigatons of CO₂ from the air at scale. With high autonomy and ownership, they make strategic projects progress fast: growing the team, securing funding and building the customer pipeline.

In a team this size, their work directly shapes how fast Norma moves.

Objectives

The Founder Associate will work hand in hand with the CEO and Chief of Staff. This will be a 360° role including:

• Funding: Watch for funding opportunities for Norma. Support on the preparation of the next fundraise (investor materials, investor pipeline).
• GTM: Participate in the strategic analysis of our business. Build the pipeline of potential customers. Analyze and support insight generation.
• Internal operations: Support HR Ops (including recruiting support), Financial Ops and other operational needs.

Experience

Must have:

• M1/M2 student in a Business or Engineering school
• At least one internship in a Strat & Ops role in an early-stage startup, or in a strategy role in Venture Capital or consulting

Nice to have:

• Technical background: chemical engineering, industrial engineering

Hard Skills

Must have:

• Fluent in English. We are an international team and English is our working language
• Has worked with basic productivity tools (Notion, Slack, etc.) and Excel

Nice to have:

• Strong intuition for AI and automation, and experience building their own tooling

Soft Skills

This role is made for a highly driven and agile individual, comfortable in a moving environment and excited by fast-changing priorities and new responsibilities.

• Organization: tracks many threads, meets deadlines unprompted, keeps clean documentation
• Analytical thinking: structures a problem quickly
• Business-oriented mindset: obsessed with prioritizing what will most move the needle for the company
• Communication: clarity of thought, communicates precisely in writing and orally

Ways of working

• Ownership: comfortable working in autonomy with little guidance, takes a vague brief and returns a finished output
• Bias for action: moves with urgency, stays productive in ambiguity without waiting for instructions
• High bar: applies the same standard to an internal document as to an investor deck
• Mission-driven: genuine interest in climate and deeptech

What We Offer

We are an early-stage company building a world-class team and a breakthrough climate technology grounded in an ambitious vision. We are fully committed to long-term impact and excellence.

In addition to the opportunity to make a real impact in the fight against climate change, we offer:

• Contract: Internship.
• Compensation: Paid internship.
• Impact & Learning: A front-row seat to how a deeptech startup gets built, working directly with the founders.
• Culture: Low ego, team-first, and results-driven. We combine radical thinking with radical candor to redefine carbon capture.
• International environment: English-first workplace with gender parity and a diverse team representing five nationalities.

We believe that a diverse group of minds is key to solving the climate crisis. Studies have shown that under-represented candidates are less likely to apply for an opportunity unless they feel they meet every single qualification.

We are committed to building a diverse, inclusive and mission-driven company.