Investment Team (Founder Track)

About Antler

Antler is a global early-stage venture capital firm backing founders from inception. Founded on the belief that innovation is the key to building a better future, we partner with people across six continents to launch and scale high-potential startups that address meaningful opportunities and challenges. With 30+ offices worldwide, Antler deploys meaningful capital at inception stage and has built a global founder community.

In seven years, Antler has grown from a new model into a global platform operating at a scale that few early-stage firms reach. The institution is still being built, and so are the next generation of founders we want to back. This role exists for one of them.

The Role

This is a 2-year Investment Team position, structured around a simple thesis: the best preparation for founding a company is working hands-on alongside founders.

For two years, you'll work as a full member of our core investment team in Continental Europe, identifying outlier founders, evaluating businesses at inception, and working alongside portfolio companies as they scale. Different from classical VCs you will not only learn how to assess business models and founders but you will be sitting in-person next to founders all-day and will see and learn with a front-row seat how the best founders operate.

Toward the end of the program, when you start your own company, we help you do it: team building, sparring on the idea, intros across our global network, and fundraising support when you're ready to go to market. And if everything aligns, we'd want to be your first investor. 

This is a hands-on, high-ownership role: fully in-office, high-intensity, and not a 9-to-5 job.

What you'll do

Find and back outlier founders. You'll spend most of your time identifying and attracting exceptional founders through active origination, including content, outreach, ecosystem engagement, and conferences. You'll build relationships in technical, operator, and founder communities, win people over to partner with Antler as their first investor, assess founders and businesses, prepare due diligence, and bring decisions to IC.

Work with founders. You'll sit with founders as they build, sparring on validation, helping with momentum, leveraging your network to unlock fundraising, customers, partners, and hires when it matters.

Build Antler. You'll be an active member of the small core team building Antler in Continental Europe, pulling junior team members along by example, and taking ownership beyond your role when something needs fixing, from emptying the dishwasher to running global initiatives.

Build your founder muscle. Throughout the two years, you'll be developing your own thinking on what you might build. We'll help you pressure-test ideas, introduce you to potential co-founders inside and outside our network, and when you're ready, back you with our team-building, sparring, and fundraising support.

Who this is for

You have 4+ years of experience in early-stage investing or as a founder/operator who has raised money. You've proven yourself in highly competitive environments. And you're here because you want to start a company eventually, not because you want a comfortable seat at a fund.

You are:

• Strong with people: sharp in conversation, good judgment, able to build relationships and followership.
• Curious, fast-learning, and commercially grounded with strong energy and the desire to contribute every day.
• Highly independent and comfortable working without close oversight or frequent feedback.
• Comfortable with modern tools and automation (Airtable, Zapier, n8n, Cursor). We strongly prefer candidates with full technical backgrounds, whether software, hardware, or research, who have built or shipped real systems.
• Able to run multiple threads without losing quality.

Who should not apply

This role is not a good fit if you:

• Want to spend most of your time on research, trends, or sector analysis.
• Need constant feedback, validation, or tightly scoped instructions.
• Are looking for a hybrid or remote role. This is 100% in-person.
• Are uncomfortable with ambiguity, pace, or full ownership.
• Want a predictable 9-to-5, or the flexibility to work Berlin winters from Cape Town.
• See "Founder in Residence" as a soft landing or sabbatical. This is a working investment role with a founder exit ramp, not a paid runway to think.
• Want to "learn VC" more than do the work.

What we offer

• A two-year pathway into venture investing and company building - Hands-on exposure across sourcing, investing, and supporting early-stage founders.
• Meaningful economic participation - Competitive fixed salary plus participation in long-term upside through carry on deals you actively work on.
• Real investment experience -nBuild judgment by working directly on live opportunities, founders, and portfolio companies — not observation from the sidelines.
• Pathway to Founder - Develop the network, insight, and conviction to start a company yourself. For those who choose to found, Antler is positioned to be your first institutional investor.
• Long-term career acceleration - Designed for individuals motivated by ownership, outcomes, and impact — whether your path leads to venture, operating leadership, or founding.