Founder Fellowship

About Zero Vector Ventures

Zero Vector Ventures is a venture studio that builds and launches venture-scale startups from the ground up. We don’t just invest in ideas - we identify real problems, validate them rigorously, and build companies around them with exceptional operators and founders. The Zero Vector Founder Fellowship is how we find and develop those founders.

What This Is

This is not a course, an internship, or a hypothetical “learn startups” program. The Zero Vector Founder Fellowship is a paid, remote fellowship for ambitious professionals who want to learn how venture-backed startups are actually built - by helping us build them.

Fellows work directly with the Zero Vector team on:

• Real problem discovery and validation
• Venture experiments and MVPs
• Early go-to-market thinking
• Decisions that directly affect what we build and fund

You won’t study startups from the outside; you’ll help decide what should exist and what shouldn’t.

Our Goal

Our goal is to identify high-potential talent, develop them through real venture work, and place the best fellows into:

• Founder roles (CEO, CTO, CPO) for new Zero Vector startups
• Core studio operator roles building and validating ventures across the portfolio

Who We’re Looking For

This Founder Fellowship is for people who believe they are meant for more than their current path. You might be a great fit if you:

• Are early in your career or a recent graduate
• Have built side projects, hustles, tools, or community initiatives
• Are obsessed with solving real problems (not just pitching ideas)
• Learn fast, take feedback well, and move with urgency
• Feel underutilized by the options currently in front of you

You do not need:

• A degree from a top university
• Prior startup or VC experience
• A perfect résumé or big-company pedigree

We care far more about judgment, learning velocity, and ownership than credentials.

What You’ll Learn (By Doing)

Everything in this Founder Fellowship is tied to real Zero Vector projects. No fake assignments.

Startup & Venture Studio Fundamentals

• How venture studios actually work
• How startups are really built (not the LinkedIn version)
• Capital efficiency, validation, and decision-making under uncertainty

Problem Discovery & Validation

• Structured frameworks to identify real problems
• Customer interviews, signal gathering, and insight synthesis
• Avoiding idea-driven and founder-bias traps

Product Development & Lean Experimentation

• Designing MVPs that test real assumptions
• Prioritizing experiments that matter
• Working with designers and engineers in lean setups

Market Sizing & Go-To-Market Basics

• Bottom-up vs. top-down market sizing
• Early GTM strategies for B2B SaaS and AI
• How investors actually evaluate markets

Operator Skills & Founder Mindset

• Clear thinking, writing, and communication
• Operating under ambiguity and incomplete information
• Resilience, iteration, and decision-making under constraints

How the Founder Fellowship Works

• Hands-On Project Rotations: Work on real Zero Vector venture studio projects; contribute across problem discovery, user research, product ideation, and early GTM.
• Weekly Learning Blocks: Live sessions on startups, validation, product, and VC. Case studies from real successes and real failures.
• Mentorship & Feedback: Ongoing feedback from the Zero Vector team and advisors. A real portfolio of work that reflects actual startup-building skills.

Where This Founder Fellowship Can Take You

Top-performing fellows may be fast-tracked into:

Founder Pathway

Lead new startups launched by Zero Vector as a:

• Founding CEO
• CTO
• CPO

Studio Operator Pathway

Join Zero Vector full-time to:

• Build and validate new ventures
• Work across multiple early-stage startups
• Develop deep venture-building expertise

If this feels like it was written for you, you should apply.

Key skills/competency

• Problem Discovery
• Venture Validation
• Lean Experimentation
• Go-to-Market Strategy
• Startup Building
• Product Development
• User Research
• Entrepreneurial Mindset
• Decision Making
• Capital Efficiency