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Founder Jobs in California (NOW HIRING)

We are looking for a Co-Founder with experience building B2B SaaS. The ideal candidate will have a deep appreciation for AI's ability to augment expert knowledge work, and the founder-level drive to ...

We are looking for a Co-Founder with experience building B2B SaaS. The ideal candidate will have a deep appreciation for AI's ability to augment expert knowledge work, and the founder-level drive to ...

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Founder information

See California salary details

$12

$31

$70

How much do founder jobs pay per hour?

As of Sep 8, 2026, the average hourly pay for founder in California is $31.79, according to ZipRecruiter salary data. Most workers in this role earn between $18.36 and $44.02 per hour, depending on experience, location, and employer.

What is a founder?

Founders are individuals who start a new business, organization, or venture. They are responsible for developing the initial idea, assembling a team, and securing resources to launch the company. Founders often take on multiple roles in the early stages, such as product development, marketing, and fundraising. Their vision and leadership are critical to shaping the direction and culture of the organization. Over time, founders may continue to lead the company or transition into different roles as the business grows.

What are the key skills and qualifications needed to thrive as a founder, and why are they important?

To thrive as a Founder, you need strong business acumen, strategic vision, and a deep understanding of your target market, often supported by experience in entrepreneurship or relevant industry expertise. Familiarity with financial management tools, project management platforms, and digital marketing systems is typically necessary. Exceptional leadership, resilience, and the ability to communicate and inspire teams are vital soft skills for success in this role. These skills and qualities enable Founders to effectively launch, grow, and sustain a business in competitive environments.

What are some common challenges founders face in the early stages of building a company?

Founders often encounter challenges such as securing initial funding, building a reliable team, and finding product-market fit. Balancing multiple responsibilities—from business development to product management—can be overwhelming, especially with limited resources. Additionally, founders must quickly adapt to feedback and pivot strategies as needed, all while maintaining a clear vision and motivating their team. Building strong networks and seeking mentorship can help navigate these hurdles and increase the chances of early success.

What is the difference between Founder vs Entrepreneur?

AspectFounderEntrepreneur
RoleCreates and establishes a new company or product from scratchIdentifies opportunities and starts new businesses, which may include founding or managing multiple ventures
CredentialsOften has industry knowledge, business skills, and sometimes technical expertiseRequires business acumen, risk management skills, and often industry experience
Work EnvironmentTypically involved in startup development, innovation, and early-stage business activitiesEngages in business planning, funding, and scaling across various industries

While both founders and entrepreneurs are involved in starting new ventures, a founder specifically establishes a company or product, often as the original creator. An entrepreneur may start multiple businesses or pursue opportunities across industries, focusing on growth and innovation. The roles overlap but differ mainly in scope and focus.

What are the most commonly searched types of Founder jobs in California?

The most popular types of Founder jobs in California are:

What cities in California are hiring for Founder jobs?

Cities in California with the most Founder job openings:

Infographic showing various Founder job openings in California as of September 2026, with employment types broken down into 4% Internship, 2% As Needed, 63% Full Time, 30% Part Time, and 1% Contract. Highlights an 93% Physical, 1% Hybrid, and 6% Remote job distribution, with an average salary of $66,128 per year, or $31.8 per hour.

Co-Founder-Strata

career

Mountain View, CA • On-site

$150K/yr

Full-time

Re-posted 8 days ago


Job description

Strata is on a mission to turn static research and one-off inquiries into living, goal-oriented projects that stay current, preserve institutional knowledge, and help teams make better decisions.
We're building an intelligence and operations platform that helps teams continuously monitor and interpret external developments in the context of their company's strategy, obligations, risks, and goals. Today, enterprise work is fragmented across docket sites, filings, Word documents, spreadsheets, shared drives, emails, and expert memory. The costly problem is not simply knowing that something changed. It is understanding what changed, whether it is draft or final, how it affects the business, which projects or documents need to be updated, who needs to review the impact, and what action should follow.
Strata turns enterprise work from static research and one-off documents into living, goal-oriented projects that stay current, preserve institutional knowledge, and help teams make measurable progress over time.
This is a rare opportunity to lead a venture-backed company at inception, with the benefit of validated customer demand, a clear initial wedge in utilities and energy, and a compelling path toward becoming the trusted operating system for regulated decision-making. Strata is poised to build toward product-market fit in a large, high-stakes market where regulatory change directly affects economics, compliance, capital planning, and strategic outcomes.
We are looking for a Co-Founder with experience building B2B SaaS. The ideal candidate will have a deep appreciation for AI's ability to augment expert knowledge work, and the founder-level drive to turn a sharp market insight into a category-defining company. There is an existing design partner/enterprise customer already in place, AES Corporation. AES is a Fortune 500 global energy company that is accelerating the future of energy.
You'll be working alongside founding partners from AI Fund and AES to build Strata from the ground up. This role will be based in Mountain View and relocation will not be considered. This role is co-founding a pre-seed start-up and will be equity heavy in addition to the base salary.
Responsibilities Include:
  • Define and drive the company vision for a new category of regulatory intelligence and operations software for regulated enterprises.
  • Work closely with early customers to deeply understand regulatory workflows, pain points, buying dynamics, and the highest-value use cases.
  • Translate customer needs into a focused product roadmap for an intelligent regulatory workspace that supports research, change monitoring, precedent analysis, impact assessment, filing preparation, and strategy updates.
  • Provide technical leadership to build domain-aware AI agents that can search, read, compare, cite, and interpret regulatory materials with the level of trust required for high-stakes enterprise work.
  • Recruit and lead a world-class team across go-to-market, product, engineering, and customer success.

Must Haves For The Role Include:
  • Demonstrated experience at an early-stage B2B SaaS company, ideally from 0 to 1 and into early scale.
  • Experience working with AI, data-centric products, workflow software, enterprise knowledge systems, or vertical SaaS.
  • Hands-on experience building with LLMs, particularly agentic architectures, tool use, and function calling.
  • Ability to translate a complex customer problem into a clear product vision, credible business case, and compelling company narrative.
  • High empathy for expert users doing high-stakes work, especially teams whose decisions depend on accuracy, auditability, citations, and institutional knowledge.
  • Ability to move fast with clarity, judgment, and conviction.

Nice To Haves Include:
  • Experience building or commercializing AI products involving retrieval, knowledge management, document intelligence, workflow automation, or expert-in-the-loop review.
  • Experience building products that require trust, traceability, citations, auditability, and high-quality human review.
  • Prior exposure to enterprise data partnerships, public records, regulatory data, or domain-specific knowledge systems.

$150,000 - $150,000 a year
As the role is a co-founding opportunity with a pre-seed start-up, the package will be heavy on equity in addition to the salary.
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.