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Founders Associate Jobs in California (NOW HIRING)

Rillet

Founders Associate

San Francisco, CA · On-site

$80K - $110K/yr

Who We Need Rillet is looking for a Founders' Associate to work directly with the CEO and Chief of Staff. You will be the connective tissue that keeps high-priority work moving - spotting roadblocks ...

Roger Healthcare

Founders Associate

San Francisco, CA · On-site

$90K - $120K/yr

You'll work directly with the founders, picking up whatever the business needs most that week: pulling together a board deck, digging into a sales metric, untangling a hiring process, or jumping into ...

Roger Healthcare

Founders Associate

San Francisco, CA · On-site

$90K - $120K/yr

You'll work directly with the founders, picking up whatever the business needs most that week: pulling together a board deck, digging into a sales metric, untangling a hiring process, or jumping into ...

Kaizen Stackup

ECVC Associate

Los Angeles, CA · On-site

$225K - $300K/yr

... founders, disruptive technologies, and high-growth companies? We're seeking a Midlevel to Senior ECVC Associate to join a fast-growing practice supporting clients from garage-stage startups to ...

Kaizen Stackup

ECVC Associate

Palo Alto, CA

$225K - $300K/yr

... founders, disruptive technologies, and high-growth companies? We're seeking a Midlevel to Senior ECVC Associate to join a fast-growing practice supporting clients from garage-stage startups to ...

Kaizen Stackup

ECVC Associate

Los Angeles, CA

$225K - $300K/yr

... founders, disruptive technologies, and high-growth companies? We're seeking a Midlevel to Senior ECVC Associate to join a fast-growing practice supporting clients from garage-stage startups to ...

Nango

Founder's Associate

San Francisco, CA · On-site

$140K - $180K/yr

Partner directly with the founders on the highest-leverage problems across the company, spanning product, go-to-market, strategy, operations, finance, and hiring. * Own ambiguous, high-impact ...

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Founders Associate information

See California salary details

$10

$19

$32

How much do founders associate jobs pay per hour?

As of Sep 2, 2026, the average hourly pay for founders associate in California is $19.61, according to ZipRecruiter salary data. Most workers in this role earn between $14.71 and $20.38 per hour, depending on experience, location, and employer.

What is the difference between Founders Associate vs Business Development Associate?

AspectFounders AssociateBusiness Development Associate
Required CredentialsBachelor's degree, strong communication, problem-solving skillsBachelor's degree, sales or marketing experience often preferred
Work EnvironmentStartups, fast-paced, close collaboration with foundersCorporate or startup, client-facing, sales-focused
Employer & Industry UsageEarly-stage startups, tech, venture-backed companiesTech, SaaS, consulting, various industries

Founders Associates typically work closely with startup founders, handling diverse tasks from operations to strategy, requiring versatile skills. Business Development Associates focus on sales and client acquisition, often in more structured environments. While both roles require strong communication skills and a bachelor's degree, Founders Associates usually engage in broader responsibilities within startups, whereas Business Development Associates concentrate on growth through sales.

Is a founders associate a senior role?

A founders associate is typically an entry- to mid-level role that supports startup founders with various tasks such as operations, strategy, and project management. While they may take on significant responsibilities, they are generally not considered senior roles and often work under the guidance of senior leadership or founders.

What is a founders associate position?

A founders associate is an entry-level or early-career role supporting a company's founders with tasks such as project management, research, operations, and strategic planning. The position often requires strong organizational skills, adaptability, and familiarity with tools like spreadsheets and communication platforms, and may involve working closely with different departments to help grow the business.

What are popular job titles related to Founders Associate jobs in California?

For Founders Associate jobs in California, the most frequently searched job titles are:

What job categories do people searching Founders Associate jobs in California look for?

The top searched job categories for Founders Associate jobs in California are:

What cities in California are hiring for Founders Associate jobs?

Cities in California with the most Founders Associate job openings:

Founders Associate jobs near you
Infographic showing various Founders Associate job openings in California as of August 2026, with employment types broken down into 100% Full Time. Highlights an 46% In-person, and 54% Remote job distribution, with an average salary of $40,786 per year, or $19.6 per hour.

Founders Associate

Blacksmith Software Inc

San Francisco, CA • On-site

$170K - $210K/yr

Full-time

Medical, Dental, Vision, Retirement, PTO

Re-posted 12 days ago

Job description

About Blacksmith
  • We started by building infrastructure to run CI workloads really fast. Our first product helps companies run GitHub Actions substantially faster and cheaper by owning and operating our own global fleet of bare-metal machines rather than renting generic cloud VMs.
  • Today, we orchestrate tens of millions of Firecracker VMs each month, running CI for 3,000+ companies and hit ~$10M in ARR in less than 2 years. We've already more than 4X'ed revenue since the start of 2026.
  • We operate thousands of bare-metal machines across multiple regions, regularly schedule 100k+ vCPUs concurrently, and run a petabyte-scale Ceph cluster that we manage ourselves.
  • We've raised $58.5M from Seed to Series B, led by Google Ventures (GV) & Peak XV Capital, and we're intentionally building a small, but exceptional team.
  • Blacksmith was founded by a team with deep systems and scaling experience, including building search/ads infrastructure at Faire, and operating large distributed systems at Cockroach Labs. Our GTM is led by Jon Boyer, formerly Head of Sales at Zapier.
  • We're now extending the same CI infrastructure into a broader platform: running agent sandboxes at scale and building our own background coding agent on top of it.

The Founders Associate thrives in ambiguity and obsesses over ensuring the founders are able to operate as efficiently and effectively as possible. You take a no-ego approach and want to take as much responsibility as possible, freeing up the founders to execute on the highest priority tasks.
This is a front row seat to operating a truly hypergrowth business. We grew 12X in 2025, have already grown over 4X again so far this year and this curve is accelerating. You will get the opportunity to truly impact this next phase of growth.
You are a good fit if you
  • Are sharp, resourceful, and thrive in ambiguity. You can quickly pick things up, make sense of messy or undefined problems, and just figure it out.
  • Care deeply about making the founders more effective. You operate like a force multiplier by anticipating needs, unblocking bottlenecks, and proactively driving leverage.
  • Can own and run core operational processes that keep the company moving, from paying bills to onboarding employees to managing vendors.
  • Are detail-oriented and sweat the small stuff - and you never drop the ball.
  • Love automating anything that can be automated, proactively use AI tools to figure things out, and are highly resourceful when you don't know the answer yet.
  • Have prior experience in startups, consulting, operations, or other fast-paced environments where ambiguity is the norm.
  • Want to be part of a small team where your work has real impact, and where success in this role can evolve into leading a critical part of the company over time.
  • Enjoy working in person 5 days a week in SF.

Compensation and benefits
  • Competitive base + equity.
  • Medical, Vision, and Dental insurance.
  • 401K match.
  • Unlimited PTO.
  • Annual offsite.
  • Early-exercise stock options
  • 12 weeks fully paid parental leave (US)

Apply