Location: San Francisco Bay Area, CA

Reporting Structure: Reports directly to the Managing Partners; part of a lean team of nine

Company Description

Afore Capital is an early-stage venture capital firm focused on investing in technology companies at the pre-seed or "invention" phase.

Afore doesn't just invest early; it defines what early means. The firm helped shape pre-seed into the default first institutional round for founders and continues to lead that category today. When founders are just an idea, a deck, or a prototype, Afore is often the first call.

Quick facts:

• $750M AUM across multiple funds
• Leads rounds with conviction—investing up to $2M+ pre-everything
• Portfolio companies have raised $3B+ in follow-on funding
• 200+ portfolio companies across B2B and B2C
• Trusted early partner to founders who go on to build category-defining companies

Some of the best founders Afore backs haven't started a company yet — they're operators, engineers, and PMs still inside their current jobs, or active investors already spotting them early. Afore is building a dedicated Foundry function to identify and engage this talent before it ever becomes a deal.

The Role

Afore is looking for a Founder in Residence to build and own its non-university Foundry pipeline — identifying exceptional operators, technical talent, and emerging founders outside the university ecosystem, often before they've decided to start a company at all. This person may come from an active angel investing background, a founder-program alumni network (PearX, YC, Hf0, SPC, Z Fellows, Contrary), or their own early-stage investing practice. This is a network-driven, judgment-intensive role for someone who already has — or can rapidly build — a strong pulse on who's about to leave their job to build something great.

Responsibilities

• Identify and build relationships with operators, engineers, and PMs who are likely to start companies, often before they've made that decision themselves
• Build and maintain a strong network within founder-program alumni communities and active angel/early-stage investing circles
• Design and run a sourcing funnel capable of consistently surfacing high-potential future founders
• Develop and pitch a compelling case to talented operators for leaving their current roles to build with Afore's early support
• Support and engage with backed individuals from first contact through company formation and eventual investment
• Represent Afore externally within angel, operator, and founder-program communities
• Feed qualified, high-conviction future founders into Afore's broader investment pipeline
• Own this initiative end-to-end with significant autonomy, reporting directly to the Managing Partners

Is this you?

• Current or former startup founder
• You have strong judgment about people — you can spot someone who's going to start a company before they know it themselves
• You're either an active angel/investor with real founder relationships, or an operator/technical person who's been close to this world and is ready to formalize it
• You've run or been part of a founder program before, or you've built your own informal version of one
• You know how to convince a talented, comfortable engineer or PM to take a leap
• You think in terms of people and potential, not just deals and metrics
• You want real ownership over a new function, not just a seat on an existing team

Preferred Qualifications

• Background as an operator or technical person who has recently left, or is preparing to leave, a company to build
• Active angel investing experience with a strong, demonstrable founder network
• Experience running or closely supporting a founder-in-residence or similar program
• Alumni or close ties to programs like PearX, YC, Hf0, SPC, Z Fellows, or Contrary Capital
• Experience launching or considering launching a small fund of one's own
• Track record of backing or supporting someone before they had a company or product
• High attention to detail, professionalism, and sound judgment
• Entrepreneurial, self-directed, and comfortable managing multiple relationships and workstreams

What Makes Afore an Exciting Place to Be

• Invests in people before ideas — often pre-product, sometimes pre-idea
• Helped define pre-seed as the default first institutional round for founders
• Leads with conviction: $2M+ checks pre-everything
• $3B+ in portfolio follow-on funding, $12B+ combined valuation (Hightouch, Gamma among them)
• ~3 of 5 portfolio companies skip seed entirely, straight to an $80M average Series A
• Access to 200+ investors through Afore's Spring and Fall showcases
• Network spans operators from OpenAI, Anthropic, Cursor, and DeepMind
• Same instinct behind Afore's Founder-in-Residence cohorts, now extended to operators and future founders outside the university ecosystem

Perks

• Ground-floor role in building a new function at a category-defining firm
• Direct access to exceptional operators and future founders at the earliest possible stage
• High ownership and real decision-making responsibility
• Close collaboration with a small, high-performing team
• Exposure to a wide range of industries, ideas, and emerging technologies
• Carry within the fund