CEO & Co-Founder

CEO & Co-Founder

Purdue University’s Digital Innovation in Agri-Food Systems Laboratory (DIAL), a part of the Purdue Applied Research Institute (PARI) is a venture studio focused on creating startups that bring digital innovation to our food and agriculture system. In our work, we explore unmet needs in the agri-food value chain, develop potential solutions, and launch new companies to build and bring them to market.

We’ve partnered with High Alpha Innovation partners with the world’s leading organizations to innovate through startup creation. Part strategy consultancy, part venture builder, our team is a diverse mix of highly experienced company builders, designers, and strategists who work with corporate and university partners to source, launch, and invest in venture studios and advantaged startups.

Our newest company, currently referred to as StealthCo, is seeking a Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder to bring to market a logistics optimization software for AgRetailers. Targeting the agriculture industry, StealthCo’s platform will enable Ag Retailers to better serve their customers while improving company-wide operations by efficiently dispatching, optimizing routing, and mitigating unforeseen circumstances for equipment.

You’ll be supported by the High Alpha Innovation and DIAL Ventures team, who have seen exponential growth across a variety of SaaS platforms in multiple industries and successful exits.

As the CEO and Co-Founder, you will be responsible for building a big, important, and durable business from the ground up. You will work to build conviction with the market, investors, and early customers as you bring the product to market. You will also set the go-to-market strategy and get the MVP into the hands of early customers. This is a unique opportunity to be a creator, builder, and innovator to build a world-class product from scratch.

What You'll Do:

• Serve as a leader and co-founder to shape corporate strategy and company vision while building conviction in the market, with investors, and customers
• Drive growth, profitability and company value while implementing scalable and efficient strategies to ensure consistent results and exponential growth
• Align resources to achieve key business goals and milestones
• Own the operational budget and managing burn rate and runway
• Report updates to the Board of Directors and other stakeholders regarding progress on strategic goals
• Assist with creating and executing a fundraising strategy to drive interest from outside VC investors
• Set the vision for the company and define the overall strategy from launch to scale.
• Structure a thoughtful organizational hiring plan and recruit, retain & develop world-class talent against that plan.
• Drive strategy and decision-making across all functional areas, including business development, product, marketing & content, operations, and finance.
• Determine the highest-order KPIs and build the plan and team to measure, monitor, and improve them.
• Lead all fundraising activities to support growth objectives in partnership with High Alpha Innovation.
• Develop a comprehensive framework for initiating and supporting relationships across the agriculture or food service distribution industries.
• Develop strategic relationships with development and channel partners to further StealthCo’s offering.
• Design, execute and continually iterate go-to-market strategies.
• Assist in defining, evaluating, and evolving the product roadmap by identifying new opportunities and gaps through strategic relationships with Ag Retailer Operators and Dispatchers
• Drive operations and operational rigor, including full P&L and cash flow management.
• Create and sustain a great company culture with articulated values that provides inspired leadership and enables a great working relationship to the team across all levels.

Requirements

• Demonstrated experience in selling SaaS products and building high-performing teams
• Experience or exposure to software business models, ideally with experience in Agriculture logistics and operations
• A passion and vision for helping agriculture professionals streamline their operations
• Founder experience is preferred or experience working in an early-stage venture-backed company in a key leadership role
• Venture capital fundraising experience preferred or other relevant experience across sales, negotiations or corporate development
• Strong track record of tackling difficult challenges, a strong work ethic and desire to build a high-growth company
• An entrepreneurial mindset along with the grit and determination to scale a company from scratch

Benefits

What we offer:

• Salary plus equity plan
• Medical, Dental & Vision Insurance
• Flexible work location within the United States
• A collaborative, entrepreneurial environment with a proven venture studio playbook
• A highly validated concept and business model hypothesis developed by our team
• Pre-seed funding committed by our partner
• The support of the venture studio and platform services, we surround the startup with world-class expertise in every discipline required to build a market-leading company

What we value :

WE BUILD TOGETHER

We make decisions with imperfect information and quickly move forward. We take action. We are comfortable with discomfort, and we measure our results in terms of what we build.

WE ARE BOLD

We seek, uncover, and speak truth. We are endlessly curious, we dream big and we lead through vision. Our ideas change the world.

WE CREATE OPPORTUNITY

We aim to create as much opportunity for as many people as possible, and we believe startups are a powerful vehicle for doing so. By creating opportunity, we create joy for ourselves, our loved ones, our corporate partners, and if we’re doing it right -- the world.

EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER

High Alpha Innovation and DIAL Ventures is an equal opportunity employer, and we value diversity at our company. We do not just accept diverse backgrounds, we celebrate them. Our company, the work we do, and our partners benefit from the value of a diverse team. No team member's value lies alone in their diversity, and because we value diversity so highly, we reiterate that all hiring and employment decisions are made on merit, performance, competence, and business needs. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.