Co-founder, CEO - Colleagues EXP

The OpportunityEsteemed is seeking a commercial operator to co-found and lead Esteemed Colleagues, an Employee Experience Platform and Talent Network being spun out of the Esteemed holding company. Rather than ask an existing team to build it alongside their day jobs, we're recruiting a founder to own it. This is a co-founder partnership with founder-level equity and founder-level authority, not a salaried executive role.We are not looking for someone who wants to run engineering, or who wants a blank page. The product is live, the network is real, and the technology is delivered under license by Esteemed's shared engineering group. We are looking for someone who has taken a marketplace or talent platform from early revenue to scale, who is comfortable leading a seed round and putting their own capital behind it, and who wants to own a company rather than a function.This is a full-time, exclusive commitment to building and owning Colleagues.About EsteemedEsteemed is a small, revenue-first permanent holding company building AI-native platforms for work. No exit is required; liquidity comes through distributions and buyouts. Each operating company licenses a shared technology group and AI substrate (Esteemed Intelligence) from the parent; none manages its own engineering. Esteemed's products include HCMGPT (the AI Operator for HR, Staffing, and PeopleOps), Esteemed Acquire and Hire (CRM and ATS), Esteemed Cloud, and the Colleagues network. Esteemed is an NVIDIA Inception member.You'll co-create with:Chris McGrath, Founder & CEO, Esteemed — 25+ years building talent platforms; former AT&T (Hypergrowth) and Accenture DigitalTom Schmidt, Co-founder & CSO, Esteemed — 30 years in staffing; former SVP Recruit Holdings (Indeed, Glassdoor, Staffmark), former VP ManpowerGroupRick Savage, Strategic Advisor — former Head of Talent Acquisition, Workday; leads Global Recruiting Operations Technology at NVIDIAThe ProductEsteemed Colleagues (https://colleagues.esteemed.io) is an Employee Experience Platform and Talent Marketplace. The network currently consists of 35,000 vetted professionals, free to members and has acted as the recruiting engine for Esteemed's staffing business since 2020. The EXP implementation is an enterprise SaaS employee experience platform for employers on average of 5,000 employees and up.What makes it unique in both. One graph, role-based environments, one boundary. Inside an employer's tenant: employees and active contingent workers, siloed, with vendors in role-based views. Connected outward to the global network: alumni and contractors. Other EXP vendors sell software to the employer's current employees and stops at the company wall. Staffing firms sell people from outside and never from inside the company supporting other HCM needs. Colleagues (and Esteemed HCM) run both sides of the wall from one platform, so hiring, referrals, and re-engagement flow through the system the employer already uses for its people. Esteemed Intelligence runs underneath, so matching and recommendations improve with use.Revenue lines:Jobseeker Pro — (pending release) paid member tier: visibility, AI-assisted career positioning, referral earningsEmployer DIY Marketplace — self-serve hiring from the network at a 20% placement fee; built to evolve through iteration and, over time, acquisition of point tools in the HCM landscapeReferral Engine + VMS full service — managed staffing and recruitment for larger clients, delivered through Esteemed Staffing, with member referrals feeding supplyEXP Enterprise — (pre-revenue) the tenant platform: career dashboards, recognition, culture measurement, learning, connected to the network for alumni and on-demand staffingThe PartnershipFounder-level equity, vesting, separate from your investment positionFounder-level authority: co-decision rights on strategy, pricing, go-to-market, hiring, and fundraising; technology roadmap set through quarterly priority allocation under the licenseA live product, a 35,000-member network, and existing staffing clients as first employersEsteemed Intelligence and ongoing engineering delivered under a perpetual, field-exclusive license (terms available on request)Distribution across the Esteemed product family (HCMGPT, Acquire, Hire) and Esteemed StaffingEsteemed's founders and advisor network in staffing, HR tech, and enterprise talentWhat Esteemed has already funded: the product, the network, and the engineering behind them. The MVP is built and in use.What Esteemed continues to fund: engineering and product delivery under the license, marketing support, a support team, and executive time from the founders and advisors.What the seed funds: the commercial build-out — sales, customer success, growth — not the technology. You are expected to co-invest and lead a $1M seed round at a $10M post-money valuation (10%).What you'll ownStrategy — set the commercial plan across the four lines and the sequence between themRevenue — own EXP enterprise sales, VMS accounts, marketplace liquidity, and Pro conversionCapital — lead the seed, co-invest, run investor conversations and diligenceTeam — hire the sales, growth, and customer-success team; set the cultureProduct priority — direct the engineering allocation; you set priorities, you do not manage engineersCo-founder ProfileHas run a P&L in a two-sided talent marketplace, talent network, or EX/HR platform with an enterprise tierHas sold to enterprise HR or People buyers and understands the cycleHas raised capital or led a round, and is an accredited investor prepared to co-investFounder at heart: wants ownership, not a title; comfortable with a holdco structure and licensed technologyAvailable full-time within 90 daysHow to ApplySubmit your LinkedIn profile, complete the questions attached to the application, including a brief note on why this venture fits your goals as a founder. We will move quickly for the right candidate.