Co-Founder & CEO — AI website builder + cloud platform

The Opportunity
This is not a job, it is your future company. Esteemed is seeking a partner growth operator to co-found, invest in, and lead Esteemed Cloud, a hosting platform featuring the AI website builder Create (similar to Lovable). This is a co-founder partnership with founder-level equity and authority, not a salaried executive role. Until revenue supports, there is no paid salary. You will work along side an experienced founding team with background in Global Enterprise Sales, Executive Management, Engineering, Product, and Customer Support. We also have a plan to grow the company via acquisition of other lower market hosting and IT support companies.
We need an expert in GTM/demand generation, lead generation, and running and growing a lean startup. You've built a hosting or other related subscription business to $2-4M ARR minimum, and you're looking to partner with an experienced team that has built a Replit / Lovable-level product that deploys to top tier cloud hosting, and is supported by a human expert community of 35,000 delivery pros.
About Esteemed
Esteemed is a small, revenue-first permanent venture studio and holding company building AI and Cloud platforms for B2B. Esteemed Cloud is not built to exit; liquidity comes from ARR shared by a small AI-first team through distributions. 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 Colleagues (EXP + Talent Network), and Esteemed Cloud. Esteemed HCMGPT is an NVIDIA Inception member.
You'll co-create with:
Chris McGrath, Founder & CEO, Esteemed — 25+ years building talent and web platforms; former AT&T (Hypergrowth) and Accenture Digital
Tom Schmidt, Co-founder & CSO, Esteemed — 30 years in staffing; former SVP Recruit Holdings (Indeed, Glassdoor, Staffmark), former VP ManpowerGroup
Rick Savage, Strategic Advisor — former Head of Talent Acquisition, Workday; leads Global Recruiting Operations Technology at NVIDIA
The Product
Esteemed Cloud (https://esteemed.io) is a combination AI Website / App builder and cloud platform. Create, the builder, was engineered for head-to-head competition with Lovable and Replit while also making it easy to incorporate AI into your app: describe an app or site in plain language, get working software, edit by conversation, publish to Esteemed Cloud. It is priced the way the category leaders price — base subscription plus metered usage — and it is live today alongside self-serve hosting ($9.99–$39.99/mo), done-for-you Managed hosting ($149–$399/mo at ~92% gross margin), domain sales, and business applications.
The platform has run enterprise hosting operations for six years, with project delivery history stretching back 17 years for major clients spanning major non-profits, state and federal governments, and universities.
What makes the current iteration unique is the bundle. Lovable deploys to someone else's hosting. Base44 had no domains, no expert bench, and few enterprise customers when Wix paid ~$80M for it — precisely to bolt a builder onto hosting, domains, and an SMB base. Esteemed already is that combination: a Replit- and Lovable-level builder with native cloud hosting running on Digital Ocean underneath it, and domains.
The customer who outgrows the AI or burns their credits half-finished can convert to a human engagement instead of churning in frustration. Competitors monetize the build. Esteemed Cloud monetizes build, run, and grow — builder usage, hosting MRR, domains, Managed support, app upsell, and expert placements from the same account. Esteemed Intelligence runs underneath, so generation quality and recommendations improve with use.
Revenue lines:
Create — (live) builder subscriptions plus metered token usage
Self-serve Cloud — (live) hosting, domains; premium-domain reseller line in negotiation
Managed hosting — (live, unmarketed) done-for-you tier with the free AI-rebuild close designed; modest existing revenue
Enterprise — (pre-revenue) Create + Curate CMS + dedicated cloud for organizations that need builder velocity with governance; delivery record already in place, priced at the level Acquia-class deployments command
Hire an Expert - support and fractional web design consultant
Support - enterprise level packaged support, up to 24/7 (experienced team supporting top clients already exists)
Acquisition engine — (separate ledger) hosting/MSP books acquired via holdco-led financing land on Cloud's ARR in addition to the organic mandate
The Partnership
You're comfortable leading and owning a company, growing it from the ground up.
Founder-CEO level equity (depending on experience), accelerated vesting, separate from your investment position.
Founder-level authority: central-decision rights on strategy, pricing, go-to-market, hiring, and fundraising; technology roadmap set through quarterly priority allocation under the license
A live product, a built funnel, six years of hosting operations, and enterprise delivery history
Esteemed Intelligence and ongoing engineering delivered under a perpetual, field-exclusive license (terms available on request)
Distribution across the Esteemed product family (HCMGPT, Acquire, Hire, Colleagues) — sibling-entity customers needing sites and apps feed the funnel under a papered referral schedule
Product leadership adjacent: Esteemed's founder (Chairman & Chief Innovation Officer) and a founding AI engineer keep Create at frontier level; you own the business, not the repo
Esteemed's founders and advisor network across AI, staffing, HR tech, hosting, and enterprise talent
What Esteemed has already funded: the product, the funnel, the infrastructure, and the engineering behind them. Create and the hosting platform are built and live.
What Esteemed continues to fund: engineering and product delivery under the license, shared billing/infra/ops at cost, and budgeted offshore support and engineering hires.
What you'll own
Strategy — set the commercial plan across the revenue lines and the sequence between the two lanes: national product-led growth and enterprise sales
Revenue — own the organic mandate: grow hosting + AI revenue from near zero to $3M ARR in 24 months, with staged gates ($250–400K run-rate by month nine, $1M by fifteen); referred implementation revenue and acquired ARR land in addition, never inside. Lovable grew to $300M in ARR in one year
Team — hire growth, sales, and success; budgeted offshore support and engineering report into the plan; every hire carries a quota or operates
Product priority — direct the engineering allocation; you set priorities, you do not manage engineers
Co-founder Profile
Has built a hosting or related subscription business to $2M ARR minimum in 18 months— owned the demand generation, lead generation, and funnel that got it there.
Expert in demand and lead gen: paid acquisition, PLG conversion, lifecycle, outbound — and able to carry an enterprise deal to close
Has raised capital or led a round
Founder at heart: wants ownership, not a title; comfortable partnering with an experienced product team under a holdco structure and licensed technology
Available full-time within 90 days
Located in the U.S. and comfortable working remote
International Candidates interested in a role in their market will be considered separately
How to Apply
Submit your LinkedIn profile and complete the questions attached to the application. We will move quickly for the right candidate.

Work arrangement
Yes