Founder's Associate

About Comena
Comena builds AI agents for industrial distributors and manufacturers to automate their order processing from e-mail inbox to ERP. At distributors across the US and Germany alone, there are 4 million sales and procurement people stuck in manual workflows between inbox and ERP. We want to automate this work and liberate these people to work on more meaningful things.
We’re part of the YC S25 batch - the most selective batch in YC history. We recently raised a seed round from top Silicon Valley investors and are serving customers across US and Germany.
About the role
We’re looking for a Founder's Associate to work directly with the founders on the highest-priority projects in the company. This is an early-career, high-ownership role for someone who wants to start their own company one day and wants a front-row seat to building an AI startup from the inside first.
This role is for generalists who want to learn how a startup actually gets built. Your initial focus will be on two things: marketing & growth (getting Comena's story in front of industrial companies) and hiring (finding and closing the people who will build Comena with us). Over time, you'll own whatever the founders need most - from special projects to building out entire functions.
What you’ll do
Plan and run marketing campaigns across LinkedIn, email, website, trade shows, and events
Create content: founder posts, customer stories, case studies, newsletters, and landing pages
Turn customer conversations and product launches into stories that generate pipeline
Own our hiring funnel: source candidates, run outreach, screen, and coordinate interviews
Build and use AI systems across marketing, recruiting, and internal operations
Test new channels, formats, and messaging - and measure what actually moves pipeline and hires
Work directly with the founders on whatever matters most that week
What we’re looking for
Excellent writing and communication skills in English and German
High ownership and low ego
Good judgment, taste, attention to detail, and follow-through
Comfort operating in ambiguity and moving quickly
Wanting to work very hard beyond traditional 9-5 hours
Fluency with AI tools for research, writing, design, and analysis
Excitement about startups, AI, and industrial businesses
You might be a fit if
You want to found your own company one day and want to learn how it's done first
You want to work directly with founders and learn fast
You like being trusted with real responsibility early
You are excited by execution, not just strategy
You want a role that can grow quickly with your performance
You're probably not a fit if
You want to own one narrow channel or function
You need a detailed brief before you start
You prefer coming up with ideas over shipping them
You don't enjoy writing or talking to people
Why join
Work directly with the founders every day
Learn how an AI startup builds its brand, hires its team, and scales
Get broad exposure, rapid feedback, and increasing responsibility
Help modernize how industrial companies operate
About the interview
15 min Intro Call with Youssef
Take-home challenge
60 min coworking call with Jiehua
In-person meeting
Offer

Experience
1+ years

Work arrangement
No