Founders Associate Intern

Location: Remote (United States)

Work Model: Remote

Industry: AI recruiting and talent marketplace (B2B SaaS)

Compensation: $20–$35 per hour

About the Company

TalentPluto is a Y Combinator-backed startup building the hiring stack for high-growth companies. We run two connected products: a talent network that places engineering, go-to-market, and operations people into fast-moving startups, and an AI recruiting tool that lets a hiring team run candidate search, tiered enrichment, rubric-based scoring, and outbound campaigns directly from their assistant. We work with dozens of venture-backed startups across AI, developer tools, fintech, and healthcare. The team is small and founder-led, and interns work on live problems rather than practice ones.

The Opportunity

This is a Founders Associate internship working directly with the founders on whatever matters most that week. The work moves between strategy, analysis, and execution: scoping a question nobody has answered yet, doing the research, forming a recommendation, and then owning the follow-through until it is actually done. You will see how an early-stage company gets built from the inside, including the parts that are unglamorous and still undecided.

Because the team is small, the projects are real and the ownership is genuine. Expect limited structure, frequent context switching, and a high bar on written communication, since most decisions here are made from a well-argued document rather than a meeting.

Responsibilities

Own discrete, high-impact projects end to end for the founders, from framing the question through to the recommendation and the follow-through. Research markets, competitors, customers, and internal data, and turn findings into clear written recommendations. Move between strategy, analysis, and hands-on execution depending on what the week requires. Build lightweight process and documentation where none exists, so the same work does not have to be redone. Track commitments across the team and make sure decisions turn into action.

Requirements

Strong judgment, organization, and follow-through on work with limited supervision. Excellent written communication, including the ability to synthesize a messy problem into a clear argument. Strong research skills across both public sources and internal data. Comfort switching between strategy, analysis, and execution. Ability to work on ambiguous projects with limited structure. High ownership mindset and self-direction in a remote startup environment.