Entrepreneur in Residence

About Ajaia

Ajaia is an AI implementation consultancy and product studio. We help organizations move from AI experimentation to measurable return on investment across four practices: AI Strategy and Advisory, Workforce Training and Enablement, Process Optimization, and Custom AI Development. The product studio grows out of that client work. When we see the same expensive problem inside several organizations, we build a product for it, often alongside a client who co-invests and becomes the first customer.

Position Overview

Ajaia is hiring an Entrepreneur in Residence to take one of our products and run it like a funded startup. You will own it end to end: the customer, the roadmap, the go-to-market, the numbers. You get a defined budget, a working engineering team, warm access to buyers through Ajaia's client relationships, and a set of stage gates agreed up front. You also get the kill criteria. If the product misses them, we stop and you move to the next bet.

The first product is the start. As you build it, you will write down what worked, and that becomes the playbook Ajaia uses for every product after it. The role is full-time and built to last. A product that clears its gates can become a company you lead.

Compensation: $120,000 to $180,000 base, plus stage-gate bonuses and an ownership stake in the product you build.

How we expect you to work

You have built and shipped products, and you want to own one outright. Founders and first hires at startups will recognize the job. So will strong product or commercial operators who have been waiting for the chance to run something end to end.

AI use is a core execution requirement at Ajaia. You should be able to prototype with current tools yourself, check whether the output is right, and tell an engineer exactly what to build next. Nobody here will write your spec, run your customer calls, or build your pricing model for you.

You will sell before the product is finished. Most weeks will include customer conversations, a build review with engineers, and an honest look at the numbers against the gate.

What you will do

• Own one product end to end, from problem definition through paying customers.
• Run customer discovery yourself. Talk to buyers and users every week and bring back evidence.
• Set the roadmap and direct Ajaia's engineers against it. You own the problem, the sequence, and the definition of done.
• Build the go-to-market: positioning, pricing, the first sales motion, and the first ten customers.
• Manage the product's budget as if it were your own seed round. Report spend and progress against each stage gate.
• Structure partnerships where a client co-invests and Ajaia builds, and manage those partners once they are in.
• Call it when a product should be killed, and make the case with data.
• Write the playbook. Document how Ajaia takes a product from idea to revenue so the next one moves faster.

• Three to five or more years building products or companies in a role where you owned an outcome.
• Working fluency with current AI tools. You can prototype, test output quality, and write a build spec an engineer can work from.
• Experience directing engineers without managing them day to day.
• Comfort owning a budget and reporting against milestones to people who can stop the funding.
• Clear writing. You will document the playbook and it has to be usable by the next person.
• Willingness to work on-site in Manhattan and travel to partner and customer sites.
• A bachelor’s degree is preferred and is not a requirement. We will take the track record over the credential.

Nice to have

• You have started one or more companies, or were the first product or commercial hire at a startup.
• A product you took to revenue. Name the product, the first customers, and the number.
• Experience selling to businesses or institutions yourself, before there was a sales team.
• Experience in healthcare or K-12 education, or another regulated market with long sales cycles.
• Time inside a venture studio, an incubator, or a prior Entrepreneur in Residence role.
• A joint venture, co-development deal, or design-partner agreement you structured.

• Stage-gate bonuses: a fixed bonus each time the product clears an agreed gate, such as first paying customer or a revenue target.
• Ownership stake: a real stake in the product you build.