The Venture

Chronic inflammation drives diverse diseases that collectively represent the leading causes of disability and mortality worldwide, such as cardiovascular disease, chronic kidney disease, neurodegenerative disorders, and autoimmune problems such as rheumatoid arthritis. While there are therapeutic approaches that can work well in these indications, many patients do not respond to treatment, others lose responsiveness, and some diseases still entirely lack adequate therapy, leaving great unmet medical need in an underserved space.

Our goal is to improve the lives of patients with serious and chronic inflammatory diseases by focusing on the development of medicines that more precisely affect key aspects of the disease - a new generation of targeted medicines - developed against targets uncovered through a global and intimate understanding of drivers of disease. We aim to do this through leveraging functional perturbation modeling, multi-omics, AI, and primary complex models for better contextual awareness of drug discovery.

We are working at the cusp of technology and biology - developing novel technology to answer critical questions in drug discovery and development, with a proven team of biotech and tech entrepreneurs and scientists.

We're seeking a passionate founder’s associate to help bring our new techbio solution to life. As a founder’s associate, you'll be instrumental in supporting the pre-seed build and seed preparation, validating strategy with pharma KOLs to scaling the organization. If you have an entrepreneurial spirit, a keen interest in AI, and a desire to make a meaningful impact in patients' lives, consider joining us.

PART OF AN ECOSYSTEM

The venture that you will be working for is part of the world’s first AI Venture Studio, Merantix. Already today, AI automates complex, multi-level processes that used to be dependent on human decision-making, resulting in automation and higher accuracy. Merantix aims to spearhead this development, building the category leaders of tomorrow. At Merantix Venture Studio, we build and scale machine-learning companies. Through our unique incubation platform, pre-seed financing and exceptional teams of visionary entrepreneurs and engineers, we transfer world-leading research into products that will change existing and create new industries. The growing platform constitutes a unique brand with a shared tech and operational infrastructure that attracts talent, resonates with industry partners, and leverages the proven network and product-building experience. Together with more than 60 AI teams, we collaborate on the AI Campus in the heart of Berlin. We are a big community of startups, scaleups, researchers, investors and enterprises that love to help and support each other with a shared vision of building disruptive technologies.

In order to build outstanding companies with the help of a distinguished team and state-of-the-art platform technology, we are searching for exceptional entrepreneurial minds that have the ambition to make an impact. As a founders associate, you will be working side by side with an experienced founder, who already built a company in the precision medicine oncology and oncology drug discovery space, to help build the company from the ground up. Once the case is ripe for incubation, you will have the chance of joining the team full-time as one of the first hires with equity options.

If that resonates with you, here is what your role at Merantix includes:

• Conducting research around the market and the competitive landscape

• Discussion with expert stakeholders to validate and calibrate the idea

• Conceptualizing our vision, formulating the business model and approach

• Identifying talent and building the initial team

• Developing the company culture

• Initiating and maintaining relationships to potential investors and partners

We define ourselves by a culture of ownership and cooperation. We are looking for driven, capable, visionary, and prudent talents with proven track records of personal, academic, and professional achievement in biotech, biology, and/or techbio.

• You have a degree with relevant research and applied experience in life sciences or machine learning, a PhD is a plus.

• You have gained professional experience in a biotech environment, at a leading technology company, or in management consultancy/ venture capital.

• You have superb communication (verbal and written English) and interpersonal skills and an ability to effectively communicate with both business and technical teams.

• You have strong organizational and multitasking skills with the ability to prioritize appropriately and effectively.

• You are available to work with us for a minimum of 6 months at a time.

Our hierarchy is flat and communication direct, which means that we operate and learn fast, as a team. Perks of working with us can be summarized as follows:

• Most importantly, you will work shoulder-to-shoulder with an experienced founder and get immediate exposure to all the crucial steps in building an exceptional company.

• You will be able to develop a great network of top scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs, investors, opinion leaders, and advisors.

• You will have the unique opportunity of joining the company as a first hire and receiving shares in the company.

• Every day you have the chance to learn how to channel your creativity, focus and ambition by shadowing proven entrepreneurs.

• We provide you with the toolbox of growing personally and professionally by giving you ownership within a cooperative environment.

The venture will be built in a remote-first setting - allowing you to work from anywhere you want whilst ensuring that we still don’t lose the personal touch through frequent personal encounters in Berlin.

In addition to a competitive salary, you can expect the following:

• Flexible working hours as we believe in ownership and trust;

• Learning & development program for all our team members;

• Regular team events and intensive exchange with all Merantix companies;

• Equal rights, respect, and promotion of diversity.