Founder & CEO - Industrial Shield
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Reach the decision-maker — $5About the role
**Founder \& CEO — Industrial Shield** ======================================
*One clip, three sensors, real\-time protection for the people who work in the world's toughest environments*
**Location:** UK or Australia
**Start date:** ASAP
More about the concept here.
Founders Factory builds and funds startups together with exceptional entrepreneurs and the world's leading companies. Created by IPO\-exited founders, we offer founders capital, operational support from a team of hands\-on experts, and unrivalled access to a coalition of industry\-leading corporate partners. Since 2015, Founders Factory's 450\+ portfolio companies have secured 500\+ pilots and commercial contracts with our partners.
Our Studio partners with entrepreneurs at day one, developing new ideas, technologies and business models into high\-growth companies. In partnership with a leading global industrial technology partner, we are building a new portfolio of ventures.
**About the Venture**
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The world's workforce is increasingly exposed. Heat stress already causes an estimated 277,000 injuries and 230 deaths a year in the EU alone, and the world has woken up to silica dust — the UK's Health and Safety Executive links around 500 construction deaths a year to silica\-related lung disease, plus a further \~4,000 deaths a year from workplace\-induced COPD. Yet this is still managed through "holistic risk assessment" or, at best, static environmental monitors. Today's wearables track heat *or* dust — never heat, dust and physical strain together.
We are building IndustrialShield: one chest\-worn clip carrying three sensors — particulate, gas/heat and physiological strain — worn within 300mm of the breathing zone, designed edge\-compute\-first so it works where mines have no connectivity, and privacy\-first to earn worker trust. It turns continuous exposure into actionable, work\-group\-level risk profiles, sold as a per\-worker subscription (\~€8–14/worker/month) on two\-year site contracts.
The unfair advantage: our partner's sensor stack — a fanless particulate sensor no rival can match, a gas sensor and an exertion sensor — stacked per worker in a way no other silicon vendor can assemble, plus warm routes into mining operators through our partner's smart\-mining network and Founders Factory's own relationships across the sector. Early buyer conversations with major miners have been strongly positive: *"I haven't seen it in one unit before."*
**Our Offer**
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We don't just fund ideas — we co\-build them. Join as Founder \& CEO and get access to a full\-stack venture studio offering designed to give you the best possible start:
* €275k of spin\-out capital plus a founder stipend \+ studio budget to build, validate, and launch * Expert Team: Hands\-on support across product, growth, fundraising, AI/ML, design, legal, hiring, and more * MVP Build: Full\-time venture builder(s) to help ship your first product * Accelerator: 6 months of deep operational support post\-launch * Strategic Network: Intros to top\-tier investors and corporate partners * Validation: A vetted concept, domain insight, and a head start in a massive market
**Jobs to be Done**
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As Founder \& CEO, you will be responsible for turning a strong thesis into a scaled, defensible business.
* **Define the wedge.** Decide which mining geography, buyer and procurement channel you attack first — and how construction becomes the scale\-out. * **Turn a thesis into a product.** Work with our partner's sensor and manufacturing teams to take the three\-in\-one clip and its dashboard from concept to a device buyers can pilot. * **Win the first customer.** Convert warm introductions into a paying pilot with a major mining or industrial operator, and prove continuous group\-level exposure profiling in the field. * **Build the commercial model.** Land the per\-worker subscription motion, and test insurer co\-funding and partner\-led distribution. * **Ride the regulatory tailwind.** Turn tightening dust and heat regulation into procurement urgency without depending on any single mandate. * **Build the company.** Hire the initial team, raise capital, and establish the venture as the category leader for wearable industrial safety.
**Your Ideal Experience**
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We are not looking for a traditional safety executive or a pure hardware engineer. The ideal candidate sits at the intersection.
* Founder or senior operator who has built a hardware \+ software or IoT product from zero to one — ideally in industrial, mining, safety\-tech, or occupational\-health markets. * Deep familiarity with at least one buyer segment: mining or heavy\-industry health \& safety, or enterprise construction. * Enterprise commercial instinct: you can sell a preventative product to a CFO or H\&S director and turn a pilot into a multi\-year, per\-head contract. * Strong product and technical instincts: you can reason about sensors, edge compute and device economics even if you are not writing the firmware yourself. * Comfortable operating in ambiguity: shaping the product, defining the buyer, and making irreversible calls with incomplete data. * Credibility with conservative industrial buyers and forward\-looking venture investors, and willing to be on the ground in the UK or Australia.
*Most importantly, you are motivated by category creation — building the workforce\-risk operating system for heavy industry, before someone else does.*
**This is your company. We're here to help.**
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