Co-founder, Commercial – Food Contact Materials

Role Overview

• You'll work closely with the DSV team and the current Founder in Residence to co-found and spin-out a new company.
• Once the new venture is incorporated with pre-seed investment from DSV and the Grantham Foundation, you and your co-founder will own the majority stake in the business, and continue receiving hands-on support from the DSV+Grantham team post-spinout.
• Validate market demand and define target segments;
• Build early customer, supplier, and strategic partnerships;
• Secure commercial proof points (LOIs, MOUs, offtake pathways);
• Support or lead fundraising from VCs.

Requirements

• Previous experience in either a startup/early-stage company environment or leading commercial scale-up in a relevant industrial setting (or both);
• Experience in adhesives, coatings markets and food packaging is a strong plus;
• A track record in fundraising from VC, grant writing, grant management and building commercial partnerships;
• Exposure to regulatory processes for industrial chemicals/materials (ideally battery-related).
• Lead customer discovery to identify and prioritise target markets, building relationships from initial outreach through to binding offtake agreements, and refining value proposition based on market feedback;
• Co-develop and maintain techno-economic models, pricing strategy, financial models, and lead commercial negotiations and contract structuring;
• Lead fundraising efforts with commercial due diligence materials, building investor relationships and communicating commercial progress;
• Demonstrated B2B and B2C sales and business development experience, ideally in materials, chemicals or related industrial sectors, with a track record from cold outreach to signed agreements;
• Willingness to operate across strategic and administrative tasks with resilience, strong self-direction and ability to thrive in uncertain environments;
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to build credibility across diverse stakeholders, present to senior executives and investors, and work collaboratively with a technical co-founder;
• Ability to recruit and lead team members as the company grows, with a desire to build and scale an organization aligned with company mission and values.

Benefits

• We provide optimised, purpose-built, proprietary tools, resources and processes to help create high-impact ventures from scratch, using our venture creation methodology.
• DSV and Grantham Foundation's extensive network incl. leaders of biotech VCs, technical & commercial domain expertise, and wide-ranging portfolio company capabilities.
• We jointly provide an initial £250k (~$340k / €290k) investment governed by our Investment Committee to incorporate the new venture and develop early proof-of-concept data that is often needed to attract high profile non-venture studio VCs. This funding is also key for obtaining grant funding, which often needs to be matched with private investment.
• You and your co-founder(s) together will own the majority equity stake in the company.
• We provide minimum guaranteed income of £4,166 per month (fixed), paid to each Founder as a consultancy fee until the company is launched and pre-seed investment is secured.
• We provide continuous support post spin-out, including fundraising, commercial partnerships, recruitment and team-building (amongst other things).
• Other Founders currently at DSV across sectors working collaboratively and supporting one another
• a unique resource to draw on.