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Founder in Residence

Location

Hamburg | Berlin | Munich

Type

Full time

Department

Venture Building

Our Mission

Uplift Ventures shapes the future of moving goods.

Global commerce is currently facing a massive, systemic forcing function. Macroeconomic shifts, labor shortages, and geopolitical re-shoring mean that global supply chains can no longer just be incrementally optimized, they are actively being completely rebuilt from scratch.

This is the ultimate playground for founders as moving goods is the circulatory system of our global economy, commanding over 10% of global GDP. As Founder in Residence, you will leverage emerging technologies to capitalize on deep systemic friction using founder first principles.

What you’ll do

With velocity and execution excellence you will identify, validate, and build a venture from 0→ 1 within the Uplift opportunity spaces and with the assets of the Jungheinrich AG.

This means:

  • Discover: Identify high-impact problems by deeply understanding users, markets, and technology shifts

  • Ideate: Translate ideas into concrete solution approaches, define value propositions, and design initial concepts

  • Validate: Test hypotheses through rapid experiments, customer conversations, and prototypes

  • Build: Develop an MVP, product vision and a scalable business model

  • Convince: Turn your insights into an investor-ready venture

You will:

  • Take full ownership of idea, conception and execution from day one with full ownership and accountability

  • Work closely with experienced mentors and operators

  • Leverage Uplift’s and Jungheinrich’s platform, network, and resources to accelerate your progress

  • Collaborate with internal experts and external partners

  • Iterate quickly, challenge assumptions, and pivot when needed

This is not about executing tasks - it’s about owning a venture hypothesis and making it real.

This role is for you if

You are driven by solving hard problems, not following predefined paths

  • You thrive in ambiguity and turn uncertainty into structure and momentum

  • You take ownership, move fast, and learn faster

  • You are scrappy, resourceful, and hands-on

  • You are highly curious and customer-obsessed

  • You communicate clearly, challenge ideas (including your own), and seek (market) feedback early

  • You’ve built something from scratch – or have strong evidence that you can

Bonus:

  • Experience in logistics, startups, or building teams

  • Strong AI/tooling fluency and willingness to experiment

Languages: Fluent in English and German

What we offer

  • The opportunity to build your own venture

  • A structured path to go from idea → validated business → funded startup

  • Clear success milestone: pre-seed investment by Uplift Ventures within the 12 months of your engagement

  • A high-caliber environment with ambitious founders and builders

  • Hands-on support from mentors, operators, and a dedicated venture-building setup

  • Access to Uplift’s network and Jungheinrich’s assets and unfair advantages

  • Competitive compensation of € 80k p.a. fix and option for pre-seed investment with up tp 80% equity for founding team after 12 months