Today, we're excited to announce the Vareto Entrepreneur in Residence (EIR) Program. This is an open, standing invitation for future founders to join Vareto for 1+ years to gain valuable startup experience while also receiving financial support, top-tier mentorship, and intros to 100+ top venture firms and strategic angels.
How the program works
You join Vareto in a full-time role and get the experience of working at an early-stage, fast-growing company. In addition, you are invited to exclusive group sessions that prepare you for being a successful founder. These sessions cover all aspects of startups, from idea validation to product and GTM strategy, naming and incorporation, fundraising, hiring your first few employees, and more. We go beyond the basics and share advanced, practical advice that you can immediately implement. We also give you the chance to hear multiple viewpoints from different founders and investors.
After you've been with Vareto for at least a year and feel ready to jump into entrepreneurship, we will provide you with a fully paid transition month to focus full-time on your startup idea. We'll also fund 10 hours of consultant advisory time to fine-tune your business plan and startup pitch. We'll introduce you to 100+ top VC firms and strategic angels that will help you with GTM, hiring, technical expertise, and any other area you need. We can also refer you to Y Combinator or other startup accelerators if you'd like.
The best part: there are no strings attached. We do not take an equity stake. Your company is 100% yours, and you are free to negotiate favorable term sheets, bootstrap your company, or join an accelerator.
Why we're doing this
We love startups and see this as a win-win for both founders and Vareto.
As a future founder participating in the Vareto EIR program, you'll get 1+ years of relevant experience working at a fast-growing, early-stage company. You'll have the opportunity to have a significant impact and prove yourself to future investors and employees. And you'll receive every possible advantage in the form of financial support, mentorship, and intros.
Meanwhile, Vareto benefits from having ambitious, growth-minded, entrepreneurial team members. Many companies think it's a failure when an employee stays for just one year, but we respectfully disagree. Even if you stay at Vareto for just 12 months, this is a significant chunk of our company's lifetime. During this time, you'll see our company grow, take on additional funding, and evolve our product and brand. That's a lot to go through together!
While we'll be sad to see you go, we'll also be grateful for your impact and excited for the startup you're building. It's like going off to college — no matter how wonderful, it's temporary, and we get that.
Our first founder alum: congrats to Eric Li!
We're excited to support Eric Li as he embarks on the entrepreneurship journey. He joined Vareto two years ago as a founding employee and has worn many different hats. As our first product and design leader, he built a strong 6-person team and laid down the foundations of our product and brand. He also single-handedly designed our logo and played a critical role in shaping company culture.
"I can't imagine a better environment for learning to start a business than the time I spent at Vareto," said Eric. "In my two years here, I've had the chance to make and learn from more decisions than I can count, and I've worked across just about every function, from running customer meetings with our Customer Growth team to pushing code with our engineers."
How to apply
All Vareto employees are eligible for the Startup EIR program, so to start, just apply to one of the open roles on our Careers page.
