Venture Building Associate (gn) @ Foodlabs, Berlin

Early-Stage Venture Building & Ideation

At FoodLabs, we discover the best food, health, and sustainability companies before they become category leaders - and we give them every advantage to get there. We believe capital is just one part of the journey. Every day, we deliver transformational support to our founders on the topics that shape a company’s trajectory: Product, People, and Commercial Growth.

A key part of that mission is ideation. On top of backing companies - we build them from scratch in our studio. That means running the analytical work that turns a hypothesis into a fundable, defensible business: sizing markets, stress-testing models, mapping competitive landscapes, and identifying where value is actually created. Operating at the intersection of research, strategy, and venture building - increasingly across deeptech, consumer, and science - we spot opportunities before they become obvious, and we back them with conviction.

Why we are looking for you now

We just closed a new fund, our portfolio has grown to over 80 companies across the world - including HOLY, LAP, MicroHarvest, Voltrac, Reformed, and Evanium - and our venture studio is busier than ever, spinning up new ventures. Together with you, we will:

• Build and pressure-test business models for new studio ventures - from unit economics and pricing logic to go-to-market strategy and paths to profitability

• Run deep market research to develop and sharpen investment theses

• Zoom in and out: take a research-led but commercially grounded approach to venture building, translating insights into decisions founders can actually act on - and stepping in directly when the work is urgent and critical

• Build and leverage a network of universities, research institutions, industry experts, investors, and corporates

• Expand our knowledge base with frameworks, market maps, and research that make the whole studio smarter – from category dynamics to regulatory shifts to emerging business models in robotics, agtech, biotech, consumer and beyond

Your role: Intellectual rigour is your superpower

• You’ll join FoodLabs’ Studio function, embedded at the heart of where we develop core thesis and identify opportunities for future ventures.

• Research (field, desk, network, talent) and analysis will be a major part of your work - identifying white spaces, sizing opportunities, and building the analytical foundation that turns ideas into ventures worth backing.

• But this role goes far beyond research. You’ll work directly with founders and studio teams to challenge assumptions, sharpen narratives, and build organizations around business models that scale.

• You own the full picture: if it shapes whether a company gets built - or how - it’s your challenge to solve.

• You take ownership, you make decisions, and you deliver work that shapes the trajectory of companies from day one.

• You will design and lead your own projects, building your own point of view, and being decisive in turning projects into venture-worthy businesses.

Who you will work with

• You will collaborate and lead projects with our Studio and Investment teams

• You will work daily at eye level with founders and their leadership teams, from pre-incorporation through Seed, and beyond

• You will build and expand our ecosystem of research and venture development partnerships - from domain experts, professors, and category operators to talents, accelerators, corporates, and research institutions

What you need to succeed

• Research & Thesis-Building Instinct: You go deep before you go broad. You independently develop well-founded perspectives on markets, business models, and technologies, and you challenge assumptions with data, not opinions.

• Operator Experience: You gained experience in a high-performing startup or within a fast-paced, entrepreneurial environment - ideally in a role that required structured thinking, ownership, and executional follow-through.

• Curiosity & Ambition: The learning curve will be steep. You thrive in environments where intellectual curiosity is a prerequisite, not a differentiator. You want to learn from and contribute to a team of founders, scientists, and operators building businesses at the frontier.

• Drive for Excellence: Outstanding track record in your field - academic, professional, or entrepreneurial. You set a high bar for yourself and hold your work to that standard consistently.

• Problem-Solving Mindset: Excellent analytical abilities and a structured approach to complex, ambiguous problems. You can break down hard questions, synthesize large amounts of information, and communicate your thinking clearly.

• Communication: Fluency in English is required; German is a strong plus. You can distill complex ideas into clear, compelling narratives - whether in a memo, a deck, or a conversation with a founder.