Venture Programs & Operations Apprentice/Fellow (Consumer Goods Venture)

<p><strong>The Short Version</strong></p> <p>You’ll work with an exceptional founder to help operationalize a consumer venture from nothing. Not optimizing supply chains. Not running existing ops. The first cost model, the first contract, the first shipment. From blank page to product in a customer’s hand.</p> <p><strong>What Liminal Is</strong></p> <p>Liminal is a Founders’ Studio. We co-build with repeat founders – many of them unicorn founders – providing build expertise, capital, and unfair access from founding to Series B. We call ourselves a Founders’ Studio because “venture studio” undersells what we do and oversells what most of them deliver. This role sits within a new consumer health and wellness venture being built alongside experienced operators and founders.</p> <p><strong>What This Role Actually Is</strong></p> <p>This role sits within a new consumer health and wellness venture being built alongside experienced operators and founders.</p> <p>Most people like startup ideas. Very few people like operational reality. This role is for the second type.</p> <p>You’re the person who instinctively asks:</p> <ul> <li>What’s the margin profile?</li> <li>What’s the tooling lead time?</li> <li>What happens if freight costs spike?</li> <li>Where are the operational bottlenecks?</li> <li>Is this supplier reliable?</li> <li>What breaks at scale?</li> </ul> <p>You’ll work directly with founders helping coordinate the operational backbone of the venture:</p> <ul> <li>Manufacturing, logistics &amp; supply chain</li> <li>Execution planning &amp; costing</li> <li>Operational systems</li> <li>Vendor management</li> </ul> <p>You should enjoy bringing order to ambiguity.</p> <p><strong>The Work</strong></p> <ul> <li>Manufacturing and supply chain coordination: Work with suppliers, factories, and external partners across timelines, production planning, tooling, prototyping, and operational execution.</li> <li>Financial and cost analysis: Build costing models, pricing analyses, freight estimates, and operational financial breakdowns. Understand margins deeply.</li> <li>Execution management: Track moving pieces relentlessly – deadlines, deliverables, prototypes, contracts, vendor updates, operational dependencies</li> <li>Vendor and factory communication: Coordinate across manufacturing and supplier relationships, including overseas stakeholders. Mandarin / Chinese language capability is a strong advantage.</li> <li>Contracts and operational documentation: Support commercial agreements, operational workflows, and process documentation as the company scales.</li> <li>Founder support: Operate closely alongside leaders to ensure operational momentum stays high and blockers are solved quickly.</li> </ul> <p><strong>Who You Are</strong></p> <ul> <li>Operationally sharp: You naturally think in systems, dependencies, timelines, and execution pathways.</li> <li>Pathological attention to detail: You notice inconsistencies others miss. Precision matters to you.</li> <li>Numerically comfortable: Spreadsheets don’t intimidate you. You enjoy understanding cost structures and operational economics.</li> <li>Calm under pressure: Startups are messy. You can prioritize, adapt, and keep moving.</li> <li>Strong work ethic: This role requires ownership and intensity. Sometimes timelines compress. Sometimes things go wrong. You stay steady.</li> <li>Comfortable with ambiguity: You won’t always receive perfect instructions or polished systems. You should be able to create structure proactively.</li> <li>Independent thinker: You challenge assumptions thoughtfully and care more about getting to the right answer than protecting your ego.</li> </ul> <p><strong>Unicorn Points If</strong></p> <ul> <li>You’ve operated inside startups or founder-led environments</li> <li>You enjoy building systems from scratch</li> <li>You have experience in operations, consulting, finance, manufacturing, or supply chain environments</li> <li>You’ve worked with suppliers, factories, or logistics partners before</li> <li>You&nbsp;speak&nbsp;Mandarin&nbsp;/&nbsp;Chinese,&nbsp;as&nbsp;this&nbsp;role&nbsp;may&nbsp;involve&nbsp;regular&nbsp;communication&nbsp;with&nbsp;Mandarin-speaking&nbsp;suppliers&nbsp;and&nbsp;manufacturers.</li> </ul> <p><strong>Fellowship, Not Internship</strong></p> <p>Twelve months. Meaningful stipend. Embedded directly within a live venture alongside experienced builders and founders. Not watching from the sidelines. Real operational exposure during the earliest stages of venture creation.</p> <p>If you’ve been looking for a way into startup operations, consumer goods, or zero-to-one execution environments – this is the door.</p>