If you’ve been the person deploying models for someone else’s roadmap, this is your chance to build your own AI-powered venture—from problem selection to productization.
This is a co-founder opportunity.
The goal is to help you become (or join) a founding team and launch a venture.
Tasks
* Validate a B2B problem where AI creates measurable value (time, cost, risk)
* Define MVP that’s product-first (not “cool model-first”)
* Design the data approach (collection, labeling, evaluation, monitoring)
* Ship a reliable prototype/MVP (APIs, pipelines, guardrails, feedback loops)
* Craft investor-ready tech narrative (moat, data advantage, roadmap)
Requirements
* 7+ years in software engineering with strong AI/ML or data product exposure
* Experience shipping to production (MLOps basics, monitoring, reliability)
* Strong product instinct: clarity on what “good enough” looks like for an MVP
* Founder mindset; you want ownership and upside, not a service role
* ~10–12h/week for 12 weeks
Benefits
* 12-week sprint to go from insight → MVP → iteration
* Weekly accountability + execution cadence (~10–12h/week)
* 500+ mentors including B2B, product, GTM, fundraising specialists
* 440+ alumni startups / 40+ countries for learning + intros
* CTO toolkit for AI ventures: scope, evaluation, deployment, “moat” story
Note: The cohort includes a participation ticket after acceptance to ensure commitment.
Apply if you’re ready to stop being the “AI builder for others” and ship your own company.
Skills Required
- 7+ years in software engineering with strong AI/ML or data product exposure
- Experience shipping to production (MLOps basics, monitoring, reliability)
- Strong product instinct: clarity on what "good enough" looks like for an MVP
- Founder mindset; desire for ownership and upside rather than a service role
- Availability ~10-12 hours per week for 12 weeks
What We Do
Startup Wise Guys has been at the birth of the European startup accelerator scene, we’ve been investing in startups and accelerating them for more than a decade now. In other words — well, we know our s**t, and we aren’t afraid to do the hard work, which is finding high potential startup founders probably even before they themselves know what they are capable of! The startups that keep listening to their customers are the ones that succeed. We aim to practice the same — constantly evolving, innovating our programs to fit the fast-paced founder journey and embracing the feedback. Over time we have changed our focus from B2C to B2B, and now to various specialized verticals (more to come). However, we keep the human touch in high value too — be it from on-site sessions during accelerator program to our local gatherings with startups, mentors and investors across various continents. Guess our founders calling us “the accelerator with a heart” has a reason. Building a company from the ground up is no walk in the park — we know that firsthand. That is why we put the founders first and are rooting for them to make their dreams and companies big. Sounds fun, sounds passionate, sounds crazy, we are in!
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