ListenFutureFounder Program
Listen — future founders
The Future Founder Program is for engineers who want to start a company someday. You join Listen as a full-time engineer, but get far more founder-level learning than a normal engineering role. Own new parts of the product, sell features directly to customers, and learn from our founders and investors about ideation, finding PMF, fundraising, scaling 0 to 1, and more.
You’re an engineer with the dream of becoming a founder
Many of the best founders started exactly this way: joining a company with strong PMF and learning how it gets built up close. We designed the program we wish we’d had, solving hard technical problems while staying close to customers, with far more ownership than normal engineering. That’s what you do here, before you go start your own.
From Engineer to Founder
Learn from experts and build relationships with investors
Immersive workshops led by investors and operators covering how to find the best startup ideas, product market fit, financing, and scaling.
Founder Mentorship
Mentorship sessions with our founders Alfred and Florian. You’ll get inside visibility on how fundraising, hiring, and product roadmap decisions actually get made at a high-growth company.
Customer Immersion
This role goes beyond just building. Talk directly with real customers as you create products and features. You’ll see exactly where they struggle, what they love, and develop a strong sense for problems they would pay anything to fix.
Exceptional Cohort
This is a highly selective program designed for top talent. Join a small tight-knit group of standout engineers where you’ll meet your future co-founders, advisors, and lifelong collaborators.
Validate ideas using Listen
Listen is an AI research platform that helps companies interview people at scale to understand what they want and why. Take advantage of free Listen credits to run your own customer studies, test ideas, and explore founder-specific workflows.
Outsized Influence
Own real products customers rely on, not just tasks. You’ll have meaningful ownership of product direction, customer strategy, and go-to-market.
Hands-on workshops led by our founders and investors
Learn directly from top experts and from your teammates. Over 30% of Listen employees are former founders.
- AW
Alfred WahlforssCEO & Co-Founder, Listen LabsHow to make decisions around company vision, hiring, and fundraising. Get firsthand exposure to how one of the fastest moving startups today wins
- FJ
Florian JuengermannCTO & Co-Founder, Listen LabsHow to build a product that customers love. Perspective as a technical founder leading well beyond engineering
- MH
Mar HershensonPartner, Pear VC, Lecturer at Science and Engineering at StanfordHow to find the best ideas. One of the sharpest minds on idea generation and early-stage company building
- MV
Mike VernalPartner, ConvictionHow to find product market fit. Previously reported directly to Mark Zuckerberg at Facebook, where he ran core product
- KB
Konstantine BuhlerPartner, SequoiaHow to finance a company. Deep experience in early-stage company building, fundraising strategy, and what separates fundable from fundable-and-great
- NS
Nick ShalekPartner, Ribbit CapitalScaling from 1 to 100. Has seen firsthand what it takes to move from initial traction to a machine that scales and what kills companies in between
“Working at Listen has been pretty remarkable. My favorite part is how I get to see firsthand how decisions around fundraising, hiring, and product roadmap actually get made.”
“Since I talk to so many different customers, I’m constantly coming up with new ideas. I’ve learned what it means to not just to build, but how to sell and how to think about product”
“Every Listen study is connected to a real business problem, so you’re exposed to the questions companies are trying to answer. You get to see the gaps and opportunities across different industries to inspire new ideas.”
Apply Now
The Future Founder Program is a full-time engineering role at Listen paired with founder-level customer exposure, mentorship, and hands-on building. We encourage applications from ambitious engineers across a wide range of backgrounds and disciplines.