Founding People & Talent Lead

The Bottleneck Isn't the Product. It's You.

Let’s skip the corporate fluff and the polite recruiter speak. Protodigy is hunting for a Founding People & Talent Lead on behalf of a Y-Combinator (W25) backed machine based in Munich.

Most startups at this stage are still begging the market for product-market fit. This team hit $2M ARR in their first year. They are dragging the $12 Trillion construction supply chain kicking and screaming into the software age. The founders, ex-Google, MIT, Bain, and Olympiad medalists, have built the engine. They have the capital. They have the traction.

Their only bottleneck right now? Finding the absolute best minds in the world to help them scale from 16 to 50 relentless operators by the end of 2026.

That’s where you come in. Or, maybe it isn't. Let's talk about the reality of this role.

This Is Not A "Lifestyle" Job.

We see the applications pouring in every day, and frankly, candidates love to plead ignorance to the baseline requirements. So we are making them painfully, unapologetically clear right here. If you blink at any of the following, close this tab immediately:

• Five Days A Week, In-Person. In Munich (WERK1). No "work from anywhere" weeks. No hybrid flexibility. This is an SF-style, high-intensity, fully on-site culture. You are in the room where it happens, every single day.
• The "Triple-A" Track Record. We don't want "good." We want intimidatingly competent. You must have a glaring, undeniable signal of excellence on your resume. We are looking for top 1% academic pedigrees, prior startup founders, Olympiad/Putnam medalists, or talent operators who cut their teeth at absolute talent-dense anomalies (think OpenAI, Palantir, Databricks, Bending Spoons, Jane Street).
• The Scale-Up Scars. You need 2 to 5 years of ruthless, hands-on, full-cycle recruiting. You have personally held the reins as a tech company broke through the 15-to-100 employee ceiling. You don't just "manage agencies" you build the sourcing machine from scratch.
• German Language Fluency. C1

What You Actually Get To Do

If you're still reading and haven't flinched, here is the mandate. You will be the solo Founding People & Talent Lead. You won't be handed a playbook; you will write it.

• Build and own the end-to-end hiring engine, from scoping the deepest technical roles to closing the hardest-to-win candidates.
• Spar directly with the founders on org design, compensation logic, and talent planning.
• Build the employer brand that makes elite DACH talent drop their comfortable corporate jobs to talk to you.
• Eventually, hire and build the People & Talent team beneath you as the company scales toward Series A and beyond.

The Upside

This isn't a purely altruistic grind. You get real skin in the game.

• Base Salary: €65,000 – €90,000.
• Equity with Voting Rights. Not phantom shares. Not a weak VSOP. Real, actual ownership with a voice.
• The SF Treatment in Munich. Company-paid dinners three nights a week (and weekends if you're building). A two-week company offsite in San Francisco in 2026. Close, daily mentorship from YC founders who move at lightning speed.
• Relocation & Visa Support. Need to move? They have a subsidized €700 studio ready to catch you so you can land and immediately start building.

The Reality Check

Your first 6 months will be brutal and brilliant: Hire 20 exceptional people without lowering the talent bar a single inch. Implement a talent development structure. Hit top-quartile offer acceptance rates.

This role is for a highly analytical, high-agency builder who genuinely believes that talent density is the ultimate competitive advantage. It's for someone who wants to look back in five years and say, "I built the team that modernized the physical world."

If the intensity of this scares you, it's not for you. If it wakes you up, Protodigy wants to see your profile.

Bring your A-game. They don't have time for anything else.