Founding CEO, On-Device Super Intelligence
Make on-device Super Intelligence practical.
The opportunity
Super Intelligence is moving out of the data center and into robots, drones, wearables, vehicles, and sensors. Conventional chips use far more energy per operation than physics requires, so these machines run small models, send their data to the cloud, or carry larger batteries.
A national laboratory research team has developed a fundamentally different computing architecture for machine learning, designed to run models at a fraction of the energy of conventional chips.
The business is an architecture that device makers license and build into their own chips, so capable models can run on the device itself. The first customers are makers of autonomous systems, sensors, and other devices where power limits what they can do.
The company you'll build
You will build a semiconductor company around a new computing architecture for on-device Super Intelligence.
The company must translate the research team’s design into a chip architecture, tape out first silicon, characterize the resulting devices, and demonstrate the energy and computational performance of the architecture on representative inference workloads.
In parallel, you will sign the first device makers who will build the architecture into their products, and shape the licensing model around them. The long-term opportunity is an architecture that brings Super Intelligence to a large share of the world's devices.
What you'll do in the first year
- Execute the technology license and establish the company.
- Work with the research team to translate the architecture into first silicon.
- Identify the first device makers for whom power limits what their products can do, and the benchmarks they will judge the architecture on.
- Build relationships with prospective design partners and applicable federal R&D programs.
- Recruit the founding semiconductor, systems, and machine-learning team.
- Develop the financing strategy required to move from first silicon toward a customer-relevant product.
Who you are
- An experienced operator, founder, or technical leader from semiconductors, processor IP, edge computing, or embedded systems.
- Comfortable leading a company through substantial pre-silicon technical risk.
- Able to distinguish the metrics that matter scientifically from the metrics that matter to customers.
- Capable of recruiting exceptional chip, systems, and machine-learning talent.
- Credible with both deep-tech investors and prospective hardware customers.
- Motivated to build an architecture that other companies build their products on.
We especially want to hear from executives and founders who have brought a new chip or processor architecture to market.
How COMPASS builds alongside you
You will start from peer-reviewed science and work closely with the research team behind it.
COMPASS will work with you on customer discovery, market definition, and the evidence investors will want before the first financing, and will bring in investors and industry experts from its network as the plan develops.
What happens after you apply
We read every application and reply within a week. Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis until the founding team is in place. The process starts with an introductory conversation with the COMPASS team. If there is mutual interest, we go into the technology, the laboratory, and the research team in more detail. A technical review with the research team follows, along with interviews with COMPASS, the laboratory's technology transfer office, and one of our venture advisors. References are checked only with your consent, after both sides agree to proceed. When both sides are ready to commit, you join the founding team and begin building the company.
To arrange a conversation before applying, please reach out to Alex Lin, the COMPASS partner for this venture.
Questions about equity, pay, or relocation are answered in the founder FAQ.
The terms
You would lead the company as its founding CEO, joining before it is incorporated. COMPASS supports the company but does not employ its founders.
- Commitment
- Full-time or part-time during the program, which runs about six months.
- Ownership
- The founding team owns 100% of the company at incorporation. COMPASS takes no equity, and the technology license is negotiated separately with the lab.
- Funding
- A $35,000 non-dilutive award to the company once it incorporates. When the company is ready to raise, COMPASS introduces it to the investor network.
- Pay
- COMPASS does not pay founders directly. Once the company incorporates, its $35,000 award can cover founder salaries.
- Location
- San Francisco Bay Area.
Apply for this role
Founding CEO, On-Device Super Intelligence
Send your resume and a short note on your background and how you would approach the first year. We read the note closely. We welcome applicants of every background, including those whose path here is unconventional.
You will need your resume as a PDF or Word file.
Contact
For questions about this venture, or to arrange a conversation before applying, please reach out.
