Founder Coach, Founders School - $250,000/year USD

Coach entrepreneurs, not traditional students.

Many believe high school exists to ready students for what's ahead. We believe their journey begins immediately. Founders School operates as a four-year institution for students unwilling to postpone building meaningful ventures until they reach adulthood. Students here aren't working through simulated business exercises. They're creating actual companies, collaborating with seasoned founders, becoming proficient in AI, and tackling real-world challenges. We set bold expectations because our students arrive with bold ambitions: launch a business worth one million dollars, pinpoint problems that deserve solving, and achieve AI mastery ahead of most adults. Your responsibility is to help that ambition endure.

You won't spend your time delivering lectures or prescribing business strategies to students. Instead, you'll coach a cohort of emerging founders daily, ensuring they remain accountable, navigate obstacles, and sustain momentum when entrepreneurship becomes challenging. You'll recognize the right moments to push them, the right moments to support them, and the right moments to introduce them to an appropriate mentor or tool. The curriculum, Entrepreneurs-in-Residence, and founder ecosystem supply the technical startup guidance. You supply the reliability, rigor, and drive that convert possibility into performance.

This role also offers the chance to construct something foundational. As part of our New York City founding team, you'll contribute to shaping the culture, infrastructure, and everyday reality of an institution built to transform high school outcomes. Your contributions will extend beyond a single student group. They will inform the operating model for all future Founders School locations. If startups energize you, you trust that exceptional standards yield exceptional results, and you're committed to cultivating the next wave of entrepreneurs, we're eager to connect.

What You Will Be Doing

• Guide and inspire a group of student founders through structured weekly one-on-one sessions, daily accountability touchpoints, and team stand-ups that ensure consistent, measurable advancement.
• Maintain exceptionally high performance standards while delivering the encouragement and accountability necessary for students to push through barriers and continue building.
• Track student development via FounderOS, recognize when learners encounter roadblocks, and facilitate introductions to mentors, Entrepreneurs-in-Residence, or resources that expedite progress.
• Contribute to developing the culture, rituals, workshops, events, and operational cadence of an elite entrepreneurial high school environment.
• Accompany students on multiple trips annually while cultivating enduring relationships with founders, investors, business operators, and entrepreneurial families.

What You Won’t Be Doing

• Serving as the lead startup advisor or crafting business plans for students. That responsibility belongs to FounderOS, Entrepreneurs-in-Residence, and external mentors.
• Delivering conventional academic instruction or evaluating traditional coursework.
• Tolerating mediocre effort from students who possess the capacity for outstanding achievement.
• Facilitating sessions beyond your domain of competence or depending on one-size-fits-all entrepreneurial guidance.
• Operating within an inflexible institutional framework where administrative overhead undermines impactful student development.

Founder Coach Key Responsibilities

Establish an environment in which every student advances steadily as an entrepreneur through a combination of high-quality coaching, rigorous accountability, strategic connections, and a culture that transforms ambitious adolescents into competent founders.

Basic Requirements

• A minimum of 3 years of leadership or high-impact experience in a startup or high-growth company.
• Solid business acumen and the confidence to interact with early-stage founders while understanding when to bring in specialized experts.
• Proven capacity to coach, inspire, and maintain accountability among high-performing individuals.
• Regular, practical experience leveraging AI to enhance work quality and efficiency.
• Exceptional communication and relationship-building capabilities with students, families, mentors, and founders.
• Commitment to full-time, in-person work in New York City, including periodic travel during the year.
• Legal authorization to work in the United States.

Nice-to-have Requirements

• Launched or helped launch a company.
• Background in coaching, mentoring, or managing programs for teenagers or young adults.
• A developed network of founders, investors, operators, or mentors.
• Experience at early-stage startups where you routinely handled responsibilities across diverse functions.

About Founders School

Founders School is a four-year high school built for ambitious students who want to create, build, and solve meaningful problems. The program combines Alpha School's elite academics, real-world experience, and mentorship from world-class entrepreneurs around three commitments to every student: Build a million-dollar business. Identify problems in the world worth solving. Master AI before adults do.

This is a place for people who'd rather build the thing than manage the thing. We're hiring the founding team that builds the dream high school for the most entrepreneurial and ambitious students in the country. Launching in NYC Fall 2026.

There is so much to cover for this exciting role, and space here is limited. Hit the Apply button if you found this interesting and want to learn more. We look forward to meeting you!

Working with us

This is a full-time (40 hours per week), long-term position. The position is immediately available and requires entering into an independent contractor agreement with Crossover as a Contractor of Record. The compensation level for this role is $125 USD/hour, which equates to $250,000 USD/year assuming 40 hours per week and 50 weeks per year. The payment period is weekly. Consult www.crossover.com/help-and-faqs for more details on this topic.

Crossover Job Code: LJ-5825-US-Yonkers-FounderCoach