Co-founder & CTO - Build a Company with OSS Ventures (Paris)

About OSS Ventures

OSS Ventures is an industrial-focused venture platform.
We build and invest in vertical companies transforming industrial operations through software and AI. Backed by >50M€ in assets under management, OSS supports 22+ companies whose products are used daily by over 100.000+ users in 3.600+ factories.

We co-found companies with experienced founders and support them hands-on across:

• Product

• Go-to-market

• Technology

• Hiring & org design

• Fundraising

OSS is neither an incubator nor a passive investor.
We work side by side with founders, with a clear execution framework, direct access to an industrial customer network, and a team of operators who have already built and scaled companies.

You can find more context on the team and partners here:
https://www.oss.ventures/about-us

The Role

You are joining as Co-founder & CTO of a new company built with OSS.

Your responsibilities include:

• Leading the technical strategy and architecture

• Building and evolving the product foundation

• Ensuring scalable, secure and maintainable tech delivery

• Shaping how engineering works in tight early-stage constraints

• Hiring and mentoring the early technical team

• Partnering with the CEO on technical and product decisions

• Supporting fundraising with clear technical narratives

• In an ever changing A.I world, you have to lead the way and change the way you build at market speed. 

This is a founder role, not a senior engineering position.
You co-create and co-own the company with OSS and your co-founder.

What We Look For: Hard Spines & Trainable Edges

We select founders based on two types of capabilities:

Hard Spines → Non-negotiable foundations

These must exist today. They cannot be trained in 9 months.
In a founding pair, at least one founder must demonstrate strength in each hard spine.

1. Founder Energy & Resilience
   A combination of grit, urgency, bias for action, intellectual honesty, and a degree of irrational obsession. Demonstrated ability to sustain high performance over extended periods and maintain momentum through setbacks.

2. Complex B2B Sales Authority
   Evidence of selling to large organizations (€50K+ deals), navigating long sales cycles, managing multiple stakeholders, and building relationships with senior decision-makers.

3. Technical Execution & Delivery
   Proven ability to ship and deliver results consistently, translate strategy into action, and maintain velocity in ambiguous environments.

Trainable Edges → Skills that evolve with coaching

These are expected to develop during the program. We assess starting point and learning capacity. We don't expect mastery here on day one — we're looking for potential and coachability.

1. Product Judgment
   Ability to translate customer problems into product requirements and prioritize features based on impact.

2. Market & Customer Insight
   Understanding of industrial/operational software buyers, their constraints, and what drives purchasing decisions.

3. Fundability & Narrative
   Capacity to articulate a compelling vision to investors and handle technical/strategic objections confidently.

4. Strategic Discipline
   Skill in making long-term vs. short-term trade-offs, saying no to distractions, and maintaining strategic focus.

The pairing principle: We look for complementary strengths across the founding team. You don't need to excel at everything individually — but together, the CEO + CTO pair must cover all hard spines strongly.

What Makes This Setup Different

You are not starting alone.

With OSS, founders benefit from:

• Direct access to an industrial and operational network

  • Real customers

  • Fast feedback loops

  • Early use cases that shape the product

• Strong Tech/CTO community

  • 200+ Tech professionals

  • 20+ CTOs that have there

• A hands-on operating team

  • Tech, A.I, product, revenue, people and fundraising

• Reusable execution foundations

  • Proven product frameworks

  • Security and scalability baselines

  • Tech playbooks and toolkits

  • A.I / Agents ready tech stack

• Founder matchmaking

  • OSS actively pairs complementary CEO and CTO profiles

• Credibility from day one

  • With customers

  • With early-stage investors

The objective is to reduce early execution risk and help founders deliver something real, usable and valuable fast.

What Success Looks Like (9–12 months)

Together, the goal is to build a company that is ready to scale, with:

• 5–10 paying customers

• ~500k+ ARR or equivalent signed revenue

• A product in production, used by real users

• Clear technical stability and early scale foundations

• A repeatable go-to-market motion

• A technical team and structure ready for growth

After the Program

OSS remains a long-term partner.

This typically includes:

• Board-level involvement

• Ad hoc strategic support

• The ability to temporarily allocate OSS team members for focused deep work with founders
  (e.g. revenue architecture, product pivot, org design, specific technical challenges)

The level of involvement naturally evolves as the company scales.

Founder Profile — Minimum Experience

This role is designed for experienced technical builders who are ready to found a company.

CTO requirements

• 5+ years of software development experience

  • Strong production experience

  • Ownership of significant technical decisions

• 5+ years of team leadership experience

  • Managing engineers and shaping team effectiveness

  • Hiring, mentoring and structuring early technical teams

• Demonstrated ability to:

  • Build in ambiguous, early-stage contexts

  • Make trade-offs under constraints

  • Align technical direction with business needs

The OSS Deal

• Unpaid until first fundraising

  • Typically 12 to 18 months

• Equity split

  • 75% founders

  • 25% OSS Ventures

• Paris-based during the 9-month program

• Full commitment expected

This framework is explicit and designed for founders who are ready to fully commit to building a company from scratch.