Most of a product's cost and lifetime emissions are locked in during design — long before anyone sees an invoice or an audit. The engineer who chooses a casting over a weldment, or a tolerance one class tighter than needed, is making a six-figure decision with no number in front of them. Forge Engine puts the number in front of them. It reads BOM, CAD and purchasing data and returns should-cost, whole-life cost and the cost drivers behind them — per part and rolled up per assembly, with confidence bands and every assumption visible. It is not an ERP, not a PLM, and not a replacement for anything. It enters a customer as a pilot on a handful of BOMs and earns its place from there. The market is discrete manufacturing and custom machinery OEMs in Europe as beachhead. We are going after the harder and more valuable thing: telling an engineer what to change, and what it is worth. Where we actually are Two co-founders, both technical and one with commercial background as well. so you won't be alone. extensive discovery interviews with engineering, costing and purchasing teams at large European manufacturers. One pilot running with one European machinery OEMs, under NDA —. Two are onboarding. No institutional round raised yet. We have been heads-down building. That is the gap you would be walking into, with your eyes open. What you would own Sales. The whole motion, end to end. Target list, outbound, first calls, technical discovery, pilot scoping, negotiation, close. You will do your own prospecting — there is no SDR and will not be one for a while. The commercial model. Pricing, packaging, what a pilot costs, what it converts into, what a seat or a licence is worth. Right now these are hypotheses. You would turn them into a repeatable, quotable model. Fundraising. Investor strategy, target list, narrative, deck, the process, the room, the close. You lead it; we support it with product, data and technical credibility. Non-dilutive funding (EU, federal, Berlin programmes) counts and is in scope. This you won't do on your own, one co-founder will support you with this The outside voice of the company. Trade fairs, industry associations, partnerships, the conversations that turn into a pipeline eighteen months later. Minimum requirements Apply only if all of these are true. We would rather have five honest applications than fifty hopeful ones. Mechanical engineering, for real. A degree in mechanical engineering or equivalent, plus at least three years in a hands-on role — design, manufacturing, cost engineering, or technical project engineering in discrete manufacturing. You read drawings and BOMs unaided and can reason about how a part is actually made and what drives its cost. You have sold complex technical products or services to industrial companies — five years or more, with deals you personally closed and can describe: who bought, what it cost, how long it took, who blocked it. Machinery, automotive, packaging, industrial software or engineering services. You have raised money. At least one closed financing where you ran the process — pre-seed, seed, business angels — or equivalent non-dilutive funding (EIC, EXIST, ZIM, IBB, Horizon). You do your own outbound. You write the emails, book the calls, work the fair floor. No team to delegate to. Full-time, starting now. Based in Berlin or here regularly enough that it does not matter. German and English at working level but open to other languages French, Italian, etc … Buyers are German- and French-speaking; investors are English-speaking. You will need both. A founder's risk profile. Equity-based, no salary until we are funded, and decisions made openly with two other founders rather than announced by you. Nice to have An existing network in packaging, filling, conveying or custom machinery in DACH Hands-on experience with cost engineering or should-cost tools (aPriori, Tset, Facton, LeanCOST, Teamcenter) Familiarity with EU product regulation — ESPR, Digital Product Passport, CBAM — and how it is landing in engineering departments Whole-life-cost literacy (ISO 15686-5, VDI 2884, IEC 60300-3-3) You have sold into engineering departments where "no" is the default answer and procurement is the second gate This is not for you if You want a defined plan and a title. We have neither yet — that is partly what you would be building. You need a marketing budget, inbound leads or a team underneath you to be effective. You are not willing to go a bumpy road You see fundraising as someone else's job because you are "the sales person." You need salary certainty in the next three months. Yeah it's tough but the stakes are very high and it will pay off if you are the right fit later. What you get Co-founder status and founder-level equity, on standard vesting terms. We will discuss the number openly and early. We are not going to lowball someone we want to build a company with. A product that already works wit and is in front of real customers — not a deck with a roadmap. A technical co-founding team that ships. When a customer asks for something, you will not wait a quarter for it. A market with genuine regulatory tailwind, where buyers already pay real money for tools that do less. A say in where the company goes. How to apply Email [apply@loopforgelab.com] with three short paragraphs — no cover letter, no formatting effort: What you have sold: to whom, roughly for how much, and how long the cycle was. One engineering problem you solved yourself, in enough detail that another engineer would believe you. The round or grant you raised: how much, from whom, and what you personally did. Attach a CV or a LinkedIn link. We read everything and reply within a week, either way.

nanoSpec Technologies is a deep-tech startup developing innovative solutions at the intersection of artificial intelligence, scientific data, and advanced technology. We are looking for a technical co-founder to lead the AI/software development side of the company. The role focuses on building AI-powered software products from the ground up, exploring modern AI technologies, and transforming complex scientific challenges into scalable solutions. The ideal candidate is a hands-on builder with experience in software development, AI/ML, LLMs, or related fields, who enjoys taking ownership and creating products from zero. The startup is supported by the BSS and offers a co-founder-level opportunity to shape the technology strategy and future direction of the company.

Renewable-energy developers make multi-million-euro investment decisions on the first project design that works - not the best one. FIDgate's engine co-optimises the design, dispatch and financing of utility-scale solar, wind and battery projects in a single pass, and surfaces the €8–15M of additional value on a 200MW project that today's tools leave on the table. The engine is real and validated , proven on live client projects, €50M+ in additional value identified across 600+ MW, paid engagements and signed LOIs. We're now turning that proven technology into a SaaS platform, launching our first pilots, and raising our first external round. I'm the founder - technical and product. I'm looking for the commercial other half: a co-founder who owns the path from pilot to recurring revenue, and helps me build a company ( not just a sales pipeline). You'll own the commercial future of FIDgate: enterprise sales into developers, IPPs and utilities; the pilot-to-subscription conversion engine; strategic partnerships; customer success; and - with me - the fundraise, the investor relationships, and the commercial organisation we build together. You're not a quota-carrying salesperson waiting for leads, and not a COO who wants to run process. You've sold complex, high-value software to serious enterprise buyers, ideally in energy or an adjacent technical field. You can learn a genuinely deep AI/deeptech product and make a sceptical, technically literate buyer believe it. You've built commercial motion from near-zero, you're at home in the ambiguity of pre-revenue, and you think like a founder - because you want to be one. On offer: a real co-founder seat and meaningful equity; a validated deeptech product in a €2.2B European market growing double digits; and the chance to build the commercial engine of a company at the exact moment it goes from "it works" to "it scales." If this is you - or you know exactly who it is - let's talk 😀jmr@fidgate.com