Operating Co-Founder / CEO-Designate — Partnerships & Growth

SplitStay | Remote | Equity-based | Early-stage startup

18 months of building. Working prototypes. Industry relationships. One major challenge left to solve: distribution.

What if you could take over an existing startup instead of starting from zero?

SplitStay is looking for an entrepreneurial operator to lead its next chapter, with the potential to become CEO.

Over the past 18 months, we've developed technology, tested different business models, built relationships across the travel and endurance sports ecosystems, participated in startup programs, and received media coverage.

But we haven't yet achieved product-market fit.

Our founder is now exploring a transition away from day-to-day leadership and looking for someone with complementary strengths in partnerships, distribution, and commercial execution.

This is a genuine co-founder opportunity, not a conventional salaried position.

What is SplitStay?

SplitStay helps people coordinate shared accommodation, with a growing focus on connecting compatible travelers attending the same event.

Our current market exploration focuses on endurance sports communities, particularly HYROX and Spartan Race participants.

The hypothesis is simple:

People attending the same event may be willing to share accommodation if they can find someone compatible, trustworthy, and travelling on similar dates.

The challenge is achieving marketplace liquidity: bringing enough of the right people together at the right time.

We believe trusted distribution through event organizers, coaches, gyms, and communities could help solve this.

That's what we want you to validate.

You're not starting from zero

Here's what we've already established:

• Company: A Delaware C-Corporation with an established SplitStay brand.
• Web product: An existing MVP for coordinating group accommodation decisions.
• WhatsApp infrastructure: A conversational bot with a SplitStay knowledge-base component and configured matchmaking-related functionality. Its capabilities and technical readiness still require review.
• Matchmaking validation: Landing pages, signup flows, outreach campaigns, and early market experiments.
• Design: Existing UI/UX work, product designs, and visual assets developed with design contributors.
• Industry relationships: Connections with strategic advisors, coaches, sports communities, and prospective commercial partners.
• Startup ecosystem: Participation in ESADE eWorks and Start it @KBC.
• Visibility: Media coverage and experience presenting SplitStay within the startup and travel industries.
• Institutional knowledge: Approximately 18 months of product development, experiments, feedback, and documented lessons.

We've also initiated discussions about potential partnerships within the endurance sports ecosystem. These remain exploratory, not secured commercial agreements.

Explore what we've built:

Website: https://splitstay.travel

HYROX matchmaking concept: https://go.splitstay.travel/hyrox?c=linkedin-cofounder-job

SPARTAN matchmaking concept: https://go.splitstay.travel/spartan?c=linkedin-cofounder-job

Additional materials, including product walkthroughs, pitch decks, experiment results, and our partnership pipeline, are available to qualified candidates.

The challenge

Let's be transparent.

SplitStay is pre-revenue and has not yet achieved product-market fit.

We've built products, generated interest, and tested different acquisition channels, but we haven't established repeatable distribution or sufficient marketplace liquidity.

We've learned that scattered signups and individual outreach are unlikely to solve this challenge alone.

Our current hypothesis is that partnerships providing access to concentrated groups of potential customers could be the missing ingredient.

But that hypothesis still needs to be proven.

We also currently operate without a dedicated active engineering team. Existing code, infrastructure, and design assets provide a foundation, but the next founder will need to assess their technical readiness and determine what additional resources are justified.

We're not looking for someone to build more features and hope customers arrive.

We're looking for someone who can turn an existing foundation into a viable business.

Your mission

You'll have the opportunity to shape SplitStay's direction and take ownership of its commercial development.

1. Build distribution partnerships

Develop relationships with event organizers, coaches, gyms, sports communities, travel businesses, and other potential distribution partners.

2. Validate real customer demand

Design focused experiments measuring compatible matches, accepted introductions, actual shared stays, and willingness to pay — not simply clicks or registrations.

3. Develop the business model

Determine who receives value, who is willing to pay, and how SplitStay could generate sustainable revenue.

4. Lead commercial execution

Turn promising conversations into concrete agreements, experiments, customers, and repeatable acquisition channels.

5. Shape the product strategy

Review the existing technical foundation, challenge assumptions, prioritize opportunities, and coordinate engineering or design resources when justified.

6. Potentially lead the company as CEO

Subject to mutual fit and an agreed transition, take responsibility for day-to-day leadership, strategy, and execution.

The current founder is open to stepping back into a non-operational role while supporting the transition and preserving the relationships and knowledge already established.

Who we're looking for

We're looking for an entrepreneur and hands-on operator, not simply a strategist.

You might be:

• A founder looking for your next venture.
• A startup operator who has successfully launched or grown a business.
• A commercial leader with demonstrated partnership and distribution results.
• A marketplace or community-growth specialist who understands network effects and liquidity.
• Someone with strong relationships in sports, events, travel, or hospitality.

What matters most:

• You've personally built distribution channels, partnerships, or commercial initiatives that generated measurable results.
• You're comfortable working with limited resources and uncertainty.
• You know how to validate demand before investing heavily in development.
• You're willing to do the work yourself, not just manage others.
• You can combine strategic thinking with fast, practical execution.
• You want genuine entrepreneurial responsibility and ownership.

You don't need to be a software engineer, but you should be technically fluent enough to assess product feasibility, review the existing technical approach with appropriate expertise, and coordinate future development.

What we're offering

Meaningful co-founder equity and the opportunity to lead an existing startup.

You'll have access to:

• An incorporated company with an established brand and existing technology.
• Documented experiments, market insights, and product assets.
• Industry relationships and a network of strategic advisors.
• The autonomy to challenge the current strategy and shape the company's direction.
• A potential path to becoming CEO.
• Knowledge transfer and transition support from the current founder.

Compensation transparency: There is no guaranteed salary initially. This is an equity-based entrepreneurial opportunity requiring meaningful commitment and a willingness to accept early-stage risk.

The ownership structure, vesting, governance, responsibilities, and leadership transition will be negotiated and formally agreed.

Your first 90 days

Week 1 — Understand and activate

Review the existing product, experiments, technical assets, and partnership pipeline. Begin engaging the most promising commercial opportunities immediately.

Weeks 2–4 — Secure distribution

Advance existing conversations, develop new relationships, and work toward securing access to a concentrated group of potential customers.

Days 30–60 — Run a focused experiment

Test accommodation matchmaking around a specific event or community, using existing infrastructure and manual processes wherever possible.

Days 60–90 — Validate commercial potential

Measure actual matching behavior, shared stays, willingness to pay, and potential partner economics. Establish evidence-based criteria for scaling, refining, pivoting, or stopping.

These are proposed milestones, not guaranteed outcomes.

The priority is commercial validation, not building more features.

Why this opportunity?

Starting a company from scratch means building the brand, product, infrastructure, network, and market knowledge yourself.

SplitStay already has much of that foundation.

What it needs is someone who believes they can solve the commercial challenges ahead — and wants to take genuine ownership of finding out.

We're not promising an easy journey or inevitable success.

We're offering the opportunity to build on substantial previous work, learn from documented experiments, and potentially lead a company with meaningful founder-level upside.

Sometimes the next breakthrough doesn't require another feature. It requires a different founder with a different set of strengths.

Interested?

We'd love to hear from entrepreneurs who find this challenge compelling.

Please apply with your LinkedIn profile or CV and be prepared to discuss:

• What you've previously built, launched, or helped grow.
• A partnership or distribution channel you've personally developed.
• How you'd approach SplitStay's commercial challenge.
• Why an equity-based co-founder opportunity appeals to you.

If you're looking for a conventional salaried executive role, this isn't the right opportunity.

But if you want to take ownership of an existing startup and help determine its future, we'd love to hear from you.