• ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS

  • 2026

  • ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS

  • 2026

  • ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS

  • 2026

  • ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS

  • 2026

  • ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS

  • 2026

  • ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS

  • 2026

  • ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS

  • 2026

  • ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS

  • 2026

The Program

Details

Mentors

Testimonials

Apply

Accepting Applications

Listen Future
Founder Program

Listen Future
Founder Program

Listen Future Founder Program

Listen Future
Founder Program

The Future Founder Program is for engineers who want to start a company someday. You join Listen as a full-time engineer, but get far more founder-level learning than a normal engineering role. Own new parts of the product, sell features directly to customers, and learn from our founders and investors about ideation, finding PMF, fundraising, scaling 0 to 1, and more.

The Future Founder Program is for engineers who want to start a company someday. You join Listen as a full-time engineer, but get far more founder-level learning than a normal engineering role. Own new parts of the product, sell features directly to customers, and learn from our founders and investors about ideation, finding PMF, fundraising, scaling 0 to 1, and more.

Apply Now

The Program

The Program

You’re an engineer with the dream
of becoming a founder

Many of the best founders started exactly this way: joining a company with strong PMF and learning how it gets built up close. We designed the program we wish we’d had, solving hard technical problems while staying close to customers, with far more ownership than normal engineering. That’s what you do here, before you go start your own.

Many of the best founders started exactly this way: joining a company with strong PMF and learning how it gets built up close. We designed the program we wish we’d had, solving hard technical problems while staying close to customers, with far more ownership than normal engineering. That’s what you do here, before you go start your own.

L

Details

Details

From Engineer to Founder

From Engineer to Founder

From Engineer to Founder

01.

Learn from experts and build relationships with investors

Immersive workshops led by investors and operators covering how to find the best startup ideas, product market fit, financing, and scaling.

02.

Founder Mentorship

Mentorship sessions with our founders Alfred and Florian. You’ll get inside visibility on how fundraising, hiring, and product roadmap decisions actually get made at a high-growth company.

03.

Customer Immersion

This role goes beyond just building. Talk directly with real customers as you create products and features. You’ll see exactly where they struggle, what they love, and develop a strong sense for problems they would pay anything to fix.

04.

Exceptional Cohort

This is a highly selective program designed for top talent. Join a small tight-knit group of standout engineers where you’ll meet your future co-founders, advisors, and lifelong collaborators.

05.

Validate ideas using Listen

Listen is an AI research platform that helps companies interview people at scale to understand what they want and why. Take advantage of free Listen credits to run your own customer studies, test ideas, and explore founder-specific workflows.

06.

Outsized Influence

Own real products customers rely on, not just tasks. You’ll have meaningful ownership of product direction, customer strategy, and go-to-market.

Mentors

Mentors

Hands-on workshops led by our founders and investors

Learn directly from top experts and from your teammates. Over 30% of Listen employees are former founders.

Alfred Wahlforss

Alfred Wahlforss

CEO & Co-Founder, Listen Labs

How to make decisions around company vision, hiring, and fundraising. Get firsthand exposure to how one of the fastest moving startups today wins

Florian Juengermann

Florian Juengermann

CTO & Co-Founder, Listen Labs

How to build a product that customers love. Perspective as a technical founder leading well beyond engineering

Mar Hershenson

Mar Hershenson

Partner, Pear VC, Lecturer at Science and Engineering at Stanford

How to find the best ideas. One of the sharpest minds on idea generation and early-stage company building

Mike Vernal

Mike Vernal

Partner, Conviction

How to find product market fit. Previously reported directly to Mark Zuckerberg at Facebook, where he ran core product

Konstantine Buhler

Konstantine Buhler

Partner, Sequoia

How to finance a company. Deep experience in early-stage company building, fundraising strategy, and what separates fundable from fundable-and-great

Nick Shalek

Nick Shalek

Partner, Ribbit Capital

Scaling from 1 to 100. Has seen firsthand what it takes to move from initial traction to a machine that scales and what kills companies in between

Testimonials

Testimonials

“Working at Listen has been pretty remarkable. My favorite part is how I get to see firsthand how decisions around fundraising, hiring, and product roadmap actually get made.”
“Since I talk to so many different customers, I’m constantly coming up with new ideas. I’ve learned what it means to not just to build, but how to sell and how to think about product”
“Every Listen study is connected to a real business problem, so you’re exposed to the questions companies are trying to answer. You get to see the gaps and opportunities across different industries to inspire new ideas.”

Krish Mehta

Founding Engineer, Listen Labs

“Working at Listen has been pretty remarkable. My favorite part is how I get to see firsthand how decisions around fundraising, hiring, and product roadmap actually get made.”

“Working at Listen has been pretty remarkable. My favorite part is how I get to see firsthand how decisions around fundraising, hiring, and product roadmap actually get made.”

“Since I talk to so many different customers, I’m constantly coming up with new ideas. I’ve learned what it means to not just to build, but how to sell and how to think about product”

“Since I talk to so many different customers, I’m constantly coming up with new ideas. I’ve learned what it means to not just to build, but how to sell and how to think about product”

Krish Mehta

Founding Engineer, Listen Labs

“Every Listen study is connected to a real business problem, so you’re exposed to the questions companies are trying to answer. You get to see the gaps and opportunities across different industries to inspire new ideas.”

“Every Listen study is connected to a real business problem, so you’re exposed to the questions companies are trying to answer. You get to see the gaps and opportunities across different industries to inspire new ideas.”

Krish Mehta

Founding Engineer, Listen Labs

Apply

Apply

Listen office

Apply Now

The Future Founder Program is a full-time engineering role at Listen paired with founder-level customer exposure, mentorship, and hands-on building. We encourage applications from ambitious engineers across a wide range of backgrounds and disciplines.

Apply Now

Listen office

Apply Now

The Future Founder Program is a full-time engineering role at Listen paired with founder-level customer exposure, mentorship, and hands-on building. We encourage applications from ambitious engineers across a wide range of backgrounds and disciplines.

Apply Now

Listen office

Apply Now

The Future Founder Program is a full-time engineering role at Listen paired with founder-level customer exposure, mentorship, and hands-on building. We encourage applications from ambitious engineers across a wide range of backgrounds and disciplines.

Apply Now

The

The

Artificial

Artificial

Intelligence

Intelligence

&

&

Human

Human

Research

Research

Company

Company

Qualitative

Qualitative

&

&

Quantitative

Quantitative

Data

Data

Estd

Estd

2023

2023

San Francisco

San Francisco