Aperture
Founders Associate
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Founder's Associate
Location: London (Hybrid)
Reporting to: Jack Howson, Founder
Salary: £40,000 - £45,000 + performance bonus (depending on experience)
About the Role
This is not a normal job.
You'll work directly alongside founder Jack Howson across three high-growth businesses operating in marketing, education, and consumer brands.
You'll be involved in everything from launching products and building partnerships to improving operations, supporting sales, creating content, researching acquisitions, attending events, and helping execute strategic projects.
One day you might be helping secure a partnership for a fast-growing drinks brand. The next you could be helping prepare a workshop for business owners, building a new business process, or supporting a pitch for a major hospitality client.
The role is designed for someone ambitious who wants a front-row seat to building multiple businesses and potentially leading one in the future.
The Businesses You'll Support
Aperture
A specialist marketing agency helping hospitality, food, drink and leisure brands grow through strategy, content, social media and performance marketing.
Vardano Consulting
A consulting and education business helping founders and business leaders improve marketing, growth and commercial performance through workshops, training and strategic advisory services.
Dead Clear Drinks
An exciting non-alcoholic drinks brand on a mission to create products people genuinely want to drink, while building a modern consumer brand from the ground up.
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What You'll Be Doing
Strategic Projects
- Researching new business opportunities, markets and partnerships
- Supporting growth initiatives across all businesses
- Preparing reports, presentations and strategic recommendations
- Assisting with acquisitions, investments and partnership opportunities
- Conducting competitor and market analysis
Commercial & Growth
- Supporting sales and partnership activity
- Identifying potential clients, partners and opportunities
- Helping manage CRM systems and sales pipelines
- Preparing proposals, pitch decks and commercial documents
- Attending networking events and meetings
Operations
- Improving internal systems and processes
- Supporting project management across multiple businesses
- Tracking key KPIs and business performance
- Ensuring projects move forward and deadlines are met
- Identifying operational inefficiencies and recommending improvements
Marketing & Content
- Supporting content creation and distribution
- Assisting with personal brand development for the founder
- Researching trends and content opportunities
- Helping plan campaigns, launches and events
- Managing special projects and launches
Founder Support
- Acting as a trusted sounding board
- Helping prioritise opportunities and projects
- Taking ownership of key initiatives
- Ensuring ideas become actions and actions become results
- Creating leverage for the founder's time
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Who We're Looking For
We're looking for someone who:
- Is exceptionally organised
- Learns quickly
- Thinks commercially
- Takes ownership without being asked
- Is comfortable with ambiguity
- Communicates clearly
- Enjoys solving problems
- Can switch between strategy and execution
- Wants to build something meaningful
Essential Skills
- Strong written and verbal communication
- Excellent organisation and project management
- Strong commercial awareness
- Confident using AI tools and modern technology
- High attention to detail
- Ability to manage multiple priorities simultaneously
- Strong research and analytical skills
What Success Looks Like
Within 90 days:
- Embedded across all three businesses
- Managing key projects independently
- Improving at least 3 internal processes
- Supporting new business and partnership opportunities
- Acting as a genuine extension of the founder
Within 12 months:
- Owning major strategic initiatives
- Driving measurable revenue or efficiency improvements
- Leading projects independently
- Becoming a key member of the leadership team
You'll work directly with the founder, see how decisions are made, and help shape the future of multiple businesses.
For the right person, this role can become a launchpad into leadership, general management, or even running one of the group's future ventures.
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