Future AI Founder

About Harper

Harper is nearing $5M ARR with clear line of sight to $10M ARR by Q1. We started in August of 2024 and were only at $400k of ARR in January. We're an AI-native insurance brokerage that's proven AI can work in traditional industries by building the systems ourselves first.

Why This Role Exists

We've been trying to put people with traditional backgrounds into operational roles, and they never scale themselves - they only grow linearly. We keep needing to add more of them. We realized we need a different type of operator to create the leverage we need, where theoretically one person can handle 10,000 customers.

The best person to do this is someone who's scrappy and looking to ultimately build a workflow automation or AI-type company. So we decided to post a job for future AI founders. There'll be a lot of hard work, but you'll learn how to actually do AI automation directly and learn about insurance - a massive field you might want to start a business in. Because you'll be bought in, I can also teach you about being a founder and give you exposure to running a company.

What You'll Do

Day Shift: Handle Real Operations

• Handle customer calls, gather documents (licenses, photos, financials), coordinate with carriers in excess and surplus markets
• Process complex, unstructured data requests that create bottlenecks limiting our quote volume
• Work on automations that directly unlock more quotes = more revenue
• Experience firsthand where customer implementation challenges actually happen

Evening/Weekend: Automate What You Just Did

• Work directly with our forward-deployed engineers to automate the pain points you experienced
• Become the technical PM for automating your own job
• Daily syncs with engineering about what broke, what's inefficient, what could be automated
• Build systems that eliminate the manual work you just completed

Learn AI Implementation Reality

• See why 95% of AI implementations fail and learn to build the 5% that succeed
• Build learning systems with direct customer feedback loops, not static workflows
• Understand what prevents customer adoption - the gap that kills most AI startups

Requirements

Must Have:

• Want to start an AI company within 2-3 years
• Technical literacy and systematic thinking about automation (insurance experience not required)
• Basic technical knowledge - strongly preferred to have a highly technical background (most successful applicants will currently be SWEs)
• Willing to commit minimum 1 year to this role
• Can handle dual-shift work: operations during business hours, automation work evenings/weekends

You'll Thrive If You:

• Are scrappy and can handle hard operational work while thinking strategically
• Think differently than traditional operators (who just execute tasks vs. identifying automation opportunities)
• Want direct customer feedback loops before building your own AI company
• Are fascinated by where the 95% pilot-to-5% adoption gap actually happens

What We Offer

Learning Opportunities:

• Work directly with the founders on AI automation and company building
• Real experience with AI automation that actually works in production
• Deep exposure to insurance industry and potential business opportunities
• Technical PM experience working with forward-deployed engineers

Career Support:

• After 1 year: Y Combinator recommendations and our network connections
• Direct access to founders who've solved implementation challenges you'll face
• Experience with the customer implementation challenges that kill most AI startups

Compensation:

• $100K-150K based on experience
• Significant equity in fast-growing company
• Real impact on scaling from $3.5M to $10M ARR

The Reality

This isn't glamorous work. You'll handle frustrated customers, chase down missing documents, and coordinate between carriers. But you'll systematically automate each process while learning why AI implementation is harder than anyone expects and how to make it actually work.

You'll work hard, but you'll learn how to build AI systems that customers actually adopt - knowledge that will make you one of the 5% of AI founders who succeed.

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Ready to learn AI implementation from the inside? This role gives you the experience most AI founders never get: seeing why customers resist automation and learning how to build systems they actually want to use.