Community Lead - Operator Network

Job description

Even the best startup ideas fail when they can't find the right people fast enough. We exist to ensure that never happens. ABOUT US The Generalist Company is an early stage talent company that matches fast-growth startups with high agency generalist operators who take ownership and thrive in early stage environments where outcomes matter more than titles. We're a small team based in London who's also responsible for building Plugged Founders, London's top founder community, and we're growing fast. Our mission: To ensure that every ambitious, mission driven startup in the world has the talent at their fingertips to execute their vision. WHAT WE DO We're not a recruitment agency, we're a talent company. We don't just find great people, we build the functions that surface the talent startups need so that they have the capacity to execute at their fingertips, and founders can focus on building their business. We connect founders with generalist operators across six categories: GTM & Growth, Operations, Tech & Product, People & Culture, Creative, Community & Events, and our bonus category, Ex Founders. We place full time roles, contract roles, and projects, catering to everyone from those who need flexible, fractional engagements, to those looking for their next full-time gig in an exciting startup. Our clients are founders and leadership teams who are growing fast, building intensely, and are on a mission. They're not building mediocre lifestyle businesses, they're building absolute monsters that will shake the world. They want people who can think, build, act fast, and connect the dots. People who have been founders, should be founders, or probably will be founders someday. We're building the infrastructure to serve operators and the founders they should be working with. OUR CULTURE - We move fast and build things that last. Startups can't wait, but cutting corners creates the debt we're here to fix. - We trace problems to the root, not the symptom. We bring calm to chaos. We treat every company like it's ours and every person's goals like our own. Who you are matters more than what you've done here. Be a good person, do good things. - We're direct and we value clarity, but we also value good communication. You can be honest without being harsh, and you can push back without being difficult. We hold ourselves to a high standard, and we expect the same from the people we work with. - We'd rather say no than send the wrong person. A smaller network of exceptional people over a marketplace of unknowns. That philosophy runs through everything we do, including who we hire. WHO WE'RE LOOKING FOR Someone who makes people feel like they belong the moment they walk into a room, and has the operational instinct to build the room in the first place. You'll be building our community of talented operators from the ground up. We're looking for someone to own this entirely. BAD NEWS - The community doesn't exist yet. You're building it from scratch - The playbook isn't written. We know what we want it to do, not exactly how it should work - You'll need to be comfortable with ambiguity, shifting priorities, and figuring things out as you go - The team is small. There's no community team to lean on. You are the community team - If you need detailed briefs and weekly hand-holding, this isn't the role. You'll be setting the pace, not following it GOOD NEWS - You're building something that directly drives revenue, not a side project nobody tracks - Real autonomy. Strategic direction from the founders, execution decisions are yours - Direct line to the people making decisions. No layers, no gatekeepers - The demand side is already working. Founders are coming to us with briefs. Your job is to build the supply engine that matches them - This role is designed to grow. It starts as a deployment, but there's a clear path to full-time and permanent, with the chance to become a founding team member of the company that changes how startups hire for good THE ROLE You'll build and run the TGC operator community from zero. This is our primary supply-side channel. The system that attracts generalist operators, keeps them engaged, and feeds them into our talent pool where they can be matched to founder demand. This isn't a "post content and moderate comments" role. You're building the infrastructure that powers our commercial pipeline. Every operator who joins, engages, and gets matched started with what you built. YOUR MISSION Build the TGC operator community into the most trusted, active network of generalist operators in the startup world. Turn a cold start into a self-sustaining community that attracts high-quality operators, keeps them engaged, and feeds them into our matching pipeline, creating a flywheel between community growth and commercial revenue. WHAT YOU'LL BE DOING - Reviewing applications, onboarding new operators, and making every new member feel like they've found their people from day one - Writing and maintaining the Start Here guide, classroom content, and community resources. The stuff that makes the space worth being in - Posting anonymised briefs to the opportunities board and keeping it current. This is the proof the community delivers real work, not just conversation - Seeding and steering discussions in the forum. Starting conversations that experienced operators actually want to engage with, and knowing when to step back and let the community run itself - Planning and running community events (calls, skill-shares, Q&As) that people show up to because they're genuinely useful - Tracking community KPIs weekly and reporting into the growth lead. You'll know whether the community is alive or drifting before anyone has to ask - Working with the talent and growth teams to make sure the right operators are progressing from community member to vetted, deployable talent WHAT GOOD LOOKS LIKE By month 1: Our online community has gone live, polished and ready for members. Start Here guide, classroom content, operator profile form, opportunities board, and event calendar are all in place. The founding cohort is being onboarded and conversations are starting to happen. It feels intentional and credible the moment someone lands on it. By month 3: The community is self-sustaining. Applications are coming in organically. Operators are submitting profiles, engaging with content, and progressing toward deployment eligibility. At least one community member has been matched to a live brief. You're running events regularly and the opportunities board feels alive. By month 6: The community is a genuine talent pipeline. You're tracking clear KPIs, membership is growing month-on-month, and operators are flowing from community to vetted talent pool to deployed engagements. The community has become TGC's primary supply channel. And you've proven you should be running it permanently. SKILLS & EXPERTISE - You're the person in any group who makes others feel seen and heard. People open up around you, trust you quickly, and feel like they belong. Its not just a soft skill, It's the core skill - A natural dot connector. You spot patterns between people, conversations, and opportunities that others miss, and you act on them without being told - Operationally sharp. You can manage application flows, maintain systems, track metrics, and keep things running without someone checking on you every day - You can write. Not "content". Actual clear, useful writing that people read because it's worth reading. The classroom content and guides need substance, not filler - A fast learner who picks up tools, systems, and context quickly. You don't need to have done this exact job before, but you need to ramp fast and figure things out on the fly - You understand the startup and operator world well enough to be credible in a room of experienced operators. You don't need to have been a founder, but you need to speak the language EXPERIENCE - You've contributed meaningfully to a community before. Maybe you built one, maybe you were the person who made an existing one actually work. Either counts - Created educational or professional content (courses, guides, resources) that people actually used - Worked in or around the startup ecosystem. You understand the pace and the people - Run events, even small ones. Virtual or in-person. You know the logistics - Comfortable being the only person doing this job. No team to delegate to, no playbook to follow WHAT SETS YOU APART - Experience in talent, recruitment, or marketplace businesses. You understand supply-side dynamics - You've been an operator yourself. You know what it's like to be a generalist in the startup world and can relate to the community from the inside - You've grown a community past the cold start problem before and know how to seed culture before you have critical mass - Design sensibility. You can make a community space look professional without needing a designer - You've used community platforms like Skool, Circle, Discord, or similar and understand how to make them work as more than just a chatroom DEAL BREAKERS - You can't point to a community you've meaningfully contributed to. We don't need a job title on a CV. We need evidence you've done the work - You need to be told what to do every day. This role runs on self-direction - You're not comfortable being in-person. The early months require showing up at our Shoreditch office - You think community management is just posting content and replying to comments. This is operational infrastructure, not social media - You're not genuinely interested in the startup and operator world. If you can't hold a conversation with someone who's scaled a company from 5 to 50 people, this isn't the right fit WHY JOIN NOW This is ground-floor territory. The community doesn't exist yet, which means you're not inheriting someone else's decisions. You're making them. The culture, the structure, the tone, the systems. All of it starts with you. In 6 months this role won't look like this. The founding cohort will be in, the processes will be set, and the opportunity to shape everything from scratch will be gone. Right now, it's all open. The community you build will directly determine how fast TGC can scale. Get this right, and you'll have built the engine behind the most connected operator network in the ecosystem. And earned your seat at the table as we grow. COMPENSATION Starting as a Deployment engagement with a clear path to full-time permanent. - Rate: £250 to £350 per day, depending on experience - Commitment: Starting at 2 days per week, with the expectation to scale up quickly as the community grows - Trajectory: This role is designed to become full-time and permanent. Prove you can build this, and you'll have a founding seat at the table HOURS & LOCATION - In-person at our Shoreditch office. This isn't a remote role. We want to see you showing up, especially in the early days - As the role develops and the community finds its rhythm, we'll move to a hybrid setup - Weekly check-in with the growth lead. Otherwise, you set your own rhythm - We care about what gets built, not hours logged. But this is a startup, and the community needs to feel alive. That means showing up consistently HOW TO APPLY Hit the apply button below. We'll take it from there. Our process: 1. Apply. Tell us why this role makes sense for you. Show us a community you've built or contributed to. We want to see what you've done, not just what you say you can do 2. Interview. A conversation with the growth lead. We'll walk through the role, your experience, and how you think about community building 3. Task. A short, practical exercise you can complete within 48 hours. Real work, not a hypothetical 4. Paid trial. If the task lands, you'll start on a paid trial so we can both see how the working relationship feels in practice 5. Hired. If the trial works, you're in. Full-time, permanent, founding team