The Studio is an AI-native venture builder for the Global South, purpose-built to transform high-barrier problems into scalable, investable companies.
Partnering with domain experts & high-agency founders from concept to Series A, it both builds new ventures and re-engineers existing ones for AI-driven growth.
Powered by UTOPIA OS — a modular, adaptive stack tailored to each venture — it compresses the path from concept to Series A to under 24 months.
We're looking for a Head of Venture Success & Strategic Partnerships to make sure every founder and venture working with Utopia has an exceptional experience and makes real, measurable progress.
You’ll be the operational bridge between our Entrepreneurs-in-Residence (EIRs), portfolio companies, and the Studio team — ensuring founders get what they need to build faster and smarter.
You’ll work closely with the Studio Directors, Founder’s Associate, Marketing, Product, Design, and Talent teams to operationalize modular programs, track outcomes, and ensure every venture moves from insight to proof of value efficiently. You’ll mentor and guide the Founder’s Associate to ensure venture operations and founder support are aligned with portfolio outcomes.
That makes the leadership relationship explicit
You’ll also lead how Utopia connects with its broader ecosystem — translating partnerships, market access, and capital relationships into tangible venture outcomes.
Reports to: Studio Directors
Growth path: Chief Commercial Officer / Chief Revenue Officer
Partner with the Studio Directors to deliver the end-to-end journey for EIRs - from Fellowship onboarding and POD matching through to spin-out.
Build and maintain a strong founder pipeline across the GCC, Africa, and Southeast Asia — through partnerships, scouting programs, and regional events that attract and engage high-agency talent.
Operate the support modules that help founders accelerate (go-to-market, capital readiness, technical integration, pilot design).
Ensure every founder has a clear success plan with milestones, progress tracking, and measurable outcomes.
Run workshops, sprints, and mentoring sessions that translate our playbooks into real venture traction.
Design and refine founder capability-building programs — from entrepreneurial readiness to go-to-market execution — ensuring consistent, scalable founder development across cohorts.
Capture and translate founder feedback into improvements in program design, venture playbooks, and Utopia OS workflows.
Work with leadership to ensure ventures hit key KPIs — concepts developed, proofs-of-concept launched, spin-outs secured.
Monitor venture performance and proactively identify risks or bottlenecks — coordinating with product, design, and capital teams to course-correct early.
Coordinate with our technical and design teams so ventures actually leverage Utopia OS effectively.
Help ventures refine their business models, pilot strategies, and go-to-market plans
Connect founders with strategic partners, customers, and investors across the GCC, Africa, and Southeast Asia.
Facilitate and track venture introductions — ensuring they lead to real outcomes such as pilots, commercial contracts, or funding opportunities.
Collaborate with leadership to convert promising pilots into scalable partnerships and spin-out success stories.
Identify, formalize, and manage strategic partnerships with corporates, universities, government programs, and investor networks that can accelerate venture validation, pilot design, and market access.
Track and report how we deliver value across Middle East and non-Middle East ventures, surfacing learnings and partnership opportunities to Studio leadership.
Coordinate between the Studio and our funds (A-typical Ventures and The Radical Fund) to ensure founders get aligned capital and support.
Keep things aligned with Qatar Development Bank's strategic priorities and ecosystem goals.
Represent The Studio at regional innovation forums, conferences, and ecosystem events to showcase venture outcomes and strengthen Utopia’s regional presence.
Build and maintain a live, AI-enhanced venture dashboard tracking founder progress, POD milestones, and portfolio KPIs in real time.
Integrate automated data flows between Utopia OS, venture pods, and Studio systems to generate live insights on traction, risk, and capital readiness.
Use AI models to surface venture health signals, predict timeline slippage, and identify where intervention or support is most needed.
Create narrative and data-driven reports — venture success stories, quarterly updates, and board materials — that combine human context with AI-generated insight summaries.
Partner with the ops and platform teams to embed predictive analytics and natural language reporting into Studio and Fund dashboards — ensuring leadership has continuous visibility into performance across ventures.
Champion a data culture where every founder interaction, milestone, and learning is captured, structured, and made actionable through the Utopia OS system.
7–10+ years in venture building, startup operations, or portfolio management (ideally in a studio, accelerator, or VC context)
You've designed and delivered founder-facing programs, workshops, or playbooks before
Strong understanding of early-stage company building — from idea validation to pilot to scale
Experience managing cross-functional teams and getting stakeholders aligned around venture outcomes
Excellent at communication and relationship-building with founders, corporates, and government partners
Tech-savvy and data-driven — comfortable with CRM, analytics, and workflow tools
Deep empathy for founders, combined with an operator's mindset and focus on execution
Familiarity with AI, digital transformation, or innovation ecosystems in the Global South is essential
Deep understanding of emerging market ecosystems — able to build trust and communicate effectively with founders and experts from emerging and frontier markets is essential
Proven ability to work across cultural and regional contexts, balancing empathy with results
Founders progress predictably from onboarding to proof-of-concept and spin-out
Support modules deliver measurable impact (faster GTM, stronger capital readiness, improved technical adoption)
Founder satisfaction and engagement scores improve quarter-over-quarter
Ecosystem partnerships lead to tangible outcomes (pilots, contracts, or funding)
Portfolio data and insights are consistently captured and used to improve future cohorts
Establish and scale a repeatable founder and partner engagement model across priority markets within the first 6–9 months
Founder-obsessed: You measure your success by how well founders succeed with your support.
Outcome-oriented: You care about progress toward product-market fit, revenue, and defensible advantages.
Collaborative: You work seamlessly across tech, product, and capital teams with clarity and empathy.
AI-native:
the-studio