Founder in Residence, AI Ventures (Core AI)

Step into the innovative world of LG Electronics. As a global leader in technology, LG Electronics is dedicated to creating innovative solutions for a better life. Our brand promise, 'Life's Good', embodies our commitment to ensuring a happier life for all. We have a rich history spanning over six decades and a global presence in over 290 locations. Our diverse portfolio includes Home Appliance Solutions, Media Entertainment Solutions, Vehicle Solutions, and Eco Solutions. Our management philosophy, "Jeong-do Management," embodies our commitment to high ethical standards and transparent operations. Grounded in the principles of 'Customer-Value Creation' and 'People-Oriented Management', these values shape our corporate culture, fostering creativity, diversity, and integrity. At LG, we believe in the power of collective wisdom through an inclusive work environment. Join us and become a part of a company that is shaping the future of technology. At LG, we strive to make Life Good for Everyone.

Founder in Residence, AI Ventures - Core AI

LG NOVA, LG Electronics North America Innovation Center

You are not applying for a job. You are here to found LG's next company.

LG NOVA builds new ventures and spins them out as real businesses. We are looking for a small group of founders to validate and launch the next one, with LG's balance sheet and government relationships behind them. We are recruiting now for our next Founder in Residence cohort, with the first 90 day validation sprint targeted to begin on December 1, 2026.

This is a founding seat, not an advisory one. If the venture proves out, you lead it as Founder and CEO.

The mandate is open on purpose

We are not handing you a problem to solve. The strongest ventures come from founders who already see something the market has missed, so we are domain agnostic by design. While we stay open on the domain, we are focused on AI enabled software ventures with strong commercial potential.

We are looking for candidates with experience building businesses at the core AI layer or adjacent products/tools, rather than mainly building applications using AI. The strongest candidates have worked directly on the AI lifecycle, including model training or fine tuning, evaluation, deployment, inference, optimization, and production scale operation. Relevant areas of business may include:

AI Management, Development Platforms

Agentic Coding, Dev Automation

Agent Orchestration, Workflow Automation

AI Safety, Security, Compliance

Data Infrastructure, Data Generation, Curation

Relevant experience may include model training infrastructure, inference and serving, model optimization, AI runtimes, agent infrastructure, orchestration, evaluation, observability, governance, data infrastructure, or AI native developer platforms. You should understand model and data pipelines, compute and performance trade offs, production reliability, and the economics of running AI systems at scale.

Strong preference goes to candidates who have built reusable AI infrastructure, platforms, or developer tooling that many applications or enterprise customers can build on, and who can turn technical capability into a differentiated, commercially viable B2B venture.

Bring the problem you have unfair insight into, the buyers you already know, and the conviction that it should exist as a company. Every venture in this cohort is AI native.

We are building software only, so no hardware, and nothing capital intensive to get off the ground. The industry is yours to pick, but for this cohort we are not considering health or clean tech, which sit with other teams at LG NOVA, so if that is your space this is not the cohort for it.

This is not an accelerator. We are looking for founders who want to build and validate a new venture from the ground up. If you already have a company or a product you are trying to push forward, this is not the right fit.

Who we are looking for

You are a domain operator with deep access to the buyers in your space. You have built or commercialized something real and have raised funding before. People in your industry take your call. Maybe you founded before, maybe you raised before, maybe you ran a business line that behaved like a startup. You move fast when the path is unclear, and you close.

The profile we want

Founder, repeat founder, or founding executive experience

Deep expertise and credibility in a specific industry or problem space

A live network of buyers and decision makers in your domain that you can call on

A track record of building, commercializing, or scaling something new

Comfort in ambiguity with a bias toward evidence and revenue

A clear view on why AI makes your venture buildable now and not three years ago

What LG NOVA offers

You get resources most early founders would fight for.

Competitive compensation at market rates while you do the work

A concept testing budget so you can put real money behind proving demand

A budget of up to $500K to carry a validated idea toward commercialization, setting you up for a Seed round

Government partnerships across multiple US states that open real doors to pilots, design partners, and first customers

An LG backed fund that gives validated ventures a direct path to capital, so you are not starting your raise from zero

Market research, market sizing, and financial modeling done alongside you, not billed back to you

Engineering services to help you test and build

Equity in the venture you validated and commercialized if it progresses to a Seed round

You validate. We resource it.

How the program runs

The program runs in two sprints.

Sprint 1 is 90 days of validation . You define a specific high value problem, identify the economic buyer, test willingness to pay, and generate hard evidence that a venture should exist. The point is proof, not a product.

We run this in the open with you. You meet with us weekly to review progress and evidence, and at set checkpoints around Day 30, 45, and 60 we decide together whether to sharpen the concept, redirect it, or stop it. Redirecting or stopping a concept early is part of how this works, not a mark against you.

Sprint 1 ends with a panel review on Day 90. That panel decides whether the venture continues into Sprint 2.

Sprint 2 is around 180 days of building toward venture formation . You move from evidence to commercialization, early customers, and the foundation of a company. If the venture earns it, you become Founder and CEO of a new business built with LG behind you.

What you will do

Develop and sharpen a venture thesis in a space you know cold

Run buyer discovery with the people who actually hold the budget

Pin down the economic buyer, the budget owner, and how they buy

Validate the pain, the workflow, and the real size of the demand

Design and test a paid pilot, a design partner program, or an early offering

Secure concrete evidence of willingness to pay, whether a paid pilot, a signed letter of intent with commercial terms, or a design partner agreement, from a named buyer

Build the commercialization plan and the business model

Bring back a recommendation grounded in what the market told you

What success looks like by the end

A clearly defined venture opportunity

A validated customer and economic buyer

Hard evidence of demand

A credible path to revenue

Signed design partners, pilots, or customer commitments

A commercialization plan that scales

Enough conviction that LG should invest and build

The details

This is a contract, hybrid role based in Santa Clara, California, structured as two consecutive sprints. It is a full-time, exclusive engagement. While you are in the program you are not building, advising, or holding an active role in another startup, including as a passive or part time founder. Your focus is this venture and nothing else.

Compensation is annualized and paid during each sprint.

Sprint 1,