Back · 5–15% stakes

We back Founders with a first product and no product process — we earn our stake by doing the work.

Business engineers: people who understand both the commercial and technical side of a problem, have shipped something, and need the discipline to find product-market fit. We run a 12-week discovery-to-PMF programme with you, and take a small stake plus a discounted retainer for it. Terms are public.

Apply to be backed

What we look for

A shipped product or a working prototype with real users
A founder who does the customer conversations themselves
B2B or prosumer software, marketplaces or content businesses
Able to pay a discounted retainer — free work makes bad partners of us both

What you get

A 12-week discovery-to-PMF programme, run by us with you
Weekly working sessions, not slides
Our network of operators, angels and cohorts
Our name on your cap table

What we take

5–15% equity, vesting over the programme
A cash retainer at a discount to our €150/h rate
No board seat by default

The programme

Twelve weeks, four phases, one decision at the end.

It is the same loop we run on our own ventures. You do the customer conversations; we do the design, synthesis and product work with you, every week.

Weeks 1–3

Research

Customer interviews you run, we design and synthesise. A sharp problem statement and the segments that pay.

Weeks 4–6

Opportunities

Opportunity mapping: what to build next and what to stop. The week-4 demand gate sits here.

Weeks 7–10

Testing

Assumption tests, prototypes, paid pilots. We measure before we build.

Weeks 11–12

Iteration

A PMF dashboard, a 90-day roadmap, and a decision: double down, pivot or stop.

Track record

The work, before the terms.

Roti’s first cohort starts in Q1 2027. The method has already been run inside three companies, by the same person who will run it with you.

Fractional Head of Product · 2022–2023 · hiring marketplace

FOUND

0 → PMFin 30 months

A Swiss recruitment platform, from idea to product-market fit: a beachhead of ~500 product leaders in Zurich, 50+ story-based interviews, 30+ experiments and a no-code MVP on WhatsApp. 1,000 B2C users and 60 B2B customers in the first year.

Head of Product · 2019–2021 · French-Belgian neobank

elyps

−30%onboarding dropout

Led a product team of nine building a mobile neobank. 85% of prospects were abandoning a compliance-heavy signup; a redesigned five-step KYC flow cut dropout by over 30% and helped earn FCA e-money agent accreditation.

Head of Product · 2025–2026 · AI design tool

UX Pilot

+50%MRR in nine months

First product hire at a bootstrapped AI design tool that grew from 500k to 1M+ users. Built the product-led growth engine — systematic experimentation across activation, pricing and retention — taking MRR from $300K to $450K.

And through ProductTrio: 300+ startups and 20+ product organisations — from Taxfix and Syncron to Bayer Digital Hub — trained in discovery and product-market fit. aleksanderuznanski.com ↗

Terms

Public, and the same for everyone.

We price our time at €150 an hour. A programme is roughly 200 hours of our work, so a 5–15% stake plus a discounted retainer is what makes the maths fair for both sides. We publish it so you can compare it with any other offer on your table.

Apply to be backed

What we take — published, same for everyone

Equity: 5–15%, equity vests over the programme, not up front
Cash: a cash retainer at a discount to our €150/h rate
Work: 12-week discovery-to-PMF programme, run by us with you
Control: no board seat by default; we hold; we do not flip

The gates every bet passes

Week 4 · Evidence of demand

A waitlist, letters of intent or a paid pilot — or we stop.

Month 6 · First revenue

Real money from real customers — or we stop.

Month 12 · A PMF signal

Retention and growth you can point at — or we sell, spin out or shut down.