Intro to Mission Studio

Mission Studio is dedicated to creating, launching and scaling startups that address some of the UK’s biggest social challenges. From achieving net zero to tackling obesity to striving for equal outcomes for children born into disadvantage, we’re not just building great businesses, we’re designing impactful solutions for a better future. 

Backed by a world-class venture design and building process, dedicated capital, experienced operators providing hands-on support, as well as Nesta’s ecosystem of experts, research and partnerships, we partner with founders to build incredible companies. 

Become a Mission Studio Founder

When we have a validated concept that we believe can become a successful and impactful business we look for a founder to lead the business, build alongside us and lead it into the future. 

As a founder with Mission Studio, you’ll receive a living stipend for six months, alongside additional funds to build an MVP and test with real customers. You’ll also have the full support of our team of experienced builders, designers, founders and technologists, and the chance to pitch for £200k in pre-seed funding at the end of the build process.

Mission Studio is led by Kenny Ewan (ex-Founder of Wefarm, the world's largest farming network, reaching 5 million users and raising over $35mn in VC investment). Kenny and the wider team bring decades of startup experience to support you on your journey, doing whatever it takes to help you and your venture succeed.

What is Macha?

Macha is the Mission Studio’s latest concept, and is addressing Nesta’s mission to give all children aged 0-5 in the UK a fair start by improving maternal health and wellbeing. Macha is a personalised, midwife style digital companion helping pregnant women to proactively take care of their health during pregnancy, providing personalised recommendations and signposting help where needed.

Women face a fragmented NHS experience throughout the perinatal journey, with limited midwife continuity and gaps between appointments, often causing symptoms to be missed and mums to not feel seen, heard or supported. Lack of continuous care can exacerbate the risk of postpartum depression, preterm births, and other complications for mum and child.

Macha fills this gap by offering continuous pregnancy support via a personalised, AI-powered pregnancy companion. Planned first features include:

• Guided midwife-style assessments (baseline and regular check-ins)
• Daily emotional and physical check-ins to track how you're feeling over time
• A complete, shareable pregnancy record
• Personalised information, guidance and signposting

The Role

At Mission Studio we're focused on working with talented individuals who want to build soaring, impactful ventures. You don't need to have Founded a unicorn in a past life to be the perfect person to do this. You may have deep domain knowledge, you may have worked in a startup team before and are ready to take the next step, or you've worked in leadership in a larger organisation and are keen to have the freedom to run at a problem in your own way.

Skills we’re looking for:

• Obsessed with building things having led projects in startups or scale ups before
• Have built a data driven or personalised product before, and / or have experience pulling out insights from large or disparate audience group datasets
• You’re a whizz at getting D2C ventures in front of target users
• You will bring a level of understanding and experience relevant to Macha, whether that’s deep domain knowledge, lived experience of the problem, prior experience building teams to deliver healthtech products
• Resilient and adaptable, adept at navigating challenges and pivoting when necessary
• Thrives in fast-paced, uncertain environments, transforming challenges into opportunities
• Scrappy and resourceful – takes initiative and is proactively able to get things done with low resources when needed
• Exceptional at inspiring and leading teams to achieve shared goals in an inclusive environment
• Skilled storyteller, effective at communicating with diverse audiences and stakeholders
• Capable of confidently standing by your convictions whilst also being able to identify when feedback shared is additive to your approach 

Whatever it is, if you care about the problem Macha is trying to solve and think you have the grit to bring it to life - we want to hear from you.

The founder package we offer

• A majority equity stake in the new company for you and your co-founders
• A de-risked concept with initial inroads into relevant customer and partner networks
• A living stipend of ~£4k per month for up to 6 months (the equivalent of a 50k annual salary, pre tax) and £25k of additional funds to support the building and launching of the company
• Dedicated, hands-on operational support from a passionate team specialising in venture design and building, product development, fundraising, tech, and strategic partnerships
• A unique opportunity to create a scalable business that makes a meaningful impact
• In just 6 months, we’ll support you to validate, build, and launch an MVP
• After 6 months, and providing key milestones are met, you’ll have the opportunity to pitch for an additional £200K investment and establish the venture as an independent company 
• Gain access to Nesta’s mission-relevant internal and external networks
• Be co-located with the studio team for 6 months, with access to desk space and meeting rooms in our offices in Blackfriars
• Access our Founder platform of peer-to-peer support, perks, unfair advantage of mission experts and network of late stage founders, investors and startup operators

We are eager to receive applications from all backgrounds and are committed to building a diverse culture, inline with our EDI commitments. Our recruitment process is fair and unbiased, and all applicants will receive consideration for employment without discrimination.

Making an application 

To apply for this role, please submit your application before 6pm on August 20th.

1st round interviews will take place from w/c Aug 26th