Cofounder Operations Full Time NEW

Role: Cofounder-Operations or Operations Lead

Location: Gurugram

Works with : Founder CEO

Type: Full-time, Seed Stage Startup

Stage: Seed, Pre-PMF

Timeline: Start immediately or within 2-3 weeks

Startup Description

A Seed stage Startup Founded by a seasoned Founder to Rebuild Early Childhood Development for India. This is a pivotal role for a startup building a new category at the intersection of early childhood development, neuroscience, and consumer products—focused on the most critical and underserved window in a human life: 0-5 years. In these formative years, most parents—despite being highly aware and deeply invested—lack the right tools to foster this child’s development. The system today is reactive, fragmented, and often too late. The venture would change that.

We are creating a development-first ecosystem that deliver the right inputs at the right stage—across cognitive, motor, sensory, language, and emotional development for each child. Not as passive products, but as active & interactive play that turn everyday parent-child interaction into measurable growth.

What makes this startup different:

• Science-led — grounded in neuroscience, child development, and play design
• Built for India, not adapted to it — contextual to Indian parents, behaviors, and realities, cobuilt
• Validated in the real world — rigorously tested with parents through structured observation
• Born from scale insight — leveraging the Founder’s experience and learning from building a successful startup with millions of consumers

This is not just a startup. It is the beginning of a category-defining company that can shape how early development is understood and enabled—at scale.

The founder brings two decades of deep work across childhood development, early years education and parenting ecosystem, with a proven track record of building at scale. What’s being built now is far more ambitious: a breakthrough startup that sits at the intersection of child development, consumer experience, and long-term human potential.

We are looking for a Cofounder who:

• Thinks in systems and scale, not just features
• Is excited by zero-to-one-to-ten category creation
• Wants to build something that is both deeply meaningful and commercially massive
• Can bring complementary strength—across product, growth or operations

If the idea of shaping how millions of children grow—and building a generational company while doing it—resonates, then this is worth building together.

Role Description

This is an Operating partner/ Cofounder role.

You’ll own the complete loop from the concept → manufacturing → quality gate → marketplace launch→Iterate. You’ll architect manufacturing partnerships at startup velocity. You’ll launch products every month, understand ecommerce unit economics by the back of your hand.

Think of the immediate focus as: ‘Get Product to Market’, learn & iterate at speed

This is a full-time, Gurugram based Cofounder Operations position. The individual will contribute to defining the company’s strategic vision, oversee and optimize day-to-day operations, & manage partnerships with key stakeholders.

What You’ll Own

A. Launch Velocity

• Own the velocity of the GTM engine. From concept to first units in inventory.
• Source manufacturing partners (India-first, but global if needed) at speed.
• Navigate vendor onboarding, sampling cycles, tooling costs, and lead times.
• Identify manufacturing bottlenecks and solve them.
• Build repeatable processes to scale them to 5X and more.

B. Manufacturing & Quality

• Scout, vet, and lock in manufacturing partners.
• Own quality gates like safety testing, benchmarks, Manufacturing standards of partners.
• Source samples, test every iteration, approve what’s market-ready.
• Negotiate MOQs, tooling costs, per-unit pricing, and payment terms.
• Manage relationships: Build trust, secure allocation, negotiate better terms over time.
• Problem-solve in real-time: Supplier delay? Quality issue? You find the workaround.

C. Inventory & Cost Optimization

• Plan inventory levels for each SKU based on sell-through and cash runway.
• Own unit economics: BOM cost, manufacturing overhead, packaging, logistics.
• Target margins (typically better than D2C averages) and hold vendors accountable.
• Negotiate: Better pricing at higher volumes, payment terms, bulk discounts.
• Manage clearance and slow-moving inventory (you own the P&L impact).

D. Ecommerce Operations

• Get products listed on Amazon, FirstCry, and other priority channels.
• Manage inventory allocation across channels to optimize turnover and cash flow.
• Work with logistics: Shipping cost optimization, delivery timelines, packaging that reduces damage.
• Track KPIs: Sell-through rate, inventory turnover, stockouts.

What You Need

A. Must-Haves

• Startup Operator Mentality 
• Have worked in a lean startup, early-stage firm, or founder’s office (no corporate job).
• You’re comfortable with ambiguity, wear multiple hats, don’t need permission to move.
• Action bias: You identify a blocker and solve it.
• You’ve experienced the reality of bootstrapped/seed-stage constraints & made it work.

B. Manufacturing & Sourcing Experience (3+ years)

• Have sourced products, managed suppliers, or worked in supply chain in a Toys/D2C/kids category.
• Understand India’s manufacturing ecosystem.
• Know how to source samples, negotiate MOQs, navigate tooling, manage lead times.
• Comfortable with vendor negotiations, contracts, and managing expectations.

C. Ecommerce Operations Knowledge

• Have managed inventory, shipping, or marketplace operations (Amazon, Flipkart, D2C website, or similar).
• Understand the India D2C landscape: Customer acquisition costs, logistics, inventory turnover.
• Has listed & sold through Amazon, understand FBA basics, manage stock levels.
• Know how ecommerce economics work (unit cost → margin → ACOS → profitability).

Nice-to-Haves 

• Previous founder/co-founder experience (especially toys, kids, D2C): You understand unit economics, margins, and what ‘sustainable growth’ means.
• Scaled a range from 0 to 10+ SKUs at a startup or brand.
• Global sourcing experience: Vietnam, Bangladesh, China (plus India).
• Performance marketing / D2C growth background: You understand how sourcing impacts unit economics.
• You understand the Indian kids D2C market.
• Proven bold bets: You’ve made risky sourcing or product decisions that paid off.

What You’ll Get

• Impact: Help shape & redefine how Indian children grow to their full potential.
• Learning: Build a company from zero to 1 to 10 to 100; understand & champion every function from sourcing to ecommerce.
• Work closely with the Founder : strategic input, mentorship from a second time successful Founder with 12+ years in.
• Equity: Reflects your seniority and the value you unlock.
• Ownership: This is your P&L—you own launch velocity, margins, and unit economics.
• Autonomy: Move fast. Make decisions. Solve problems without layers.

How to Connect

Don’t send a resume. Email the Founder with something that shows you have the hustle:

nitinatgrotoys

• A D2C startup you built from scratch & took it to growth stage or PMF.
• A product you’ve sourced and shipped (from idea to market).
• A manufacturing partnership you built from scratch that scaled.
• An ecommerce operation you optimized (inventory turns, margins, launch velocity).
• A tough vendor negotiation you won or a supply chain problem you solved.
• A launch you led: 0 to 10 SKUs, timeline, team size, outcome.

Show us the evidence. This is for someone who’s got the Cofounder mindset.