---
title: 'Founder Associate Intern at Hexa'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/founder-associate-intern-hexa-paris-6vbwskw7ck51'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-10-18'
---

# Founder Associate Intern at Hexa

- **Company:** Hexa
- **Location:** Paris, France
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Posted:** 2026-10-07
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-10-18
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/hexa/fc0a58b5-c6a1-4910-8ed3-5c7b84608343

## Job description

Who are we? The sea is the physical layer of the economy: our energy, data and trade move across it and under it. It is also Europe's most exposed flank. Cheap underwater drones, divers and mines now threaten ports, naval bases, subsea cables and offshore energy sites. Pelagon builds maritime interdiction: a persistent sensing network running our own acoustic-first AI detects and classifies underwater and surface threats, so operators can act on them. We work with navies and with the civilian operators of ports, subsea cables and offshore energy. Pelagon was founded by Aymeric de Pontbriand (serial deeptech entrepreneur, founded and exited Scortex) and Gauthier Bouxin (French Navy officer, then McKinsey). Backed by Hexa and leading European investors. By joining us, you'll play a key role in keeping a fast-moving defence startup running: the paperwork, the bills and the admin processes, and getting our systems into the water. Every test, fair, demo and admin file goes through you.

🎯 Your mission

- Run the company's admin: paperwork, supplier invoices and bills, expense receipts, contracts and forms, insurance, permits and declarations, offices.
- Build the admin processes: who does what, where every document lives, which deadline comes next, so nothing slips as the team grows.
- Own the logistics of our equipment: inventory, orders, packing, shipping, and driving the gear to test sites.
- Run data collection campaigns at sea with our hardware team: prepare, deploy, recover, log the data.
- Make every fair and demo happen: stand material, shipping, permits, boats, set-up on site.
- Support the founders on the business plan and the monthly numbers.

🤩 This job is your dream job if:

- You like things in order: every invoice filed, every form sent on time, every deadline in your tracker
- You'd rather be on a boat with a sensor than in front of a slide deck
- You've built, deployed or repaired real things and you like it when it gets wet
- You plan ahead, keep checklists and follow up without being chased
- You want to see from the inside how a defence startup is built

🙅 This job is not for you if:

- You want remote work or a pure engineering design role
- Paperwork, bills and admin processes feel beneath you: they are a real part of this job
- Early starts, cold days at sea and travel at short notice put you off

## Requirements

- Engineering or science profile preferred, final year or recent graduate
- French fluent and working English
- EU citizenship (defence site access and security clearance)
- Driving licence (B)
- Based in Paris, on site full time

## What we offer

- A founding role in a seed-stage defence tech company, working directly with the founders
- Real deployments at sea and on navy and operator sites
- Offices in Paris

🧭 Our recruitment process

- A 30 minute intro call with Roland, our Chief of Staff.
- A 60 minute deep dive with Gauthier: your background, one project you built, and a short logistics exercise.
- A company fit conversation with Aymeric and the team.

We answer within 48 h after each step.

Pelagon is committed to creating a diverse environment. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment irrespective of gender, origin, identity, background and sexual orientation. Defence and maritime have long been male-dominated fields: we actively encourage women to apply.

## About Hexa

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Hexa is a multi-stage startup studio that partners with founders to build, launch, and scale software companies from scratch.
- **Entity Type**: Private (multi-stage startup studio; operates Start, Sprint, and Scale tracks)
- **Headquarters**: Paris, France (12 rue Martel 75010)
- **Founded**: 2011
- **Founders**: Not publicly listed as a single founder; built as a studio by a founding team.

## Core Business
- Primary industry/industries: Venture Building / Startup Studio / Company Creation
- Target customers: Aspiring and experienced entrepreneurs (B2B, B2C, Enterprise tech founders)
- Mission or purpose statement: "To build alongside founders, not from the sidelines" – creating companies that leave a mark on the world by combining hands-on operational support with capital.

## Products & Services
- **Hexa Start**: A 12-month, intensive program for entrepreneurs who want to build a company from scratch (often before they have a concrete idea). Hexa provides the idea, team, co-founder, and covers all costs until the company becomes independent.
- **Hexa Sprint**: A 6-month program for founding teams who already have an idea and are looking for their first check (pre-seed). Offers €500k (€20k convertible note for 4% + €480k convertible note with MFN & cap at €8M).
- **Hexa Scale**: A growth-stage program for post-product-market-fit companies ($1–10M ARR, 10–40% YoY growth). Hexa invests €5–20M per company, takes a majority stake, and provides hands-on operational support (GTM, product, AI strategy, international expansion, hiring) for 9–12 months.
- **In-house Expertise**: 30+ experts in Product Design, Product Management, Engineering (via hired teams), GTM, Sales, Marketing, Finance, Legal, People & Talent, Comms & Brand, Community, and Investing.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Combined valuation of launched companies exceeds **$5 billion**.
- **Key Metric**: **50+ companies launched**; **2,600+ employees** across portfolio companies; **12 exits**.
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Not explicitly listed on the site, but the studio itself acts as the primary investor and operator. Portfolio includes multiple billion-dollar companies (names not publicly listed in the provided data).
- **Growth Signals**: Studio has been operating since 2011 and has scaled from 0 to 50+ companies. The addition of the Scale track indicates a pivot to later-stage growth. Receives ~1,000 founder applications per year, selecting ~12 founders (2 per project) annually for the Start track.

## Competitive Advantages
- **Hands-on, not hands-off**: Unlike traditional accelerators or VCs, Hexa provides a full in-house team of operators (product, design, GTM, legal, finance) working alongside founders for 12 months (Start) or 9–12 months (Scale).
- **Founder-friendly majority stake**: For Scale, Hexa takes a majority stake but claims to be "the world’s most founder-friendly majority investor" – founders remain in the driver's seat with active board support.
- **Proven track record**: 50+ companies, $5B combined valuation, 12 exits, spanning 12+ years of SaaS expertise.
- **End-to-end platform**: Covers the entire lifecycle from idea (Start) to pre-seed (Sprint) to growth (Scale) – rare in the startup studio space.
- **Built-in network & resources**: Founders get immediate access to a team of 30+ experts, legal, finance, recruiting, and a community of other founders.

## Strategic Focus
- **Scaling the Scale track**: The newer Hexa Scale program is a key growth driver, targeting profitable, capital-efficient B2B SaaS companies with $1–10M ARR.
- **AI & embedded finance**: Hexa Scale explicitly helps companies with AI strategy and adding fintech/embedded finance capabilities.
- **International expansion**: Helping portfolio companies expand into new geographies and verticals.
- **Maintaining high selectivity**: Keeping the Start track highly curated (~12 founders/year) to ensure deep support and quality outcomes.

## Why Work Here
- **Culture**: "You'll never build alone" – the studio emphasizes deep collaboration, ambition, humility, and execution. The team is composed of entrepreneurs and expert operators.
- **Remote/Hybrid Policy**: Hexa is based in Paris. For the Start track, a presence at HQ is important to benefit from resources and mentorship. Sprint is remote-friendly but based in France/Europe for events. Scale is likely remote-friendly with in-person board/partner meetings.
- **Perks & Engineering Culture**: No software engineers in the core team – each startup's product is built by engineers recruited specifically for that company. This means engineers get to join a funded startup with a built-in support system from day one. The studio provides legal, finance, recruiting, and strategic support so engineers can focus on product.
- **Career Path**: Two kinds of roles: (1) the core team that builds the machine (partners, product managers, designers, GTM, finance, legal) and (2) founding hires inside the startups coming out of the studio. Either way, you're in "before it exists" – a high-risk, high-reward environment with significant ownership and impact.

## Sources
1. [hexa.com](https://www.hexa.com/)
2. [hexa.com/positions](https://www.hexa.com/positions)
3. [jobs.ashbyhq.com/hexa](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/hexa)
4. [hexa.com/team](https://www.hexa.com/team)
5. [hexa.com/faq](https://www.hexa.com/faq)

## Other roles at Hexa

- [Staff Software Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/staff-software-engineer-hexa-paris-2fj7mj9e7v7c) — Paris, France
- [Field Application Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/field-application-engineer-hexa-paris-jc9jeae7k86b) — Paris, France
- [Investment Associate @Hexa Scale](https://feeny.ai/job/investment-associate-hexa-scale-hexa-paris-ewx0msmj3x8p) — Paris, France
- [Embedded System Lead Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/embedded-system-lead-engineer-hexa-france-2yyg4mg11fp9) — France
- [Founding Sales @Hodor (backed by Hexa)](https://feeny.ai/job/founding-sales-hodor-backed-by-hexa-hexa-paris-2wryb04trbv8) — Paris, France
- [Founder Associate Intern @Verso (backed by Hexa)](https://feeny.ai/job/founder-associate-intern-verso-backed-by-hexa-hexa-paris-ttwa96ehk668) — Paris, France
- [Founding sales lead](https://feeny.ai/job/founding-sales-lead-hexa-paris-99zxdh5wra2p) — Paris, France
- [VC Analyst - Internship](https://feeny.ai/job/vc-analyst-internship-hexa-paris-y542ejwvvn0k) — Paris, France
- [Expert Assurance | Courtage & IA @Panora (backed by Hexa)](https://feeny.ai/job/expert-assurance-courtage-ia-panora-backed-by-hexa-hexa-paris-13vyhp18z9qb) — Paris, France
- [Office and Event Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/office-and-event-manager-hexa-paris-brn9tf9jj5gw) — Paris, France