AI Product Builder - USA

📋 Description

• • **Join a Pioneering AI Startup Initiative within a Thriving Software Ecosystem:** Valsoft Corporation, a global leader in acquiring and growing vertical market software companies, presents a unique opportunity through its Fluent Software Group. We are not just acquiring businesses; we are cultivating them, providing founders with a 'forever home' that preserves their culture while injecting resources, advanced technology, and proven growth strategies. Our mission is to build innovative AI-powered products and startups from within our established portfolio of specialized software companies. This is your chance to be at the forefront of AI innovation, leveraging existing customer bases and deep domain expertise to create real-world solutions.
• • **The Core Mission: Building AI Products with a Strategic Advantage:** We are seeking entrepreneurial and technically adept individuals to partner with our existing businesses. Your role will be to identify opportunities to 'agentify' existing workflows or develop entirely new AI-driven products. The ultimate goal is to deliver tangible customer value, whether by enhancing operational efficiency or unlocking new revenue streams. You will work with companies that possess deep industry knowledge and loyal customer relationships, providing you with a significant head start. This isn't a 'build from scratch' scenario; it's a 'build with a cheat code' opportunity, offering established infrastructure, revenue streams for validation, and direct access to a market ready for AI-enhanced solutions.
• • **An Unconventional Role: The AI Product Builder:** This position transcends traditional product management or software engineering. It's a hybrid role demanding a unique blend of product vision, rapid prototyping, and customer empathy. You will be the driving force behind AI product development, conceptualizing, building, and iterating on solutions at startup speed. While the portfolio company's R&D teams will provide domain expertise and production infrastructure, you will be responsible for bringing the AI product vision to life. Your focus will be on integrating existing AI APIs and leveraging cutting-edge AI-assisted development tools rather than training foundational models from scratch. This role is designed for individuals aspiring to leadership positions, such as CTO or CEO, with the potential for scope and title to expand as the products you build gain traction and success.
• • **Cultivating the Right Mindset for Success:** We believe that while skills can be acquired, mindset is paramount. We are looking for individuals who embody the following traits:
• • **Entrepreneurial Ownership:** You approach every project with the mindset of owning your own startup. You are proactive, make decisions without waiting for explicit permission or perfect information, and take full responsibility for outcomes, demonstrating agility even in ambiguous situations.
• • **Customer Obsession:** You are energized by direct customer interaction, actively seeking out users to understand their deep-seated needs and translating those insights into viable product opportunities. Your preference is for customer calls over planning meetings, ensuring that product development is always grounded in user value.
• • **Bias Toward Action:** You prioritize learning by doing. You are comfortable shipping imperfect but functional prototypes quickly, believing that iterative development and rapid feedback are key to success. You aim to deliver value rapidly, rather than striving for unattainable perfection.
• • **Social Confidence:** You possess the ability to communicate effectively and build trust across diverse audiences, from executives and skeptical customers to engineering teams. You can present, demo, and collaborate with clarity and conviction, making you a sought-after partner.
• • **Decisive Under Ambiguity:** You thrive in environments without a predefined playbook. You can assess complex situations, make clear decisions, and adapt course without unnecessary drama or reliance on consensus. You are a self-starter who doesn't require constant direction.
• • **Collaborative Leadership:** You will work closely with R&D teams who possess deep domain knowledge. Success hinges on earning their trust, respecting their expertise, and bringing them along as influential partners, rather than dictating terms.
• • **Hunger for Impact:** You are driven by a desire to build something meaningful and impactful, viewing this role as a significant launchpad for your career growth and entrepreneurial ambitions.
• • **Key Responsibilities and Impact:**
• • **Customer Discovery and Ideation:** Lead the charge in customer discovery across Fluent's portfolio. Engage directly with users to pinpoint high-value pain points and conceptualize monetizable AI product ideas.
• • **Pipeline Prioritization:** Employ ruthless prioritization to manage the product idea pipeline, focusing on opportunities that offer the greatest customer value, business potential, and speed to market.
• • **Rapid Prototyping:** Leverage AI-enhanced development tools and third-party AI APIs (e.g., OpenAI, Anthropic, Azure AI, Gemini) to transform concepts into working, demoable AI-powered products within a 2-3 day timeframe.
• • **Customer Validation and Iteration:** Lead Proofs of Concept (POCs) and product demonstrations with customers and stakeholders, actively incorporating feedback to refine and iterate on product features.
• • **Production Transition:** Collaborate closely with portfolio company R&D teams to transition validated prototypes into robust production solutions, effectively merging AI product vision with established domain expertise and infrastructure.
• • **AI Adoption Advocacy:** Act as a change agent, championing AI adoption across the portfolio and inspiring teams to explore and embrace the possibilities of artificial intelligence.
• • **Technical Execution and Velocity:** You are expected to build and execute across the full stack, not just spec and delegate. As a generalist, you should be capable of taking a prototype from end-to-end, possessing sufficient technical acumen to gain the respect of engineering partners. While deep expertise in every layer isn't required, the ability to integrate components rapidly to create a functional, demoable product is essential. This includes:
• • **Full-Stack Fundamentals:** Proficiency in modern frontend frameworks (React, Vue.js, TypeScript), server-side development (Node.js, Python, or C#/.NET), REST/GraphQL APIs, and relational databases (PostgreSQL, MySQL).
• • **AI & Agentic Development:** Hands-on experience integrating AI model APIs (OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, Azure Cognitive Services) into production-ready products. Experience building agentic workflows using frameworks like LangChain, CrewAI, AutoGen, or Semantic Kernel. Strong skills in Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), including building pipelines with vector databases (Pinecone, Weaviate) and embedding models. Fluency in prompt engineering, token/cost management, and understanding latency tradeoffs for production AI features.
• • **Tools & Velocity:** Proficiency with AI-enhanced development tools (Cursor, Windsurf, Claude Code, bolt.new, v0, Replit) and a proactive approach to adopting new tools. Familiarity with Git, CI/CD, and agile workflows to ensure rapid iteration and deployment.
• • **What This Role Is Not:** This is not a role for those seeking detailed specifications and a build-to-order process. There is no established playbook, and you will not manage a large team from day one. Instead, you will partner with existing teams. If you require extensive structure, rigid processes, or prefer to work in isolation without customer interaction, this role may not be the ideal fit. However, if ambiguity excites you and you are driven to build and lead, we encourage you to explore this opportunity further.