Founder in Residence, Next generation herbicides and weed control

Join us to build a new venture eliminating off-target toxicity from agrochemicals by scaling next generation herbicides and weed control.

We’re seeking an entrepreneurial technical leader to found and spin out a company with us focused on targeted, durable weed control without off-target ecological or human health impacts.

The role is full-time, remote initially until venture incorporation and spin-out (circa end of Q4 2026), location TBD.

ABOUT DSV

Deep Science Ventures (DSV) is on a mission to create a future in which both humans and the planet can thrive. We use our unique venture creation process to create, spin-out, and invest in science companies, combining available scientific knowledge and founder-type scientists into high-impact ventures. Operating in four sectors—Pharmaceuticals, Climate, Agriculture, and Computation—we tackle the challenges defining these areas by taking a first principles approach and partnering with leading institutions.

OUR PARTNERSHIP WITH GRANTHAM FOUNDATION

Driven by mutual conviction in the huge unmet need to eliminate off-target toxicity from agrochemicals, DSV has partnered with Grantham Foundation to accelerate the development of non-toxic alternatives to pesticides (herbicides and insecticides). To learn more about the collaborative work that led to this opportunity area, please see report - "The Invisible Tsunami".

ABOUT THE ROLE

We are looking for future Founders: entrepreneurially-minded individuals with deep technical and commercial domain expertise, who are eager to solve urgent unmet challenges through venture building. This role offers a unique opportunity to work at the forefront of agtech, leading a company solving challenges in off-target toxicity from herbicides.

You will join DSV’s venture creation programme as a Founder-in-Residence and work closely with the DSV and Grantham Foundation team to spin out the new company. During the programme you will refine, improve and complement existing scoping work on:

• The technical thesis for weed control that is scalable, durable and effective without off-target effects (neglect and technical tractability);
• Commercial neglect (IP strategy, differentiation, competition);
• Value proposition (market, value capture, techno-economics);
• Regulatory strategy & positioning;
• Fundraising strategy & pitching;
• Optimising company strategy for the most rapid and derisked path to Series A.

Preparation for Investment Committee (IC) will involve fulfilling our investment criteria, recruiting advisory and co-founding team members, and parallel fundraising for additional expansion funds.

Assuming success at IC, you will receive pre-seed investment from DSV and Grantham Foundation, and spinout the company by the end of Q4 2026. You and your co-founders will own a significant stake in the business and continue receiving support post-spinout.

THE OPPORTUNITY

Conventional herbicides - spanning from 2,4-D to atrazine - are a double-edged sword. They play a vital role in shielding crops from weeds but can wreak havoc beyond their targets. Repeated herbicide exposure can eliminate as much as 50% of soil microbial biomass and fauna, and aquatic plants in agriculture-fed waterways lose up to 80% of their photosynthetic efficiency, with cascading effects across both terrestrial and aquatic trophic chains. Beyond ecosystems, these chemicals have been associated with acute toxicity, cancer risk, endocrine disruption and neurodegenerative effects in humans, driven by mechanisms including oxidative stress, DNA damage, hormonal interference, immune dysregulation, and chronic inflammation - a problem being increasingly recognised especially in exposed rural populations. The persistence of herbicides across environments and the combinatorial effects of adjuvants only amplifies their devastation. The number of herbicide resistant weed species has also increased 10-fold since the 1980s, straining our available toolkit for safeguarding food security. Taking one specific example, glyphosate-resistant Amaranthus species can reduce maize yields by as much as 91%. Therefore, to deliver both human and planetary thriving, alternatives approaches to weed control are imperative.

Multiple novel modes of action have shown scientific and commercial traction at the proof of concept level in recent years. For example, autonomous visual detection of weeds combined with laser and electricide technologies is demonstrating positive field trial data. However, the low operating speeds required for such systems to achieve precision targeting massively limits its practicality. This is symptomatic of the wider, recurring constraints to disrupting the incumbent agrochemical market, with many technologies facing barries to scaling adoption with high costs, operational compatibility, and risks of evolutionary ‘escape’.

We imagine a future where we can protect crops without decimating ecosystems, collapsing food chains, or endangering human health. This is the vision driving our venture creation in this opportunity space: reimagining weed control to build a thriving agricultural sector that aligns with ecological and human health.

Our preliminary scoping of the area indicates high potential to create approaches that meet our desired outcome: weed control that is scalable, durable, and effective without off-target effects. Emerging technologies, spanning from RNAs to molecular glues, provide a set of promising tools that could provide the foundations for commercially viable propositions. However, each approach presents outstanding constraints that require solving. We believe that advances in diverse sectors, spanning from bioprocessing and genetic engineering through to AI and precision agriculture tools, mean that it is the ideal time to tackle these barriers and we are looking for a Founder in Residence to take this on. Will you join us to lead the effort?

Requirements

WHO SHOULD APPLY

Essential Values

• You are highly motivated by unsolved challenges in weed control, and driven to challenge the status quo in agrochemicals.
• You are impact driven, take the initiative, make things happen, and think from a first principles perspective to figure out what’s really needed.
• You have clear entrepreneurial spirit and mindset, demonstrated through impactful innovation, and an ability to work in ambiguous, unstructured but fast-paced, demanding and pressurised environments.
• Collaborative nature, with the ability to work effectively in cross-functional teams.

Essential experience (must-have)

• Core science depth (PhD or equivalent industry R&D know-how) in biochemistry, molecular biology, plant physiology, phytopathology, agricultural engineering or similar, with breadth across technological areas relevant for next generation weed control such as:
• Safer small molecule discovery and screening (e.g. molecular glues, PFAS replacement)
• Physical herbicide controls (e.g. autonomous electricide)
• Biological modes of action (e.g. RNAi, pollen sterility)
• Crop trait development
• Precision application and delivery systems
• Translational execution: e.g. taking traits/actives from discovery to field efficacy, managing CRO/CDMO programs, building regulator/investor/customer-ready data packages; and/or partnership development (growers, CROs/CDMOs, suppliers) and scalable IP strategy.
• Cross-functional ownership across: R&D - Product - Regulatory - IP, evidenced by shipped results (trial outcomes, submissions, patents, launches); and/or EPA/EU experience and GLP study planning/oversight; or design of pivotal field trials supporting registration.
• Venture creation/fundraising; and/or product leadership in agtech or adjacent areas.

Equivalents considered: deep industry R&D in agrochem/biotech or a PhD with applied field work and comparable outcomes.

Preferred experience (nice-to-have)

• Previous Founder experience (in agtech).
• Previous C-suite experience (in agtech).
• Previous fundraising experience (VC).
• Commercial & BD expertise incl. network in agrochem/pesticide development (licensing, partnering, collaborations).
• Strong track record of building and leading successful teams.

Benefits

OUR OFFER

By joining DSV, you’ll be joining a team of operators who have founded companies and led translation of science at some of the most respected universities, charities, funds and government agencies. 2/3 of the team have founded or led a company at C-suite and 65% have a PhD. Our team dedicate several hours every week to each Founder or founding team to provide tailored guidance, resources and feedback covering every aspect of what it takes to successfully launch a new venture from both the tech and commercial perspectives:

• We provide optimised, purpose-built, proprietary tools, resources and processes to help create high-impact ventures from scratch, using our venture creation methodology.
• DSV and Grantham Foundation's extensive network incl. leaders of biotech VCs, technical & commercial domain expertise, and wide-ranging  portfolio company capabilities.
• We jointly provide an initial £250k (~$340k / €290k) investment governed by our Investment Committee to incorporate the new venture and develop early proof-of-concept data that is often needed to attract high profile non-venture studio VCs. This funding is also key for obtaining grant funding, which often needs to be matched with private investment.
• You and your co-founder(s) together will own the majority equity stake in the company.
• We provide minimum guaranteed income of £4,166 per month (fixed), paid to each Founder as a consultancy fee until the company is launched and pre-seed investment is secured.
• We provide continuous support post spin-out, including fundraising, commercial partnerships, recruitment and team-building (amongst other things). 
• Other Founders currently at DSV across sectors working collaboratively and supporting one another - a unique resource to draw on.