CEO & Co-Founder, Yask

CEO & Co-Founder, Yask

Physical operations are the parts of a business that run in stores, warehouses, routes, plants, and facilities. Places where inventory moves, staffing shifts, timing matters, and local conditions keep changing. They make up a major share of the economy. They are hard to run well because what matters changes constantly, responsibility is distributed across people and shifts, and small misses compound quickly. The challenge is not just seeing the issue. It is deciding what matters now, who should handle it, and how to make sure it gets done before the next change, interruption, or handoff gets in the way.

The Initial Wedge

Retail and distribution make that challenge especially visible. Out-of-stocks are only one symptom, and it's an $80+ billion annual problem in the US and well over $1 trillion worldwide. The bigger problem is that displays get missed, product does not get rotated, follow-through dies in text threads, and store-level issues stay buried in fragmented communication and scattered data until they become expensive.

Yask is being built for that kind of environment. It is an AI system for physical operations that helps teams turn what people notice in the field and what gets buried in business data into the right next action for the right store, in the right hands, at the right time. It reduces the overhead on frontline teams by making observations easy to capture, then helping determine what matters, where it should go, and how to make sure it gets handled. It directs follow-through, verifies execution with proof, and builds an adaptive operating memory of stores, people, patterns, and what good execution actually requires.

Yask is being built out of Gitwit, a venture studio that creates companies through deep field research, customer access, and early proof. We already have a live design partner, deep field access, and a clear wedge into retail and distribution. We're looking for the Founding CEO & Co-Founder to turn those conditions into product-market fit, repeatable traction, and a company that earns the right to scale. This is a hands-on founder seat for someone who wants to shape the product, customer adoption, go-to-market, and the company itself from the ground up on the ground in Bentonville, close to customers, close to the product, and close to how the work actually happens.

Why This Is a Rare Founder Seat

Most founder roles start with a market idea and a lot of unanswered questions.

Yask starts with operating access. We already have a live design partner: a regional distributor operating across nine locations in Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Texas, across a wide mix of stores, products, and field conditions. We do not have to guess where work breaks. We can see it, test in it, and learn from it directly. That matters because this company will not win by sounding smart about AI. It will win by helping teams handle work better in real locations, proving that value in the field, and giving buyers something concrete to believe.

Northwest Arkansas is part of the advantage. The breadth of retailers, brands, distributors, buyers, merchandisers, and the interactions they have here are unmatched anywhere else. Decisions made within 30 miles of Bentonville impact more frontline physical locations than from any other geography in the world. A perfect proving ground for Yask.

This is founder work in the real sense. You are not stepping into a polished CEO role with a finished product and a templated go-to-market plan. The job is to turn field access into product decisions, product decisions into usage, usage into referenceable value, and that value into the next customers. We are starting in retail and distribution because the problem is already visible there. But the underlying challenge is broader: physical operations still struggle to surface the right next action, put it in the right hands, and know it got done.

What You'll Actually Need to Do

This role is about turning unusually strong early conditions into a real company. In practice, that means:

• Build your founding team. You will need a world class team of builders, dreamers and operators. This is your chance to construct the team you know can move fast and win.
• Drive customer learning and adoption yourself. You will spend time in the field, run demos, talk with users and decision-makers, and watch how the work actually happens. The early truth cannot be outsourced.
• Shape the product around what changes execution. You will work closely with the founding product and engineering team to decide what gets built, what gets cut, what gets tested next, and what is most likely to improve adoption and performance in the field.
• Turn early usage into referenceable value. The goal is not activity for its own sake. It is real usage, clear proof of value, and evidence strong enough that the next customers can see why Yask matters.
• Make Yask legible to your ICP. You will turn field learning, product behavior, and customer results into a story your ICP can understand and trust.
• Convert the first wedge into the next customers. You will help shape pilots, define success, and turn early customer value into repeatable traction.
• Create the operating rhythm of the company. You will establish how Yask learns, prioritizes, ships, follows up, and decides.
• Own the feedback loops that make the business sharper. You will help define the usage patterns, KPIs, and decision cadences that show where execution is improving, where it is breaking, and what should happen next.
• Stay close to the hard parts long enough to get them right. That includes product tradeoffs, customer pressure, messy field reality, and the moments when the right move is not obvious yet.

If this role is going well, the signs will be visible: Yask will be used inside the design partner's operation, the product will be getting sharper from real usage, the proof will be getting clearer, and the next customers will be easier to win.

Who Thrives Here

This role tends to fit people who like being close to the work while it is still early and unsettled. People who tend to thrive here usually recognize themselves in several of these:

• You like getting close to customers, workflows, and operating conditions instead of managing from a distance.
• You are highly hands-on in the early days and do not need polished structure to create momentum.
• You have real product judgment, not just product enthusiasm.
• You can move between customer learning, product decisions, commercial judgment, and operating discipline without getting stuck in only one mode.
• You know how to keep learning your way toward product-market fit.
• You are comfortable with ambiguity, but not vague about what progress should look like.
• You want real founder ownership, with the upside and responsibility that come with it.
• You see Bentonville as part of the strategic advantage, not a compromise.

This role is LESS likely to fit someone who wants a polished executive seat, prefers to operate mostly through layers, wants distance from day-to-day product and customer work, or is looking for a remote-first leadership role.

What We Offer

This role comes with the things strong founder-level leaders should expect: meaningful ownership, a competitive base, and the chance to build something real from the beginning, but the bigger offer is the seat itself. You get a founder role with operating access underneath it, a live design partner, deep proximity to the Bentonville retail ecosystem, and the chance to shape the product, the first customer motion, and the company from the beginning. Practically, that includes:

• Base salary: $150,000–$175,000
• Founder equity: meaningful founder equity
• Incentives: milestone-based compensation
• Location: full-time, on-site in Bentonville, Arkansas

Location and Work Style

This is a full-time, in-person role built around close proximity to customers, product, and team. The role is based in Bentonville, Arkansas. We are open to exceptional candidates who would relocate for the right opportunity, but this is not a remote or hybrid role. We want a founder who wants to build in the room, in the field, and close to the decisions that shape what gets built.

Additional Benefits

• Relocation support
• Excellent health, vision, and dental
• 401(k) with match
• Generous PTO
• Cell reimbursement, parking stipend
• Weekly