Darius A Monsef IV
Operator & Investor
@Bubs · Melbourne, Australia
3x Y Combinator founder with a couple of exits. Built and sold Creative Market to Autodesk in 2014, co-founded Sightbox (acquired by J&J in 2017), and led Brave Care. Co-founder of hands.org and Nalukai. Husband of Kaili. Father of Waialea, Maia, and Sachi.
Melbourne · Open now
Founder in Residence.
I’m taking on a few hard-working, problem-solving, fast-learning interns for a hands-on coaching and mentorship program over 3–4 months. Each person gets assigned to a real business with real customers to find.
You get the mentorship, the strategy, the network, and a real shot at founder-level equity if you can get your project off the ground. You provide the legs: the calls, the meetings, the follow-ups, the “I will figure it out” energy that turns a prototype into a business.
$800/mo
stipend
3–4 months
program length
10–15% equity
if you validate
This is not a side gig.
You will get out of it what you put in, and the expectation is that you put your all in. This is not a 9-to-5. This is an all-out sprint. I am online and responsive 7 days a week, 15 hours a day. You will have the support. But you have to be self-led and extremely motivated.
You operate like a founder from day one. No fetch tasks. No shadowing. You own the market validation, customer interviews, sales pipeline, and the operational problems that need solving.
Three weekly 1:1s with me and constant async messages. You will learn to run a business agentically: AI tools, custom workflows, building your own tools and apps. You don't need to be an engineer. You need to be the kind of person who hits a problem and figures out how to solve it.
If you validate the business and hit the milestones, you become a founder with founder-level equity, a salary funded out of revenue or a pre-seed round, and the company to scale. If it does not work, you keep the stipend, you get a strong reference, and you walk away having learned more about building a company than any grad scheme will teach you in three years.
What you actually do.
- 01
Get on the phone
Cold calls, warm calls, demo calls. You open with strangers. You follow up when they don't respond. You treat every conversation as a chance to learn something that changes the strategy.
- 02
Show up in person
Drive to a facility in regional Victoria. Sit in an office with a 55-year-old business owner. Walk into somewhere unfamiliar and have a real conversation. The job is not only behind a laptop.
- 03
Run customer development
Real conversations, real notes, real insights. You find out what the customer actually needs, not what you assumed they needed. You bring it back and we sharpen the product together.
- 04
Hustle LinkedIn
Find the right people, write the message that gets opened, follow up until you have a meeting. The skill is not access. The skill is the willingness to ask.
- 05
Build with AI
You will learn how to execute rapidly with Claude and Cursor. Ship landing pages, automate your own workflow, build internal tools. By month 4 you are operating at leverage no one could have had 18 months ago.
- 06
Track everything
Pipeline. Follow-ups. Customer learnings. If it is not written down, it did not happen. This is how you scale your own memory and how I stay inside the business with you.
Not credentials. Character.
Hungry
Not "startup vibe" hungry. This is not a fun social thing to do. You are ambitious and see this as a real opportunity to level up your skills, network, and experience.
Comfortable on the phone
You have cold-called for a fundraiser, worked retail commission, done telesales, or messaged strangers until someone said yes. You do not freeze when someone picks up.
Comfortable showing up
You will drive somewhere unfamiliar, walk in, shake hands, and have a real conversation with someone who didn't expect you. You don't wait to be invited.
Curious about AI
You have already used Claude or ChatGPT for actual work. Maybe you have messed with Cursor, Lovable, n8n, Make, or Zapier. You don't need to be technical. You need to be the kind of person who looks at a new tool and asks what it lets you do that wasn't possible before.
Organised
Follow-through is non-negotiable. Nothing falls through the gap between your memory and your task manager.
Strong communicator
Written and spoken. You will be writing cold emails that get opened and running meetings with business owners who have no patience for vague. Economy, clarity, and confidence.
Melbourne-based
You need to be able to show up in person across the Melbourne area. Remote does not work for this.
You don't need to know how to code. You don't need an MBA. You don't need startup experience. You need to hustle, follow through, and be willing to use AI as a force multiplier on everything you do.
Months 1–4
Trial phase
- $800/month stipend
- 3x weekly 1:1s with Darius
- Constant async access via Slack
- Milestones at month 2 and 4
- Learn customer development, founder-led sales, and ops by doing them
If you validate it
Founder phase
- 10–15% founder equity, 4-year vest with 1-year cliff
- Salary funded via revenue or fundraise
- You run the business as a founder
- Darius moves to board / chairman role
- The company is yours to scale
If it doesn't work
Clean exit
- You keep the stipend
- Strong reference letter from Darius
- Clean split at month 4
- More real startup experience than any grad scheme offers
What’s provided.
MacBook Pro
Provided for the duration of the program. You have the hardware to move fast.
Cursor Pro + Claude Max
Both plans covered. The AI tools you need to operate at full leverage from day one.
$5–10k operational budget
For product samples, required fees, and whatever the business needs to get its first proof points.
How to apply:
Find a way to contact me. And tell me the following:
- 01
The hardest thing you have personally pulled off, in 3 sentences.
- 02
The last time you cold-called or cold-messaged a stranger and what happened.
- 03
The most useful thing you have ever built with AI tools, even something small.
- 04
Your LinkedIn URL.
No cover letters. No generic resumes. First challenge: write a cold email or message that gets opened. Responses within a week.
Darius “Bubs” Monsef · Melbourne · 3x YC (W10, S19, S24) · Two exits