Venture studio · Sydney

We build companies, and place the founders who run them.

Northlight builds a business to done — product, brand, infrastructure — then hands it to one founder to run and own. No coding, no fundraising. You bring the drive; you take the majority of the upside.

Model
Venture studio
You take
The majority
We keep running
The tech
Seats
Open now
Portfolio · seats open

Real companies, looking for a founder.

Each is built and live — not a pitch deck. Open them; they're the actual products. One could be yours to run. We place the best-fit founder in each.

The model

We build it. You run it. You own it.

You don't need to code or raise a cent. You need to be sharp, hungry, and ready to own something real.

01 — Northlight

Builds the company

A finished product with paying-customer potential — done before you arrive, and the tech kept alive in the background.

02 — You

Run it as your own

You own the majority, front the customers, and drive the growth. Your name, your focus, your upside.

03 — Northlight

Keeps it running

The studio maintains the product and infrastructure — so it can't be pulled from under you, and you never touch code.

Why now

You did the degree. The market moved the goalposts.

The safe path got narrower and lower-paid. Nobody tells ambitious people that the alternative to a capped salary is owning the thing itself.

−24%
graduate job ads last year, tracking lower again in 2025.
Indeed Hiring Lab AU
1 in 10
domestic grads underemployed (14.7% of international).
Graduate Outcomes Survey
~$72k
the "good" outcome — a median salary, building someone else's company.
QILT 2025

We built the other door: run a real company from week one — and own it.

The deal

Real ownership. In plain English.

Equity
You own the majority of the company (typically 55–70%). Yours to run and grow.
Commitment
It's your full-time venture — your focus, your name on it, your upside.
What we keep
The product, brand, infrastructure and a founder stake — run in the background, so you never write code.
Vesting
Over three years, six-month cliff. Ownership you build, not a handout.
Upside
Uncapped. There's no salary — which means no ceiling. You own the majority, so the better the company does, the more of it is yours. The sky's the limit.
Northlight keeps a small platform share — we win when you win, and we'd rather say so than hide it.
Selection

Selective, and fast.

We place one founder per company, so the bar is real. The whole process takes days, not months.

1
Apply

Tell us who you are

Three questions — which company pulls you, and why you'd own it. No CV theatre.

2
Pitch + interview

Make your case

Shortlisted founders give a two-minute pitch on how they'd run it, then talk it through with the studio.

3
Signed · you start

Take the seat and run

One founder signs the ownership deal and starts that day — with the studio building underneath. Then we open the next.

Applications open

Come run your first company.

Tell us who you are and why you'd own it. We read every application. First intake closes Friday 17 July.

Applications come straight to the studio, privately.