Founding General Manager, Curbwire
Austere Moose | Full-time | Hybrid with 2x week onsite in Brentwood
About Curbwire
Curbwire is a hyperlocal newsletter service: a newspaper for every block. One email, one ZIP code, twice a week. Council minutes, police blotters, zoning dockets, school-board agendas, new restaurants, and the conversations shaping the neighborhood, distilled into a five-minute read. A working prototype is live at Get Curbwire. Curbwire is being built within Austere Moose, a Los Angeles-based venture studio started and led by GoodRX co-founders Doug Hirsch and Trevor Bezdek.
The Opportunity
Austere Moose is looking for the person who takes Curbwire on as their own: someone who steps in as founder, owns every dimension of the business, and can earn majority ownership of the company over time. You start with a live product and studio backing. Where it goes from there is yours to prove, and as the business earns it, you will be the one making the case to investors.
What You'll Do
- Own the product end to end, using AI development tools to spec, build, test, and ship changes yourself. There is no engineering queue between you and the product.
- Grow local email audiences ZIP by ZIP: referral mechanics, social repurposing, and constant attention to opens, clicks, and retention.
- Set the editorial bar and hold it. Every edition should read like a sharp, plugged-in neighbor wrote it.
- Read the numbers and act on them: subscriber growth, engagement, churn, and edition-level performance.
- Shape the company's story and raise outside capital as the business scales.
What We're Looking For
- AI-directed product development fluency (non-negotiable). You are comfortable using Claude Code, Cowork, or equivalent tools to spec, test, and ship product changes yourself, without queuing work behind an engineer. This is the load-bearing skill of the role.
- Growth and marketing instinct for email and local audiences (strongly preferred). Referral mechanics, social repurposing, and a working command of opens, clicks, and retention for hyperlocal. Generic B2B growth experience does not transfer.
- Editorial judgment for hyperlocal content. You can look at AI-generated copy and tell whether it reads like a longtime resident wrote it or like templated filler. This is where hyperlocal media has died at scale before, and we treat it as a first-class skill.
- Analytics literacy. Table stakes: you read the data and act on it.
- Founder presence. Charismatic, credible, and fundable in front of venture investors. This role is on a path to raising outside capital.
Underneath all of it: real excitement about hyperlocal media, local community, and neighborhood networks. The idea of a newspaper on every block needs to light you up.
Compensation
DOE; structure includes significant equity and a path to majority ownership of the business.
Truly interested?
Apply here; we'd love an accompanying note about why this could be the thing for you. We review each application personally and respond fast to qualified candidates.