CEO & Co-Founder – Clean Water Technology Venture

• CEO and Co-Founder of Start-Up
• Attractive Equity Stake
• Venture Builder with Extensive Support Networks

Water utilities and industrial water users are under mounting regulatory pressure to monitor and control pollution. This directly affects (drinking) water quality, waste water looping ability, and industrial down-time & fines mitigation. The innovation offers an extremely versatile method to detect and/or monitor pollutants in water, such as pesticides, pharmaceutical components, fertilizers, heavy metals, etc.

In contrast to existing technologies, this innovation is low cost, compact, usable as handheld or on-stream device, provides real-time data, and has a tunable analyte portfolio. Already at a late stage of development, it can be rapidly deployed and scaled into the existing and developing water market. These characteristics make it exceptionally well-aligned with the accelerating global demand for accessible, clean, and more sustainable water.

You are an entrepreneurial professional with a background in business development within industrial waste water treatment and/or water sensor deployment. You thrive in a startup environment, combining resilience with ambition and the ability to translate deep-tech into commercial success. Both strategic and hands-on, you embrace the challenges of pioneering and scaling disruptive innovation. With strong leadership skills and a collaborative mindset, you are ready to build a fast-growing, high-impact venture alongside BigCircle Ventures—the venture builder in circularity, climate, and energy technology*.

A CEO is sought to co-found this revolutionary project.

Your key responsibilities will be:

• Purpose-driven fundraising: You know how to secure the right kind of funding at the right stage, from innovation to scaled manufacturing, and driving commercial success.
• Business development: Create the (international) go-to-market strategy by leading with a customer-first mindset, turning market insight into action. You shape and execute an international go-to-market strategy that identifies key customer segments, builds strong client and partner relationships, and drives sustainable revenue growth.
• Network: Bring and build a network of experts, collaborators, and early-adopters in appropriate markets.
• Leadership: Build strong, motivated teams for technology- and business development, foster trust, and inspire others to do their best work bridging innovation and market impact.

Requirements:

You must have experience/competence in the following areas:

• Entrepreneurship: You can turn the technology into real-world impact, by identifying opportunities to create value, innovation, and profit.
• Driven and action-oriented: You are a person who is willing to make things happen by setting relevant goals with a clear path to achieving them.
• (Industrial) waste water treatment: You have experience with water treatment technology or companies, water monitoring & testing service providers, and/or sensing technology distributors.
• Water treatment market insight: You understand regulatory dynamics, emerging trends, and key drivers shaping the future of the sector.
• Technical Literacy: A technical background is a plus, but not essential. You must be enthusiastic about technology, able to pick up knowledge of the technological limitations and boundaries of Lightwater and competing sensors, and easily collaborate with technical teams.
• Business model development: You have experience with designing and scaling business models, preferably for sensor or monitoring solutions (e.g., licensing, own production, or service/data-based models).

Your work experience ideally includes success in:

• Manufacturing: You know how to turn ideas into tangible products by translating early prototypes into commercially viable solutions. You can guide production within an industrial environment through collaboration and practical problem-solving.
• Visionary leadership: You bring clarity and purpose to complex situations, shaping innovation and business growth through creativity, data-driven insight, and long-term thinking. Experience in a start-up or growth-stage environment is a plus.
• Financial Acumen: You combine strategic financial insight with relationship-building skills. You can manage budgets and earnings reports, as well as creating growth by finding and engaging with investors for external fundraising.
• New Product Launch: You understand how to bring new technologies to market, aligning product, marketing, and customer engagement for successful adoption, ideally with experience in water treatment or related fields.
• Regulatory Knowledge: You have an understanding of relevant European and international water quality standards and can navigate regulatory frameworks.

Other requirements:

• English language proficiency.
• Currently based in the Netherlands or happy to relocate.
• Available at least 3 days a week in start-up phase, although full time is preferable.

*BigCircle Ventures:

The world needs innovations to reach net-zero and circularity, but a wealth of research inventions never get used at scale. BigCircle Ventures scouts promising DeepTech and turns this into successful startups that tackle the world’s climate and circularity challenges. We focus on the large, untapped pool of early-stage innovations that would otherwise stay untouched on a shelf, hidden in a university, research institute or company lab.

It all starts with a goal-driven project selection process to assess impact and commercial viability. Once identified, the project is paired with a CEO at the point of incorporation. As CEO/Co-Founder you will drive the project to hit milestones with a strategic exit in mind.

Founding a start-up is the dream of many, but the chance of success via traditional routes is disappointingly low.

We dramatically increase the chances of success by:

• Picking  the most promising, impactful technologies.
• Matching each project with the right entrepreneur.
• Putting support and infrastructure in place to ensure the best chance of success including an initial investment in the venture.

The unique benefit of this model is the complete suite of professional services provided.

You will be surrounded by experts in the fields of capital raising (all stages), exit, legal, governance, regulatory, patent expertise & HR support. You will be mentored one-to-one by a senior partner and join a growing community of CEOs within our portfolio of ventures.

You should bring with you the mind-set of an entrepreneurial co-founder, and as such, do not hesitate to apply even if you do not match all listed requirements. You will be a partner with us, not an employee. Your wins and setbacks are shared. This very fact underpins the reason you have access to our highly professional team and networks that give you the best chance of success.