About the Role FIRY is hiring an Ad Tech Entrepreneur in Residence (EIR) to find, validate and build the next advertising and performance marketing business in the FIRY portfolio, with a clear path to lead it as GM or CEO.
You will work directly with FIRY's founder and executive team to scan the ad tech market, test new ideas quickly and turn the strongest one into a funded venture. You will build on what FIRY already has: RZR's AI-native performance advertising platform, plus Skillz's 90M+ registered users and one of the largest sources of first-party behavioral data in gaming.
This is a 12 to 18 month residency for a proven ad tech founder or operator who wants to build with the capital, data and distribution of a public company behind them.
Responsibilities- Map the ad tech and performance marketing market, including AI-driven bidding and optimization, commerce and retail media, identity and measurement, and affiliate networks, to find where FIRY can win.
- Build and pressure-test a pipeline of ad tech venture theses, sizing each market and dropping weak ideas early based on data.
- Validate the strongest concepts through advertiser and publisher interviews, prototypes, pilot campaigns and partner integrations that prove demand, margins and unit economics.
- Identify how RZR's platform, Skillz's first-party data and FIRY's distribution can give a new venture an advantage competitors cannot easily copy.
- Present investment memos to the executive team and board covering market, business model, go-to-market, team, milestones and capital needs.
- Recruit the founding team and secure the advertiser, publisher, data and platform partners needed to launch.
- Build and scale an affiliate marketing function, recruiting affiliate, publisher and creator partners, setting commission structures and tracking, and driving customer acquisition at target CAC and ROAS.
- Once a venture is approved, lead it as GM or CEO with full ownership of the P&L, roadmap and growth.
Key Competencies- Venture Building: Take an ad tech product from idea to scale, making fast, evidence-based decisions with limited information.
- Ad Tech Economics: Command take rates, CPM, CPA, ROAS, LTV and CAC, and use them to judge an opportunity and price a product.
- Affiliate & Performance Marketing: Build and manage affiliate and publisher partnerships that acquire customers profitably, with sound commission design, tracking and attribution.
- Strategic Judgment: Size markets, assess competitive position and make clear build, buy or partner recommendations.
- Executive Communication: Turn a venture thesis into a clear, data-backed case for the executive team, board, advertisers and partners.
- Talent & Partner Leadership: Attract strong early hires and manage advertiser, publisher and platform partners.
Experience- 15+ years in ad tech, performance marketing or digital media, including at least one role as founder, co-founder or GM with P&L ownership.
- Track record of taking an ad tech or marketing technology product from zero to meaningful scale across launch, advertiser adoption, monetization and growth.
- Experience raising venture capital, securing board or executive funding, or running an internal venture through stage gates.
- Deep knowledge of programmatic buying, mobile user acquisition, measurement and attribution, and privacy-safe use of first-party data.
- Hands-on experience building or scaling an affiliate marketing program, including partner recruitment, commission models, attribution and fraud controls.
- A successful exit, experience building inside a public company, or exposure to gaming and app ecosystems is a plus.
Starting Compensation: Use the midpoint base salary + bonus (if applicable) + equity (if applicable)
Location: Based in Las Vegas, NV, USA (FIRY headquarters)
Travel: 25-50%
- You are at the center of everything. Corporate roles at FIRY do not support one business. They support the infrastructure, strategy, and execution that makes three independent businesses work and compounds as they grow together.
- Founder-led. Andrew Paradise founded Skillz in 2012 with a single conviction: that fair, real-money skill-based competition should exist at scale. Thirteen years later, he has taken the company public on the NYSE, built a portfolio of three independent businesses, earned 90+ patents, and won the largest false advertising verdict in U.S. history. He is still here, still the founder, still the CEO, still building. That kind of long-term commitment is rare. At FIRY, it defines the culture from the top down.
- A portfolio at the beginning of its compounding phase. Four consecutive quarters of sequential revenue growth. Q1 2026 revenue up 33% year-over-year. RZR at 120%+ year-over-year growth in Q1 2026 and profitable for three consecutive quarters. The flywheel is turning.
- A mission worth the work. FIRY's mission is to fuel business potential. The systems FIRY builds help developers build businesses, advertisers acquire the right users, and infrastructure that turns competitive play into a scalable commercial engine. The addressable market across performance marketing, gaming infrastructure, and skill-based competition is $45B+.
- Comprehensive Benefits. 100% coverage for medical, dental, and vision for you and your dependents. 401K matching, equity incentives, pre-tax benefit options, and more.
- Wellness Support. Meditation and mental health resources, physical fitness coaching and classes, family planning assistance, virtual therapy sessions, and more.
- Time Off. Competitive PTO and company holidays.
- Las Vegas Headquarters. FIRY operates in a five-day-a-week, collaborative office environment at our 36,000+ square foot Las Vegas headquarters. Free daily catered lunch, snacks, a full-size gym with showers, commuter benefits, team events, and more.
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