Research Associate

About Us We are a private design studio that builds and supports a portfolio of companies and projects across software, hardware, hospitality, and more. Some of what we build stays in house; some spins out. We also run an early-stage investment fund and an accompanying cohort program for founders. This company is not Expa, but is an affiliate of Expa's. The Role We're looking for a Research Associate who can find out anything about anything. Leadership will come to you with questions — size this market, map the players in this category, who's funding what, what the landscape looks like for XYZ — and you'll come back with an answer that's clear, well-sourced, and actually useful. Some weeks that means building a competitive matrix across 40 companies. Some weeks it means a deep dive into a single obscure question nobody has written about yet. The projects change, the subject matter changes, and the volume varies week to week. You'll be exposed to a lot of different projects and ideas, and work directly with a highly accomplished leader and team. If you're the kind of person who reads everything, asks a lot of questions, and wants to be in the room with people operating at a very high level, this is built for you. What You'll Do • Run open-ended research projects using the internet as your primary tool: markets, products, companies, funding activity, competitive landscapes, people, technologies, regulation — whatever the question requires. • Turn messy findings into clean outputs: matrices, comparison tables, briefs, landscape maps, one-pagers. • Go deep enough to have a point of view, not just a link dump — flag what matters, what's uncertain, and what you'd look at next. • Use AI tools aggressively to move faster and go wider than a person could alone. • Build lightweight tools, scrapers, or trackers when a project calls for it. • Juggle several unrelated requests at once and reprioritize when things shift. What We're Looking For • 0–2 years of experience and a bachelor's degree — a recent grad with strong internship experience and real drive, or 1–2 years into your career and looking for a bigger scope than you have today. • Brain power: sharp, curious, and able to reason through a question you've never seen before. • AI-native: You live in AI tools — Claude and Cowork, ChatGPT, Gemini, Hugging Face, whatever's newest. Ideally you can vibe code your way to a working script or prototype without waiting on an engineer. Bonus points if you've hit your usage limit more than once. • Comfortable in ambiguity: Vague briefs don't paralyze you. You take a first pass, come back with questions, and iterate. • Self-directed but coachable: You think independently, but you want to learn from people far ahead of you and take direction well. • Startup-minded: You're not looking for a corporate ladder. You want interesting problems, smart people, and range. • A strong writer: Your research is only as good as your ability to communicate it in a page or less. Compensation & Benefits • Salary: The anticipated base salary range for this position is $80,000-$110,000. Actual compensation will be determined based on factors including experience, qualifications, level, and location. • Benefits: Generous benefits package including medical, dental, and vision, 401(k) matching • Location: Can be remote in the US, with significant travel to Los Angeles