The Opportunity

Your mission is to make sure Shelf is positioned to become more than just a product—it can be a category-defining brand and cultural force. A strong brand presence will drive recognition, trust, and long-term user adoption. This role is foundational.

The opportunity to take on the expanding Shelf brand universe: across the core Shelf product, editorial (Shelf Magazine), social content (Shelf Studios) & even physical goods.

Right now, what’s missing is:

A strong brand strategy that elevates Shelf into culture, and bridges between editorial, content and product — including a strong thread that carries across them and integrates them effectively.
Experienced in designing sharp processes and systems, expertly managing young creatives & projects end-to-end, and consistently delivering impactful, high-quality initiatives & campaigns.
A leader that can build systems to nurture an engaged, loyal community of tastemakers that sees Shelf as a movement they actively want to join and champion.

Shelf needs to exist in the right conversations (and rap lyrics), not just in the market.

Your role is about bringing the brand vision to life and make s happen*. You will architect the strategy, build the frameworks, execute on them with a small team, continuously come up with initiatives, and collaborate with the team to ensure brand and community strategies become tangible experiences and campaigns in market — and translate to app downloads, new customers, user advocacy & brand resonance. And do this on a shoestring budget.

What this role owns

You’ll work with a small team of young creatives on and be responsible for —

Storytelling & Messaging
- Develop a clear and compelling narrative for koodos labs & Shelf that resonates with diverse audiences (developers, tastemakers, broader mainstream community).
- Consider how to build TRUST with the Shelf brand
- Identify and develop strategies to target relevant communities as beacons for the Shelf brand — e.g. journalists, artists, celebrities — including through editorial arm (ShelfMag); as well as audience to “market” to, e.g. college women, fan communities, goodreads users, etc.
- Develop a strong and executable brand strategy that align tone and messaging across all domains, collaborating with product & design where needed.
- Own @getashelf brand accounts
Creative Strategy & Campaign Execution
- Oversee end-to-end campaigns, from ideation to launch, ensuring they align with Shelf’s brand goals and are highly asymmetric (i.e. min $, highest ROI)…study Duolingo!
- Lead brand activations: from quick hits like putting up physical Shelves on NYU campus to limited-edition merch (https://shelfcouture.com/), to longer-term initiatives (e.g. Creators in Residence, Shelf Magazine, etc.)
- Partnerships: build in-roads with PR agencies, talent managers, creators, and cultural influencers to get Shelf into the right circles
Brand Presence in Culture
- Identify key cultural moments, communities, and platforms for Shelf to participate in — and get Shelf there.
- Ensure Shelf’s positioning is relevant where audiences gather—in-person, social channels, creative collaborations, and beyond.
Creative Processes & Systems
- Build system for ideation, review, and refinement, balancing creative freedom with realistic deliverables.
- Implement timelines and task ownership so brand-building is integrated into daily operations, not just “when there’s time.”
Team Leadership & Collaboration
- Manage and mentor young creatives.
- Collaborate closely with the design team to determine and execute what Shelf looks and feels like across in-app experience, social platforms and all other initiatives. There should be a clear consistency.
Community Management & Engagement
- Design and implement community-building strategies to foster an active, loyal user base that feels connected and valued.
- Get in the weeds OFTEN, even if you are working with a team, to cultivate relationships with power users, ambassadors, and emerging voices, turning them into brand champions who organically promote Shelf.

Why This Role Matters

Shelf has the chance to be more than just a ‘cool girl’ product—it can be a movement, a brand that people deeply connect with, and an inevitable “key” to a more agentic internet. Your role is to craft that world, bring the right people together, and make Shelf something people don’t just use, but believe in.

Our Team

We're NY-based (we have our own office in West Soho) and we work in-person everyday.

We’re a small, but mighty team with backgrounds at YouTube, BeReal, Harvard, and Cambridge, as startup founders and as early members at companies like Improbable and Lyft. We’ve come together around a shared vision.

We're a well-resourced (unannounced rounds) Series A company & backed by top-tier investors, including the backers of companies like Airbnb, Pinterest, Snap, and Twitter, as well as the founders of companies like Zynga, VSCO, and Scale and the people behind artists like Miley Cyrus, Justin Bieber, Lorde, Logic, and Panic! At The Disco, and many others. Our team is advised by the founders of Pinterest, Dubsmash (now Reddit), as well as pioneers of digital marketing and market design from Harvard.

We care about building a genuinely diverse team. We are a majority-first gen immigrant team and sponsor visas — we think that’s important as we build towards enabling easier digital migration.

We have a very high bar for talent and hire for slope over intercept. When bringing folks onto our team, these are some attributes we look for:

HIGH AGENCY (cares deeply, engaged, driven, hard-working)
HUMILITY (low ego, self-aware, respectful)
GRIT (resilience in the face of challenges, welcomes ambiguity)
GROWTH MINDSET (always looking to make things better, force multiplier)
TEAM-FIRST MENTALITY (in service of the team, community & koodos mission — not themselves)
SPARK (inspiring, positive, puts energy in, creative, unique)
TALENT MAGNET (am i proud to be working with them?, will they attract other talent?)

Ideal Candidate

You’re likely a good fit if:

You have significant proof of experience — have built a consumer internet (consumer app, dating, social, game, etc.) brand from scratch! This shouldn’t be your first gig building a brand or managing creatives.
You’re Type A, but with a creative slant — you have a talent for high output and execution, and are also great at setting creative vision & managing creative talent.
You’re highly strategic — you think in systems, can see the big picture and are always looking for asymmetric opportunities.
You’ve prev manufactured Strategic Coolness* – it’s important that you’re able to generate cultural relevance that makes Shelf matter.
Nice-to-have if you experience in editorial or media production — we are inspired by brands like A24, Genius or Buzzfeed who’ve built a culturally resonant editorial presence beyond their core product.
You’re culturally fluent — you can predict what’s going to trend next month and are very tapped into who’s who in culture.

*****What Does “Strategic Coolness” Actually Mean? Cool isn’t just aesthetics, it’s about cultural resonance and effortless connection. Ensure: [1] Shelf establishes a clear, differentiated brand identity rather than chasing trends. [2] Shelf’s brand feels human, creative, and relevant, not just another tech product. [3] People don’t just recognize Shelf—they trust it, talk about it, and advocate for it.

What you'll do

30 Days: Brand Audit + Brand/Creative Strategy set
60 Days: First Creative Campaign or Brand Activation Live
90 Days: Internal Alignment + Early Cultural Impact Metrics

In the Future: You’ll become a senior leader at koodos labs. We expect the early team to grow into high-impact roles as the company scales.

How we interview

We lean heavily on prior experience, demonstrated ability, and references (we’ll be asking around about you).

Screening: We start the interview process with a conversation with our CEO to hear more about your prior experience and goals, and to tell you more about koodos labs.

We’ll be assessing you on our core principles here. We may schedule a follow-up call if there’s a need to double-click anywhere.

At this point, we conduct a short 1st Round Take-home Project Screener **that’ll test core brand building skills and center real problems. You’ll have 5 days and expect candidates to spend anywhere from 2 to 4 hours on it. We provide a $150 Amazon gift card for your time here.

Final round interviews: We’ll invite you to meet some of the team! It’ll be a series of practical white-boarding sessions or discussions with 2-3 team members.

We’ll assess:

Brand building core competencies
Collaboration with different roles – would you be a strong partner?
Koodos principles

References: After the 2nd stage, we’ll start likely reach out to other folks that you’ve worked with in the past, so please do let us know if there’s anyone we shouldn’t reach out to. We’ll make sure to be respectful of their time; most calls take about 15 minutes. And we also offer you the opportunity to reference check us!

Decision: This part’s on us, and we promise to move fast.

Shelf

Head of Brand & Editorial

SoHo, NYC (In-Person)full-time