Founding Member - Business & Operation

About The Core

The Core is a women-first movement platform built for how women actually live — designed around strength, longevity and recovery rather than aesthetics or weight loss. We build for the woman who has ever felt disconnected from her body: the postnatal mother rebuilding, the marathon runner with poor posture, the yoga teacher wanting deeper core strength, the 24-year-old just starting her lifelong practice.

We are led by a 3-2-1 method — three days of strength, two days of Pilates form, one day of breath — and delivered through a mobile-first product that meets women where they are, at every stage of their lives.

We are entering commercial launch in November 2026 with a four-city roadshow, a subscription-first product, and a growing community of substantial pilot members. We're building for real scale, and we're hiring the people who will get us there.

The founders

Rashi Menda — Founder

Rashi leads product, brand, community and long-term strategy. She founded The Core after motherhood — when she couldn't find a movement philosophy in India that prioritised strength, recovery, and longevity over aesthetics. Her conviction is that women deserve intelligent movement built specifically for their bodies, not adapted from programmes built for men.

Issa — Head of Movement, Co-founder

Issa leads training and methodology. Based between NYC and London, with a decade specialising in new mothers, athletes, and women returning to their bodies. She co-created The Core Method — the 3-2-1 approach that anchors every session — and owns all content, session design, and community programming.

Our vision

Within twelve months, we will be the brand a woman thinks of first when she thinks about movement in India. Not a fitness app. Not a workout library. The category-defining voice for how women in India move, recover, and reconnect with their bodies at every stage of their lives — prenatal, postnatal, rebuilding, active, advanced.

We are building The Core as a cult brand — the way Peloton built identity, the way Strava built community, the way Duolingo built consistency — but wrapped in a warm, editorial, women-first aesthetic for a demographic no global fitness brand has ever spoken to directly.

The role

This is a founding-team hire. Not a manager. Not a project lead. Not a strategy consultant. This is the person who sits shoulder-to-shoulder with the founder every day, turns vision into execution, and makes sure the business gets built.

You are Rashi's shadow. You are in every important meeting, every partnership conversation, every hiring decision, every product review, every crisis. You listen, you understand, and then you go and build the systems, run the processes, and get the things done.

You bring entrepreneurial skin. You've built businesses ground-up, or built the machinery inside one. You know that execution is where startups die, and you take pride in the fact that your job is to make sure The Core doesn't.

What you'll own

•          Execution rhythm — Turn Rashi's decisions into weekly + monthly execution plans. Track every commitment across the leadership team. Hold everyone (including Rashi) accountable to what was agreed.

•          Systems design — Build the systems and processes that make each department scale — hiring, onboarding, marketing operations, ambassador management, partnership management, financial hygiene. Every function starts with you.

•          Performance advertising — Own the day-to-day of our Meta ads scale-up. Manage the performance ad agency, review weekly reports, hold them accountable, propose creative tests. This is the largest variable-cost line in the business — you own it end-to-end.

•          Partnership execution — Manage inbound partnership pipeline (venues, brands, hotels, media). Convert warm intros into signed deals. Track pipeline, prepare deal terms, handle contract review.

•          Team building — Support the founder on hiring across the team — sourcing, screening, interview coordination, offer negotiation. Own the hiring rhythm.

•          Investor prep — Ensure investor decks, reports, and financial models stay current. Prepare for the May 2027 raise from day one — build the data room, manage investor conversations, own the timeline.

•          Event + roadshow ops — Roadshow execution, event partnerships, on-ground logistics for the November tour and every subsequent quarterly moment.

•          Founder office rhythm — Own the operating rhythm — weekly standups, monthly reviews, quarterly OKRs. If it needs a meeting, an agenda, or a follow-up doc, that's yours.

Who you are

•          Entrepreneurial skin — You've built something before. Either you've started a company, or you were early enough at one to have felt the weight of building from zero. You know what "nothing works until you make it work" means.

•          Real operator experience — You have 5-8 years of experience in fast-moving environments — early-stage startups, D2C brands, consulting-to-operator transitions, or founder-office roles at scale-ups.

•          Systems thinker — You break problems into systems. When something is chaotic, your instinct is to write the doc, build the tracker, define the process. But you don't over-index on process — you know when a system is a straitjacket vs a scaffold.

•          High agency — You are the person who closes loops. When something needs to happen, you make it happen. You are not waiting for permission or clarity — you are creating both.

•          Well-connected — You have a real network in India — brand founders, media, investors, agencies, potential hires. You know how to activate it and how to protect it.

•          Numbers-literate — You understand performance marketing without needing to be an expert. You can hold a Meta ads agency accountable, read a ROAS report, and know when the numbers don't add up.

•          Genuine alignment with the mission — You want to build a wellness brand for women in India. This is not a job. This is the thing you would be building yourself if The Core didn't exist.

What we offer

•          The seat — Founding team title. Reporting directly to the founder. In every important room.

•          Compensation — Competitive fixed salary with meaningful ESOP allocation performance led. We'll discuss the exact numbers with the right candidate.

•          Real ownership — This is a builder role. You will build the business and get credit for it. You will make mistakes and learn from them. You will not be micromanaged, and you will be held to the highest standard.

•          Location — Bangalore-based, with regular travel to Mumbai, Delhi, and Hyderabad for events, roadshows, and partnership meetings.