ATS keywords for a founder / ex-founder resume
The most important ATS keywords for a founder resume are outcome terms recruiters can price (revenue growth, ARR, fundraising, P&L ownership, acquisition), 0-to-1 building vocabulary (product-market fit, go-to-market strategy, MVP, product development), leadership scope (team building, hiring, cross-functional leadership), and the functional depth you're applying with — product management, sales, operations, or engineering, stated in that role's own keywords.
The founder-resume problem is translation: "founder" isn't a keyword recruiters search, so the resume must speak the target role's language. Decide which function you're selling (PM, sales, ops, engineering) and borrow that title's keyword set, evidenced with startup numbers — "took the product 0→$480K ARR and 11 employees; ran product and sales end-to-end". Honesty matters doubly here: every claim is one reference call away from being checked.
Outcomes
0-to-1 building
Leadership
Functional depth
Check which of these your resume already has
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