Entrepreneur-in-Residence (EIR)

Definition

A funded seat inside a firm while you look for a business to buy.

Why It Matters

The label is older and looser than CEO-in-Residence and it is worth reading carefully, because the same three words cover a paid full-time seat with a mandate to acquire, an unpaid affiliation that buys you an email address, and everything between. The questions that separate them are whether it pays, whether the firm has committed capital behind the search, and whether the outcome named on the page is running a company or advising one. Operator-in-Residence is usually the same arrangement under a different house style.