Purple Arch Ventures
Purple Arch Ventures, Alumni Ventures’ fund for Northwestern alumni and friends of the community, is seeking an experienced, full-time investing venture Principal or Sr. Principal (hereafter Principal) who can source, recruit, research, and evaluate venture opportunities. This individual will serve as a leader of the Fund’s investing work: deal sourcing, researching, evaluating, and managing relationships with portfolio companies and fellow venture investors.
The successful Principal will drive enhanced deal quality and improve co-investing opportunities for AV and will have significant input into the creation of a unique portfolio amassing highly valuable strategic assets. AV is a fast-paced, professional, entrepreneurial environment. As Principal, this individual will report directly to and work closely with the Managing Partner of the fund.
Role/ Responsibilities
- Network with various players in the startup ecosystem
- Identify deal resources and conduct outreach to VCs, entrepreneurs, incubators, and more to help fill our deal pipeline with prospects
- Educate deal sources and companies/entrepreneurs about our process and effectively manage relationships
- Prepare and distribute due diligence packages
- Research and evaluate each opportunity as a potential investment, including interviewing company teams, competitors, and customers
- Recruit, train, and manage interns/fellows to help support deal outreach and research
- Present opportunities and respond to Managing Partner and LP questions, run deal meetings, and orchestrate IC meetings
- Help create and manage our company database, monitoring prospects on an ongoing basis
- Assemble and update CRM on companies and entrepreneurs, portfolio monitoring
- As requested, assist with investor relations and potential investor outreach
- Help supervise back-end functions as needed
- Suggest improvements to our approach, process, products, and services
Requirements
Profile Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree
- MBA or advanced degree preferred
- Strong connection to the Northwestern community preferred
- 1-5 years of professional venture investing experience
- 7-10 years of additional experience in finance, venture capital, or entrepreneurship
Ideal Traits
- Smart, insatiably curious, lifelong learner
- Coachable, optimistic, resourceful with no sense of entitlement
- Good investment instincts and excellent pattern recognition a plus
- Strong research and analytical skills
- Excellent work ethic, humility and professional demeanor
- Demonstrated interest and experience in entrepreneurship, as well as emerging companies and technologies
- Experience in company research and due diligence preparation
- Track-record of managing multiple, complex projects at the same time
- Strong writer and communicator, excellent listener, with superior sales skills and comfort regularly interacting with potential community members
- Capable networker, with an ability to grow our system and process for identifying deals
- Highly organized and detail-oriented, balanced by ability to get and communicate big picture
- Self-starter and independent manager, but good team player and personnel manager
- Smart, creative thinker and problem-solver, fast learner, with demonstrated initiative
- Database management and strong technical and social media experience a big plus
- Comfortable in an “extreme ownership” culture, with a scrappy, grinder mentality.
- Must be able to thrive in a dynamic, fluid environment.
Salary Description
Principal starts at $175,000 ; carried interest eligibility