Samaipata is an early-stage pan-European venture capital fund ( we invest in tech-enabled early stage companies, AKA “startups”). The fund was started by two entrepreneurs, José del Barrio, co-founder of the leading food-delivery platform in Spain (La Nevera Roja) which was sold to Rocket Internet for $100 million, and Eduardo Díez-Hochleitner, founder of a 3D sound system sold to Dolby (IMM Sound), former partner at Apax Partners, prolific business angel and current Chairman at MásMóvil, which was taken over for €5 billion in 2020.

Samaipata invests in digital platforms and marketplaces (more on this here) at Seed stage in Southern Europe, France, the UK and Germany. We are now a remote-first company with team members distributed across Spain, Portugal, France, the UK and the US.

After closing our first €30m fund back in 2016, we invested in 17 companies across Europe, such as Ontruck, Matera, Deporvillage, Legl, Streamloots, Motley, Colvin, or Foodchéri (you can check out our full portfolio here). We launched our second fund (€100m) in 2020 and we have already closed 6 investments. Come join us! 🔥 More details about us here.

What the requirements are to apply

We’re open to all educational backgrounds (i.e. Engineering, Business, Finance, Science, Law, Politics, everything 🤷‍♀️). We believe the strength of our team comes from having a diverse and inclusive workplace.
5+ years of work experience in a challenging field. Previous operational experience as a founder/early employee in a high-growth startup or exposure to tech and product will be highly appreciated.
Native/Bilingual in English — both written & communication skills. Business proficiency in Spanish is a nice-to-have.
A strong internet connection! As a remote-first company, you can perform the job wherever you want. You just need to live in a (+/-3h) CET time zone. This said, having a network and/or being based in Spain, Portugal or Italy will be highly appreciated as you will be working with the Southern European squad.
Be available to start (at least the onboarding) soon.

What an Associate does do and why it is so cool

The Associate is at the core of our investment process. They are the gatekeeper between Samaipata and the tens of thousands of startups born in Europe every year. You will be the 1st point of contact for entrepreneurs and ultimately responsible for finding the hidden future European unicorns! Let me run you through the core responsibilities:

Reflecting and thinking: being thoughtful is our core value. We expect you to allocate significant time to reading, writing your own posts/essays, debating and sharing knowledge about technology both inside and outside Samaipata. We operate in a fast-paced environment where information gets obsolete everyday. Staying on top of trends, and building your own opinion on what’s happening around the tech world is key to becoming a great startup investor!
Sourcing deals: as the first point of contact for entrepreneurs you will personally meet 600+ startup teams and analyze thousands of tech products every year. Thanks to our proprietary sourcing tools we are able to identify tens of thousands of emerging companies across Europe and process them to focus on the ones that match our investment criteria. You are meant to be the one finding the next European unicorn, such as Spotify, Adyen, Deliveroo, Glovo or OVH in Southern Europe!
Deal execution: as a member of the investment team you will be a core part of our intense and future-focused debates on where the world is heading thanks to technology. We have weekly internal meetings to discuss startups disrupting the economy (the best out of all the ones you will be speaking with!), and we expect you to contribute actively. Also, given our work is ultimately about taking the risk to invest into businesses, you will be supporting the team in our due diligence of companies (this is the work we do in order to decide whether we should put money into a crazy early stage startup or not!).
Platform building: As a founders’ fund, one of our core strengths is our entrepreneurial DNA. Just like the companies we invest in, we are constantly innovating by internally creating new processes and improving existing ones, building internal tools, testing and iterating new initiatives, learning from mistakes, etc. We aim at building the coolest VC platform and we expect your proactivity to make that happen too!
Portfolio: we can’t wait to introduce you to the Samaipata family, a portfolio of +20 European platforms (+20 more new investments to join in 3-4 years) who are challenging the status quo and are our daily source of inspiration. As an Associate, you will get to see businesses scale from being an idea on a post-it to becoming a +$1b company! You can check the full portfolio here.
Network: finally, as an investor you are expected to build relationships with investors, entrepreneurs, companies, etc. Interactions with others will help you grow as an investor (learning from other deals, markets, success stories) and will also allow you to share investment opportunities and knowledge with others as you help the startup ecosystem to further evolve.

All in all, if you want to witness and support the birth of cutting edge technology across Europe (your decision to back a company could change artificial intelligence or blockchain forever!), if you have an entrepreneurial soul (perhaps you’re thinking of becoming one yourself later on), and you love thoughtfulness as a state of mind, Samaipata is your home!

What we expect from you

On top of this, a genuine Samaipater needs to have these superpowers:

Improving 1% every day, always raising the bar for yourself.
High intellectual curiosity: You have an insatiable desire to learn, and a tendency to dig deep into obscure ideas.
Passion & drive for Tech.
Deep respect for entrepreneurs.
Strong analytical skills & a data-driven mindset: you’re rigorous & exhaustive (when needed) and you use data to inform decision making.
Be able to apply an 80/20 approach: make sure the trees don’t prevent you from seeing the forest as a whole (zoom in and zoom out!).
Independent thinking: you’re comfortable being a contrarian, you think for yourself, and you’re not risk averse.
Great team player: your energy (whatever your personality is) is contagious.
Excited about the new remote-first era: we are frequently in touch online and we gather monthly, but you need to be autonomous and be able to learn fast to fly on your own.

What we have to offer

We operate like a startup, not a fund. And, as such, an Associate joining the team will:

Be an integral part of a young, hungry and international squad with a flat hierarchy, where everyone is contributing to make our thinking stronger and our processes better!
Be on a long-term partner track. You will know how your path to grow inside Samaipata looks like from day 1. Continuing to learn and improve everyday is our obsession and we will put every resource at your disposal to enable you to do so.
Have a real impact on our strategy in Southern Europe. We want you to have ownership in the region and co-lead all our efforts to continuously strengthen our market positioning.
Finally, we are a remote-first company. So you can work from wherever you want ! And we can ensure a large amount of independence for doers. We’re here to support you, not to micromanage you.

How to apply

Super easy! if you think you’re a fit for the role, click here to tell us a bit more about yourself and send us a short mobile video:

The video should be shot with your smartphone (vertical view / no need to have a super high resolution) and should not last more than 2–3 minutes max. If it’s heavier than 20 MB just upload a link to the video
In the video, you will need to i) briefly introduce yourself and your background and ii) answer the following question: What do you think is the most important trend in Tech for the next 5 years and why?
We also ask you in a separate field to briefly answer in writing the following question: According to you, what pre-seed/seed “platform” should we invest in? Why? (Max. 400 words!)

We’re looking forward to meeting you !!