Octopus Ventures is a London and New York based venture capital firm, focused on backing unusually talented entrepreneurs. We have been fortunate enough to work with the founding teams of over 60 companies, including Conversocial, graze.com, LoveFiLM, Property Partner, Secret Escapes, Sofar Sounds, SwiftKey, Swoon Editions, Uniplaces, tails.com, Zoopla Property Group and Zynstra.
We can invest from £250,000 to £25 million in a first round of funding and will look to follow in subsequent rounds. We are proud to be known as one of the most entrepreneur friendly investors in Europe. A significant part of our portfolio consists of referrals from teams we have already invested in or serial entrepreneurs who we have previously backed.
https://www.octopusventures.com/
About the role
We are super excited to announce that we are recruiting four new associates at Octopus Ventures. Associates at Octopus Ventures are part of the investment team and work primarily on deal origination and deal execution; sourcing and making investments in the best start ups in the European ecosystem. They gain exposure to our large portfolio of early stage and growth companies, as well as deep insight into our investment decision process.
Each Associate is paired with one of the directors in the team who will be responsible for their training. The Associate role is structured as a 2-year program, working with different members of the team and gathering exposure to the various phases of our investment process.
Responsibilities
- Work directly with the investment team to source and evaluate deals.
- Build expertise in themes of interest (e.g. future of money, future of industry, future of healthcare and future of commerce)
- Take deals through the investment process, from term sheet to completion via due diligence
- Interact with Investment Committee
- Interact with portfolio companies
- Represent the firm at industry events
REQUIREMENTS
We are looking for associates who share our love of technology and working with founders from the very start of their journey.
Candidates will typically have 3 to 5 years of professional experience. We look for candidates with a range of different backgrounds: startup, finance, science, PhD, MBA, etc.
We look for candidates who are fiercely smart, intellectually curious, have strong analytical and communication skills and thrive off new stuff.
We strive for our team to be as diverse as the entrepreneurs that we back, recently we were nominated amongst the top VC investors in Europe’s female-founded companies.
How do you apply?
Our process starts with having candidates send us a copy of their CV along with answers to three questions below.
From the initial submissions we will select a smaller group to complete a video assessment where we explore how candidates think. From this pool we will further select a group to attend our offices for an interactive group assessment day.
Our Values
Be helpful
Random acts of kindness make the workplace a better place. So, go out of your way to be helpful, and give people reasons to smile.
Be straightforward
Life is complicated enough. Don’t make it harder for yourself, or for others. Sometimes the simplest approach works wonders.
Be bold
Every great business started with a flash of inspiration. If you’ve got a great idea, don’t keep it to yourself.
At Octopus, we recognise the importance of embracing diversity in order to create a high performance culture.
If interested, please apply here.
