The Investment Associate plays a critical role at Underscore VC. Working in apprenticeship with senior team members, s/he brings an informed, equal voice to the decision table, helping determine how best to allocate millions of investment dollars. Immersed in the daily operations of the fund, the Investment Associate balances high-paced, outward facing responsibilities with deep research and analytical obligations. If you want to build VC experience and better understand where venture capital sits in the intersection of technology and business, we’d like to meet you.
A Day in the Life of the Investment Associate
The Investment Associate focuses on sourcing/managing deal flow (70%), refining Underscore’s theses (20%), and representing the firm in the broader community (10%).
Investment Process Management and Opportunity Sourcing—Finding and investing in great opportunities represents the core of what we do, and it’s imperative to manage this process proactively and systemically. Our success depends on it. As an Investment Associate, your discretion and diligence pointedly impact our most mission-critical practice. You will:
- Provide entrepreneurs with an end-to-end A+ Underscore experience, while building your own relationships with key entrepreneurs and other game changers in our community
- Serve as the “first set of eyes” on all inbound investment opportunities and justify your recommendation about whether to pass or pursue
- Work through diligence items and investment memo composition with the investing team
Thesis Refinement—At the heart of every VC firm is a set of “theses” on how different industries and technologies likely will evolve and, as such, where to find investment opportunities. Our Investment Associate has the autonomy to pursue specific interests within our focus domains, performing in-depth research to refine Underscore’s theses in selected areas. You will:
- Research: Identify business and technological trends, detailing industry opportunities and problems
- Synthesize: Convert the aforementioned research and insight into powerful, authoritative written statements, which will be published via Underscore
- Lead: Manage team lunch-and-learns
External Representation—Underscore sits in front of hundreds of entrepreneurs annually, and we consider that a privilege. On an ongoing basis, you’ll represent Underscore VC to entrepreneurs and engage with Boston’s broader entrepreneurial community. This includes exploratory phone calls with entrepreneurs, meetings and pitches with entrepreneurs, and attendance at regional entrepreneurial events.
About You
For starters, you don’t need to look like anyone else on our team. At Underscore, we want to hire a person, not a resume, and we welcome myriad perspectives and experiences. That said…
- You’ve got a few years of professional experience, ideally in a relevant field such as venture capital, technology investing/banking, startups, or management consulting.
- You possess strong interpersonal skills, a creative problem-solving style, and an exceptional work ethic.
- You have a knack for identifying promising, high‐growth businesses and transformative entrepreneurs; you’ve even done some personal investing!
- While you’re not afraid to ask questions, you harbor a self-starter mentality, which enables you to initiate projects and work independently.
- You’re a strong writer and an impressive presenter, and you balance confidence with humility.
- You’ve got fierce quantitative and qualitative analytical skills, and you’re comfortable sharing your point of view.
- You relentlessly adjust as necessary; this position requires agility and an entrepreneurial attitude as we continue to build the firm.
- At your core, you believe that entrepreneurship can change the world, particularly when it resides at the intersection of great teams, technology, and large markets.
About Us
Boston-based Underscore VC backs transformative entrepreneurs from idea to scale with an aligned community. To surround our founders with the experience, skills, and knowledge they can leverage to succeed, we’ve brought together a community of leading entrepreneurs we call “Cores” to partner with us in investing our assets under management. These curated groups of peers have created billions of dollars of value and thousands of jobs while building enduring, high-impact businesses. This community has convened with a personal desire to give back and support the next generation of up and coming entrepreneurs.
Please submit resume to: https://underscore.vc/jobs as we’ll follow up from there should there be an appropriate fit.
