Towerview Ventures is a part of Alumni Ventures Group, a fast-growing organization with 100 employees across the country and a widespread, engaged community of over 400,000 entrepreneurs, investors, and supporters. We are disrupting financial services by bringing smart, simple venture capital investing options to 15 million accredited investors who currently do not have a good option to enter the asset class. Our corporate headquarters in Manchester, NH provides back-office support and resources to our fund teams in Boston, Manchester, NH, New York City, Chicago, San Francisco and Austin, TX. On an annual basis, these teams raise funds from their respective communities to invest in diverse, promising startups and growing businesses. Our key competitive advantage as an investor is the combined scale and connectivity of our vast network, our connected capital, which provides capital, sources deals and adds unique value for our portfolio companies. AVG has successfully launched 25 venture funds to date and will build another dozen or so funds over the next few years. We are private, for profit, and not part of any school.
As Towerview Ventures, AVG’s fund for Duke Alumni, continues to grow we are seeking to expand our investing capacity. To that end, we are hiring an experienced, full-time Principal who will initiate, develop and grow relationships with entrepreneurs at premier private companies. Reporting to the Managing Partner for Towerview Ventures, the successful Principal will source, evaluate, conduct due diligence and ultimately execute venture investments that drive investing capabilities for Towerview Ventures & AVG. Since AVG is a very cooperative and collaborative environment, the successful Principal will also assist other funds in many of these tasks within the other school funds in the Chicago office. You’ll be joining a fast-paced, professional, and entrepreneurial environment where you’ll have significant input into the creation of a unique, diversified, fast-growing portfolio. You will be leveraging a well-vetted playbook, back-office support, and processes created by the parent company Alumni Ventures Group to help in executing your role. This is a full-time position based in our Chicago, IL office. You will be a salaried employee of AVG, with a comprehensive and competitive benefits package.
Basic Qualifications
- Must be a Duke graduate
- Venture Capital or direct investing experience is a plus
- 4-8 years of experience in venture capital, private equity, finance, or a leadership/business development role in an entrepreneurial organization.
- Experience working simultaneously on multiple projects and managing a high-volume of investment opportunities and entrepreneur relationships
Requirements for an ideal candidate
- Desire to build a career in venture investing
- Has been part of a successful small team or start-up organization and/or has led new projects or built initiatives from the ground up
- Communication skills:
- leverages a direct communication style to raise questions and name concerns early
- professional in written and verbal communication
- is able to engage a mature business audience
- Ability to quickly comprehend, evaluate and critique a venture’s business model, market opportunity and team
- Awareness of the venture capital community including leading investment funds and partners, historical successes and failures
- Strong analytical and financial analysis skills
- Demonstrated interest and experience in emerging companies, and experience in company research and due diligence preparation
- Curious and eager to learn, willing to take on new responsibilities at all levels with enthusiasm
- Experience successfully managing multiple, complex projects at the same time
- Good networker, with an ability to help grow our system and process for identifying investment opportunities
- Highly organized and detail-oriented, balanced by ability to get and communicate big picture
- Self-starter and independent manager, but great team player, preferably with personnel management experience
- Smart, creative thinker and problem-solver, fast learner, with demonstrated initiative
- Database management and strong technical and social media experience a big plus
Role/ Responsibilities
- Network with Duke alums in the venture community
- Participate in the identification of deal sourcing targets (typically Series A, B or C stage)
- Support construction and evaluation of fund portfolio:
- 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 in a professional, courteous manner
- Evaluate ~25 companies per week resulting in deep-dives on 3-5 per month and investment into ~25 per year to create a balanced portfolio across industry/sector, stage and geography
- Research and evaluate each company and industry as a potential investment, including interviewing company teams, competitors, and customers
- Work closely with sibling funds to identify mutual interesting investment opportunities
- Manage deal flow and related database inputs
- Develop and maintain proprietary deal and market intelligence
- Recruit, train, and manage interns/fellows to help support the fund
- Orchestrate and execute Investment Committee meetings
- Prep and distribute due diligence packages for the Investment Committee
- (IC) and Alumni Venture Group sibling funds to review
- Present companies and respond to Managing Partner and LP questions
- As requested, assist with investor relations and potential investor outreach
- Help supervise back-end functions as needed
- Contribute positively to AVG’s culture
If interested, please apply here.
