Yard Ventures is a part of Alumni Ventures Group, a fast-growing, 80-person organization that builds and manages alumni and focused venture capital funds. Our corporate headquarters, located in Manchester, NH, provides back-office support and other resources to our funds across the country. On an annual basis, these funds raise money from sophisticated investors to invest in venture and other alternative assets. AVG has successfully launched 20+ venture funds over the past four years and is looking to launch another dozen or so funds over the next few years. We are private, for profit, and not part of any school.
As Yard Ventures continues to grow, we want to continue to extend our investing capacity. To that end, we’re seeking an experienced, full-time Senior Associate with who can source, recruit, research, and evaluate deals, from the greater Harvard university community.
You’ll be joining a fast-paced, professional, and entrepreneurial environment where you’ll have significant input into the creation of a unique portfolio amassing highly valuable strategic assets. 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. You will report to the Yard Managing Partner and also work intimately with the Yard Ventures’ Partner on all things investing.
This is a full-time position based in our new Boston Post Office Square office. You will be a salaried employee of AVG, with a comprehensive and competitive benefits package.
Basic Qualifications
- Must be a Harvard graduate
- Direct investing experience is a plus
- Entrepreneurial DNA
- 3-5 years of work experience in tech, early-stage company, investment, or consulting
Requirements for an ideal candidate
- Desire to build a career in venture investing
- Strong analytical, financial analysis, organizational, and writing skills required
- Strong communication skills – both written and verbal
- 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
- Familiarity with typical venture capital deal structures, terms and industry practices
- Knowledge and interest in current technology, trends and developments
- A professional presence combined with relationship and communication skills to interact effectively with internal and external parties
- A highly-motivated, self-starter with the ability to work independently within a team context
- Demonstrated interest and experience in emerging companies, and experience in company research and due diligence preparation
- Eager to learn with a passion for the impact of technology across sectors
- Experience successfully managing multiple, complex projects at the same time
- Good 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, 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 Harvard alums in the venture community
- Participate in the identification of deal sourcing targets (typically Series A, B or C stage)
- Conduct outreach to VCs, entrepreneurs, incubators, and more to help fill our deal pipeline with prospects
- Manage deal flow and related database inputs
- Develop and maintain proprietary deal and market intelligence
- Support construction and evaluation of fund portfolio
- Educate deal sources and companies/entrepreneurs about our process and effectively manage relationships in a professional, courteous manner
- Research and evaluate each company and industry as a potential investment, including interviewing company teams, competitors, and customers.
- 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
- Work closely with sibling funds to identify mutual interesting investment opportunities
- Evaluate the strength and appropriateness of a target companies lead venture investor fund and partner
- Recruit, train, and manage interns/fellows to help support the fund
- 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
- Orchestrate and execute IC meetings
- Help create and manage our company database, monitoring prospects on an ongoing basis
- As requested, assist with investor relations and potential investor outreach
- Help supervise back-end functions as needed
- Contribute positively to AVG’s culture
About AVG
Alumni Ventures Group (AVGfunds.com), is a dynamic, rapidly growing organization that builds and manages alumni venture capital. We pride ourselves on making a key asset class accessible to investors who were previously shut out of venture capital—and our rapid growth attests that we are addressing a real pain point for alumni investors. Our Manchester, NH, headquarters provides back office support (e.g., IT, HR, Finance, Marketing, etc.) and other shared resources to all our funds, located throughout the country. Unlike most VC funds that raise money from a handful of institutions, our funds raise money in smaller amounts from a large group of alumni. Our deal teams then invest in a diverse portfolio of venture deals connected to alumni entrepreneurs of the same school. We don’t lead deals, but rather co-invest alongside top firms such as Andreesen Horowitz, Founder Fund, Google Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, Bessemer, NEA, and others. We are private, for profit, and not part of any school.
If interested, please apply here.
