What’s great about working at henQ:
- Truly learn the job of an investor rather than spending years building spreadsheets and slides;
- Do things your own way and do what you’re best at: from day one, there is room to improve henQ’s processes and pick up things that are normally outside the scope of your typical job description;
- Direct access to the people who are really calling the shots, both internally (the henQ partners) as well as externally (founders and LPs);
- Universal respect for each other, without the usual reference to hierarchy or age; an environment where anyone can share their opinion and challenge each other as long as they have done their due diligence;
- Exceptionally fast career progression based on merit;
- The opportunity to innovate and be part of building the next great venture capital firm, rather than defending a legacy;
- Big ambitions with a sense of humor: winning should also be fun when possible.
- Practicalities
- Position: Analyst / Associate
- Upward mobility potential: 2 of our current 3 partners started as an analyst
- Experience: from straight out of university to up to 3 years of work experience
- Start date: flexibleLocation:
- Anywhere in Europe
- Bi-weekly team get togethers in Amsterdam
- Fair amount of travel (to potential investments & portfolio companies)Salary:
- A competitive base salary, but not enough to live large
- After 1 year:
- Either there’s no (mutual) fit and we separate, or;
- You earn a top range salary package getting 2.5-5x your base salary in carried interestHow to apply:
- Share your LinkedIn, the person who inspires you most and an investment recommendation (incl. why it will generate strong returns) via careers@henq.nl
- About henQ henQ is a Seed and Series A venture capital fund. We invest across Europe in B2B startups with a software component, writing tickets of EUR 2-5M. Companies we invest in range from having their first embryonic product and a few pilot customers, to having EUR 2-3M in annual recurring revenue being ready to properly scale. Our assets under management are approximately EUR 200M. Our latest fund – raised in 2020 – is EUR 80M in size. The returns of all our funds are among the best in the market. Famous brand name funds like Sequoia are reaping the benefits of what they did in the past and defending their existing great position. At henQ, we are equally as ambitious but our work is much more exciting, as together we are building the next great success story in VC rather than defending a legacy. We do so by constructing a high conviction portfolio (making on average 3 new investments / year) and only investing in the very few deals we truly love. The results are top returns and the wonderful privilege of only working with people we admire. Joining now, you could still become one of the key players in our team.
- The Job When reading, keep in mind that the more responsibility you can handle (no matter your age, title or experience), the more you can do:
- Find great B2B founding teams through various online sources and get in touch with them;
- Independently have lots of calls with founders to assess their quality as entrepreneurs and convince them of henQ’s qualities as a shareholder;
- Being part of the three person team that works on an individual deal to determine whether it is a good investment. This includes:
- Asking entrepreneurs all relevant questions possible, to make them feel challenged and ensure we are trusting our money with a team that will succeed;
- Drilling down spreadsheets to understand if a company is showing all the signs of being run by great operators;
- Competitor research & product value case analysis.
- Educating yourself on entrepreneurial success by speaking to (former) founders, fellow VCs and digesting loads of books / podcasts / blog posts;
- Doing high-end sales: to entrepreneurs, but also to investors in the henQ fund as well as potential follow-on investors in portfolio companies, by being passionate, well-prepared and a good listener;
- Doing board meetings as a board observer and supporting portfolio companies in the few areas where we have an information edge as a fund:
- Hiring (e.g. compiling lists of potential candidates, taking calls with promising candidates to convince them to join);
- Fundraising (e.g. helping build pitch decks & determining the “equity story”, intro’s to follow-on investors, building financial models);
- KPI setting / benchmarking (e.g. giving feedback on whether a growth plan is feasible, updating our internal benchmarks with the most up to date information on CAC payback).
- Most people who do well within henQ have a “superpower:” some authentic and difficult to anticipate strength that is unique to them and can come in any shape, way or form. Often, people only discover their superpower in their first year at henQ, so don’t worry if you don’t immediately recognize yours. They use their super power to pick up responsibilities that are completely outside of their job description. We love this! Some examples are:
- Exceptionally good people judgment at a young age, doing all of henQ’s junior & medior hiring within your first year;
- Razor sharp mental calculations, picking up the henQ CFO job when most people are still in an analyst role;
- A tremendous knack for storytelling and positioning, having a leading role in pitches towards major potential investors in henQ when still an associate.
- About you
- You have a deep desire to understand why things are the way they are. You don’t take them at face value;
- You are a good judge of character;
- Analyzing numbers and abstract concepts come easily to you;
- Rather than knowing a little bit about everything, you are the type of person who likes to dig in and know everything about a few things;
- Being focused, achieving goals and going the extra mile are what drive and excite you;
- You are willing to face your own shortcomings in order to achieve your goals;
- You have always done things a little differently than your peers. Not to be different for the sake of being different, but because you thought your way was better;
- You know that in order to become successful the dirty, boring & detailed work is often as important as the bigger picture;
- You have always been looking for ways to get more out of your time than the standard way of doing things. Examples could include:
- Getting good grades in university;
- Running a successful side business next to college / work;
- Performing sports at a high level;
- Constructing your own profitable investment portfolio;
- Anything else that demonstrates first principles thinking and intrinsic motivation.
