Are you passionate about how entrepreneurship can solve important problems in the world? Village Capital, a grant-supported 501(c)(3), is the largest organization in the world supporting seed-stage, impact-driven startups. Since 2009, we’ve supported more than 1,200 entrepreneurs by tailoring programs to their needs and connecting them with investors that match their vision.
Candidate Profile
Village Capital is seeking an Investment Analyst to find, support, and invest in the best entrepreneurs solving real-world problems. Here’s what we’re looking for:
- You are a self-starter and an insatiable learner: You stay ahead of industry trends. You find yourself reading, thinking, and talking about entrepreneurship and early-stage investing. You will have a lot of freedom to shape this role but that will require a high level of energy and interest in the work.
- You have an investment thesis: You’re obsessed with emerging startups, ways of forecasting founder success, and scenarios that might yield a positive return for investors. You are particularly interested in how entrepreneurs can solve some of the most important problems of our day.
- You’re interested in working with the next generation of entrepreneurs: You look at a startup and think of ways that it might succeed, why it might fail, and how you could plug in to provide support.
- You are a natural connector: You will spend a lot of your time talking with entrepreneurs, entrepreneurial support organizations, and investors. One of your greatest value adds to entrepreneurs will be the people you can connect them with – investors, stakeholders, potential customers.
Responsibilities
You’ll be a key member of the Global Ventures European team at Village Capital. You’ll have three specific responsibilities:
1. Find and advise the best entrepreneurs solving real-world problems (50%)
- Develop an investment thesis within your target sector, specifically looking at people, places, and ideas where there is a market opportunity for growth and impact
- Manage our sourcing and selection efforts for European programs – identifying top potential applicants, scoring applications, and interviewing candidates
- Personally develop relationships with the most promising entrepreneurs as a relationship lead on behalf of Village Capital
- Work one-on-one with cohort companies as a strategic advisor, on their financial management and projections, and other areas to gear entrepreneurs for investment-readiness
- Work with our team to recruit a community of investors and technical mentors that support entrepreneurs through our Datatech for Good Coalition
- Help companies prepare themselves for securing and effectively utilizing future investments
2. Program Operations Support (30%)
- Craft messaging and communication around new programs as well as other external-facing content as needed by the program or program partners
- Develop timelines and other tools to manage and track program process
- Support project implementation, including work plan management, team management, deliverable management, partner management, communication management, strategy development
- Networking with and recruiting industry experts, investors, and entrepreneurs to join as program mentors and advisors
- Support accelerator program logistics and execution and work with regional lead regarding program management and deliverables
- Advise Village Capital’s programming strategy and recruitment with an eye towards market opportunities, corporate innovation trends and investment trends.
3. European Practice Development Support (20%)
- Develop industry expertise on relevant sectors and trends in the European innovation ecosystem to craft program language and identify new opportunities in the region
- Work closely with the Regional Director of Europe to determine how to best implement new initiatives and deliver programs
- Identify and build our network of key stakeholders in the European ecosystem to share opportunities to participate or collaborate on programs or other initiatives
Qualifications
- Bachelor degree in Economics, Business, or other relevant field
- 2-3 years of professional experience
- Experience with Financial Analysis, ideally with early-stage companies
- Exceptional written and verbal communications
- Comfort with cold external outreach with entrepreneurs and other external stakeholders
- Fluency in Excel, PowerPoint, and other tools to both analyze and promote companies
If interested, please apply here.
