Fission Ventures (FV) is a part of Alumni Ventures Group. AVG is a fast-growing, organization with over 90 employees across the country and an exceptional, engaged community of over 300K entrepreneurs, investors and supporters. We are disrupting venture capital with our alumni and focused funds, offering individual, accredited investors access to VC. Our corporate headquarters, located in Manchester, NH, provides back-office support and resources to our fund teams in Boston, New York, Chicago and San Francisco. On an annual basis, these funds raise money from the communities of each of our funds to invest in venture and alternative assets. AVG has successfully launched 25 venture funds over the past five years and will build another dozen or so funds over the next few years. We are private, for profit, and not affiliated with any particular school.
As Fission Ventures continues to grow, we want to continue to expand our investing capacity. To that end, we’re seeking an experienced, full-time Principal who will initiate, develop and grow relationships with entrepreneurs at premier private companies. The successful Principal at Fission Ventures will source, evaluate, conduct due diligence and ultimately execute venture investments that drive investing capabilities for Fission Ventures & AVG.
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. You will report to the FV Managing Partner.
This is a full-time position based in our New York City (Flatiron) office. You will be a salaried employee of AVG, with a comprehensive and competitive benefits package.
Basic Qualifications
- Must be a Columbia 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 Columbia 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
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 rapidly growing private companies connected to alumni entrepreneurs of the same school. We don’t lead deals, but rather co-invest alongside top firms such as: Sequoia, Andreessen Horowitz, Accel, Benchmark, Google Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, Bessemer, NEA, and others.
If interested, please apply here.
