Costanoa Ventures is a Bay Area-based venture capital firm that invests in early stage companies. We invest in enterprise software and fintech that changes how business gets done. Just as importantly, we are a values based firm: we believe in trust, collaboration, and treating everyone with dignity and respect. Our purpose is to build meaningful technology companies, but we believe the environment in which they are nurtured and how our team finds the next great company matters. That’s why cultural fit is as important to us as the skills to do the job.
Job Description
Costanoa Ventures is a San Francisco Bay Area-based venture capital firm that invests in early stage companies. We primarily invest in enterprise (SaaS, security, marketplaces, and infrastructure) and financial technology companies that change how business gets done. We are a values based firm: we believe in trust, collaboration, and treating everyone with dignity and respect. Our purpose is to help build meaningful technology companies, but we believe the environment in which they are nurtured and how our team finds the next great company matters. That’s why cultural fit is as important to us as the skills to do the job. Costanoa is hiring an investor to focus on the burgeoning financial technology ecosystem. The firm has made numerous investments in the ecosystem, including BillGo, Highnote, Lively, Noyo, Liferaft, and Highline. Costanoa brings its world class company building skills to the fintech sector. Our investors combine operating & investment expertise, deep insight, and emotional intelligence. The firm’s operating platform provides expertise, tools and community to help founders learn more and grow faster. The primary goal of this role is to help the firm find, diligence, and invest in the best founders and companies. Responsibilities include:
- Lead comprehensive diligence. You’ll be asked to develop a detailed and comprehensive review of the people, products, technologies, go-to-market plan, and competitive position to inform investment decisions. create an informed thesis for why we should invest in a company, which should be supported by a deep analysis of both broad industry trends and bottoms up company-level analysis. Costanoa is highly collaborative across sectors, and you’ll be asked to present your thesis and analysis to the Investment Team and contribute to any investment discussion.
- Develop a clear point of view on sectors. The fintech space is broad and dynamic. We’re looking for someone to develop theses about areas for investment, including new and emerging areas. You will work with the team to co-author and create thought pieces – in the form of blog posts, podcasts, presentations, and videos.
- Maintain industry awareness. To keep up with the pace of innovation in fintech, you’ll be asked to develop a network of sources and information to ensure up-to-date understanding of the industry. This includes growing a network of subject matter experts and includes interacting with incumbent fintech companies to understand their strategy, and the opportunities & challenges that presents to startups we assess.
- Source investment opportunities. We’re looking for someone to invest first and foremost in relationships throughout the ecosystem. This includes proactive involvement in the fintech community including – attending industry events, meeting with upstream investors, and cultivating university/corporate/angel investor networks to find entrepreneurs and access deal flow.
- Identify and win deals. We’re looking for someone who can sift through the vast array of opportunities and filter down to those ones worth digging into. You will be able to determine which ones the team should sprint on and be comfortable selling the value of Costanoa to entrepreneurs in order to win competitive deals.
To join our team, you should be excited to:
- Build and cultivate long-term relationships
- Demonstrate passion for financial technology; fascination with the startup ecosystem, new markets, and new ways of doing things
- Actively seek out new areas and opportunities to invest in
- Display intellectual commitment to discover what others do not
- Synthesize vast amounts of data and resolve what really matters
- Perform quantitative analysis; observe retention rates and customer cohorts
- Sift through large customer data sets to identify strengths and weaknesses of a startup
Minimum Qualifications
- Ability to synthesize complex information, form a sharp point of view, and communicate it in a relevant way to different audiences
- Genuine intellectual curiosity, the ability to learn new facts and concepts quickly and comprehensively, then explain those facts & concepts to other people succinctly
- Outstanding analytical and quantitative skills
- 2–4+ years of experience working at a fintech company or adjacent tech company in corporate development, business operations, strategy, product management, engineering, or another similar function
- Effective communications skills, both verbal and written
- Excellent attention to detail and follow-through
- Ability to juggle multiple items and work on tight deadlines
- Desire and proven ability to learn new domains and technologies quickly
- Positive attitude, high energy, great collaborator in a team environment
- Strong preference for candidates located in SF or NYC.
It is the policy of Costanoa Ventures to provide equal employment opportunity to all persons regardless of age, color, national origin, citizenship status, physical or mental disability, race, religion, creed, gender, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression, genetic information, marital status, veteran status or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local law. Costanoa welcomes different perspectives and a range of experiences that employees bring, including those based upon nationality, gender, culture, educational and professional backgrounds, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, disability age differences, job classification and religion. All employees are valued regardless of status and everyone is assured the right of equitable, fair and respectful treatment.
If interested, please apply here.
