Are you passionate about how entrepreneurship can solve important problems in the world? At Village Capital, we find, train and support entrepreneurs solving problems important to society, help build equitable entrepreneurship ecosystems, and share what we’re learning about emerging innovation to help guide leaders in business, finance and policy.
Ideal Candidate:
Village Capital supports mission-aligned organizations interested in investing in early-stage impact-oriented startups. This support includes managing investment assets, advising on early-stage impact investing strategy, and building the overall capacity of partner organizations to increase the amount of capital available to early-stage impact entrepreneurs.
Village Capital is looking for a multi-faceted leader to play a critical role in helping us develop and deliver our asset management and advisory strategy. As a member of the Strategic Innovations team, this position will support the implementation of Village Capital’s asset management and advisory work, including supporting investment vehicles that Village Capital is managing on behalf of its partners.
Key Responsibilities
You’ll report to the Senior Director of Strategic Innovations and have the following key responsibilities:
- Investment Management: You’ll lead the process of making direct investments into early-stage entrepreneurs, aligned with investment partner objectives and strategy, including:
- Sourcing, Screening and Due Diligence: You will lead the due diligence of prospective investments, in coordination with Village Capital’s Global Ventures and Strategic Innovations teams, including evaluate early-stage companies for investment, building financial models to support investment analysis and recommendations, conducting financial and impact due diligence, including market assessments and research, drafting of investment memorandums and other due diligence documentation to inform investment decisions.
- Closing Investments: You will support closing of approved investments, including finalizing terms sheets, engaging in limited negotiation of terms with prospects, and finalizing transactions.
Portfolio Management: You will manage the portfolio of investment to support their growth
- Portfolio Monitoring and Support: You will monitor the portfolio to support return of capital and startup growth, actively monitoring and maintaining relationships with existing investments, including conducting needs assessments and helping craft strategic growth and fundraising plans with portfolio companies, in collaboration with Village Capital’s Global Ventures and Strategic Innovations teams.
- Partner reporting: You will contribute to on-going reporting to partners by communicating with portfolio companies, monitoring and verifying financial and impact performance, and drafting written material for regular updates.
Investment Support Strategy: Working closely with the Strategic Innovations and Leadership team, you will contribute to the Village Capital’s assessment management and advisory strategy.
- Project Management: You will commit to the behind-the-scenes infrastructure building and detail-oriented work that goes into managing investment vehicles, including developing processes to managing the lifecycle of investments, from identifying entrepreneurs through portfolio management and support.
- Partnership Development and Strategy: Manage current activities and partnerships in accordance with Village Capital standards of operation. Identify and engage new strategic partners with support from our core partnerships team. Partners may include large corporations, philanthropies, investors, government agencies and other organizations aligned with the mission and intent of our programming.
Essential Qualifications
- You are curious and passionate about entrepreneurs. You have investment experience, preferably with early-stage companies, and you are comfortable in many different contexts. You believe in the possibility of entrepreneurship to change the world.
- 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 look at a startup and think of ways that it might succeed, why it might fail, and how you could plug in a provide support.
- You understand fiduciary responsibility. You have had investment experience and understand the professional responsibility that comes with managing other people’s capital.
- You are proficient in financial modeling. You know your way around Excel and have modeled early-stage businesses before.
- 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.
- You are detail-oriented and professional. You hate typos, can easily manage deadlines and prioritize your time, and take your own professional credibility seriously.
Additional Qualifications
- Bachelor degree or higher;
- 4+ years of investment experience, preferably with early-stage companies and investment structures, which may include work in impact investing, venture capital, private equity, or combination of related experience and skill-sets;
- Proficient in financial modeling, including experience modeling early-stage businesses
- Investment transaction experience, which may include drafting investment memorandums, terms sheets, closing documents, or combination thereof
- Proven program management capabilities, including ability to be both strategic and consistently execute on work plans and manage cross-functional projects
- Strong attention to detail, organization, and follow-through
- Excellent communication and relationship building skills with an ability to prioritize, negotiate and work with a variety of internal and external stakeholders, including a level of comfort comfortable presenting to audiences of start-up CEOs, negotiating term sheets, and concisely supporting your point of view.
- Ability to flourish with minimal guidance, be proactive, and handle uncertainty and ambiguity.
- Comfort with a fast-paced environment and changing requirements;
- Passionate about working with impact-oriented entrepreneurs.
- Ability and eagerness to travel domestically and internationally
If interested, please apply here.
