Edition 10: Join The Buzz

Generalist Newsletter for Non-Technical Folks

August 23, 2024

Welcome to the tenth edition! I am an early-stage investor in New York. I share impactful Biz, Ops, and Investment roles at early-stage startups and VCs.

This edition is fairly long, so here’s a breakdown:

  • Feature: Co-founder Search

  • Useful Links: Events, Fellowships, and Interesting Articles

  • Cool Early-Stage Companies

  • Advice from a VC: Skills Required to Be a VC

  • Job Opportunities: Very early, early, late but impactful

Last week's most clicked links:

  • Two weeks in a row now - These folks are looking for a co-founder. The list has grown since last week and will continue to grow so book mark it. Check out the featured section. 

  • Research Analyst, Interplay (VC) - NYC based startup ecosystem investing in technology-enabled businesses across Seed, Series A, and Series B.

  • Chief of Staff (Opportunity Closed), Big Leap Health - Founded by Yakov Kagan, this is the opportunity to become the #1 employee at a healthtech startup looking to democratize access to breakthrough mental health treatments.

Featured💫 

CoffeeSpace, functions like a Tinder or Hinge for co-founders, using algorithms to match people exploring ideas and looking for partners in tech and beyond. Since its launch in March 2024, the platform has attracted over 5,000 users. You can check out their website here.

Honestly, I've always believed that the best co-founders are those who have known each other for a while—whether through shared experiences like attending college together, being childhood friends, relatives, working on side projects, or as colleagues. However, that's not always possible. With so many people clicking on the co-founder search list, I decided to explore the best places for finding co-founders who are actively or casually looking.

After reviewing several platforms, I found one that stands out in this space. A friend of mine recently found his co-founder there, and after speaking with the founder, I was impressed by the execution and the innovative features they plan to roll out to help people connect with great co-founders.

  • Why you should work at a startup? Working at top startups helps you understand what it takes to create a top startups. That’s the reason why top companies end up building mafias of other startup founders.

  • Useful Tip: How to Find Jobs at Startups Backed by Top VCs

    1. Visit the VC's Website: Start by navigating to the website of the venture capital firm you're interested in.

    2. Click on the "Jobs" Section: Many VCs utilize platforms like Getro to aggregate all job openings from their portfolio companies in one place.

    3. Filter by Criteria: Use filters to narrow down opportunities by stage, sector, or location.

    Example: I've filtered all sales job openings from the portfolio of Golden Ventures here.

  • End of summer event! For marketing leaders, startups, and venture capitalist. Alumni Ventures on Tuesday, August 27, 2024, is hosting a special evening at the Monday.com NYC office’s wine bar and terrace with Shake Shack and cocktails.

  • For Current Students - The 1-year, part-time program gives Fellows the opportunity to work alongside HAX leadership to bring deep technology from the workshop into the real world. Fellows receive direct exposure to the world of early stage venture investing, and are given responsibilities as a technology scout, investment analyst, and early stage employee at a hard tech startup.

Founder Resources:

  • Roame - Helps you find flights using points.

  • HIDock - ChatGPT Powered Audio Dock with AI Summary (Saw this at a friends place, pretty useful device especially for sales folks, recruiters & founders)

  • Acre Homes - The ease of renting combined with the financial upside of owning.

  • Mesa Member - Get rewarded for every dollar you spend on your home.

  • NuPort Robotics - A safe, affordable option to convert existing fleets into self-driving powerhouses.

  • Scribe - Helps you create a step-by-step guide for literally, instantly.

Morgan Polton, Partner at Monashee Ventures and former investor at B Capital, recently shared an interesting post discussing the skill sets he values when hiring an investor. He refers to them as his "Big 13."

1. Term Sheets
2. SAFEs + Convertible Notes
3. Cap Tables / Returns Waterfalls (MOIC, IRR)
4. Startup Metrics (Growth, Efficiency)
5. Unit Economics
6. Cohort Analysis
7. Valuation (Public Comps, Precedent Txs, DCF)
8. Investment Memos
9. Excel + PPT
10. Venture Debt
11. Fund Performance Metrics (DPI, TVPI, RVPI)
12. How Exits Work (M&A, IPOs, Secondaries)
13. The LP Universe (HNWI, S/MFO, E&F, DBPP, SWF)

P.S. The importance of these skills varies depending on the stage of the venture fund. For example, you’ll likely never be asked to perform a DCF analysis at an early-stage fund, whereas drafting a term sheet might not be required at a late-stage fund.

Fewer Than 10 Employees:

Remote:

  • Co-founder, Huddl (Consumer)

    • Co-Founder with salary and equity package for an event tech startup on the rise. This a startup with a growing platform and paying customers. The role is non-technical and is ideal for someone who is resourceful, scrappy, consistent, and knows how to execute. Interested applicants, please email ‘[email protected]’ below with the subject line “Co-Founder Huddl!” along with your Linkedin profile and resume.

  • Investor, Will Ventures (VC)

    • Early stage firm investing in sports, entertainments & health.

  • Head of Customer Success, Founding Team, Hop Skip (Consumer)

    • The company was founded in 2019 and is growing rapidly. HopSkip is a B2B SaaS startup that streamlines how event professionals source and book venues for conferences, meetings, and events.

  • Investor, Geek Ventures (VC)

    • Founded by Ihar Mahaniok, Geek Ventures invests in US startups with immigrant founders disrupting $10B+ markets with AI.

New York:

  • Chief of Staff, 25Madison (VC)

    • Early-stage venture firm that both incubates and invests in startups with a focus on healthcare, supply chain & industrials, and AI-native B2B software.

  • Head of Ops Strategy, Create (Consumer)

    • Create is building the first modern creatine brand. First hire in this area of the business and thus a lot of room to grow.

  • Principal, Commonweal Ventures (VC)

    • invest in sectors where evolving policies are reshaping markets. Send a resume, a quick cover note, and a research or writing sample to [email protected], subject: Applying for Principal Role. Ideal candidates will be based in New York City and have five to ten years of professional experience in technology, start-ups, venture, consulting, banking, and/or in senior government policy roles.

  • Product Operations Manager, Maybern (Fintech)

    • Transforming the way private fund managers effectively manage their funds through cutting edge technology. Maybern is founded by top engineering experts with deep knowledge of the fund management space.

California:

  • Investor, Offline Ventures (VC)

    • A venture fund and studio on a mission to invent and invest in humanist technology.

  • Senior Associate, AI/Web3 Investor, Alumni Ventures (VC)

    • Join their AI & Blockchain investment team! They are seeking a Senior Associate with some VC experience.

  • Research Associate, Forerunner (VC)

    • The Associate will join Mengmeng Fu and report directly to the Partner and Head of Research, Jason Bornstein. Through thesis building, market analysis, and diligence, the Associate role will have unique exposure to key areas of the firm and investment team and opportunities to create subject matter expertise in up to 3 priority categories at the firm (think commerce, AI, fintech, services, education, and social).

  • Growth Marketing Director, Boxiecat (Consumer)

    • Looking for someone who can lead their expansion across Amazon, Chewy, and DTC channels. Boxiecat is a pet health and home company with a mission to be good for animals, people and the planet.

  • Chief of Staff, South Park Commons (Accelerator)

    • This role will have the opportunity to work closely with all the General Partners of the South Park Commons Fund: Ruchi Sanghvi, Aditya Agarwal, Evan Tana and Finn Meeks. You’ll have an incredible opportunity to work hand-in-hand with the GPs on both the community and fund to define the next generation of great companies and shepherd them to technical and operational excellence.

Others:

  • Link Ventures Fellow, Link Ventures (VC), MA

    • Link Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm backing entrepreneurs from the MIT, Harvard, and other prominent academic institutions. They have ~$500M in committed capital, and invest in early-stage technology companies with proven potential in data science, machine learning, and AI. DM me on me on LinkedIn or reply to this post if you believe you're a good fit and are seeking a recommendation.

  • Program Manager | Student Internship, Impact Ventures (Accelerator), TX

    • Startup accelerator and integrated captial fund with a mission to eliminate the social and economic barriers for under-represented entrepreneurs

Early But Not Too Early:

Remote:

  • Business Development Representative, BusRight

    • BusRight has raised $15M to modernize school bus management for 26M school goers by providing advanced routing technology, dynamic driver navigation, live GPS tracking, and real-time parent communication, ensuring a safer and more efficient experience for families, schools, and communities.

New York:.

  • Head of Finance | GTM Sales Lead | Product Marketing Manager, Roam (PropTech)

    • Roam makes homeownership 2x more affordable. They help buyers wind back the clock on interest rates by purchasing a home with a low-rate assumable mortgage.

  • Sales Development Representative | Account Manager, Accrue Savings (Consumer)

    • They help consumers get more value with their money. Backed by Ground Up Ventures, Tiger Global.

  • Market Development Associate, Primary Ventures (VC)

    • Primary is an early stage VC is looking for someone with sales or BD background to help two of their portfolio companies with customer relationships and building sales pipeline.

  • Founding Account Executive, Fuse (Fintech)

    • Backed by Primary Venture Partners, Fuse is a next-gen loan origination system (LOS) that simplifies lending for financial institutions. Their Founding AE role is a fantastic opportunity to help build the go-to-market function from the ground up, and an exciting fit for sales professionals who crave a broad remit: everything from prospecting to deal management to general sales processes and enablement.

      This is a great opportunity for a sales professional with 5+ years selling enterprise SaaS ($100K+ ACVs) to financial institutions. Experience selling to credit unions or auto lenders is a MASSIVE plus.

California:

  • Enterprise Account Manager, Blumen

    • Backed by Susa Ventures, Caffeinated Capital and others and founded by Stanford Alum, Hannes Boehning, Blumen one is a one stop software for industrial and renewable project development. See how it works here.

    • Blumen was also recently featured in The White House CEQ's report to congress on ways that they can use technology to get more infrastructure built in the US.

  • Generalist | Founding Account Executive | Head of Growth, 11x.ai

    • They are looking for a killer operator/generalists to join 11x

    • On the lookout for a special projects/generalist type to join the founder on their journey to scale - ideally with hyper-growth CS/Sales experience 🚀 

    • Looking to hire fast! Please reach out directly if interested - [email protected]

Others:

Late But Still Very Impactful :

  • Business Development Lead, Duolingo (Consumer)

    • Duolingo is the world's most popular learning app. As a Business Development Lead, you will work towards building partnerships that drive brand awareness, monetization and user growth for Duolingo.

  • Revenue Operations Manager, One Signal (Enterprise)

    • 1 in 5 new app launches uses OneSignal. Backed by SignalFire, Rakuten Ventures, Y Combinator, HubSpot, and BAM Elevate, OneSignal is a leading omnichannel customer engagement solution, powering personalized customer journeys.

  • Associate, Portfolio and Investments, Accion (Impact Investing)

    • Really cool gig! Accion Venture Lab is a leading early-stage investor in inclusive fintech, providing seed-first capital and strategic support to innovative startups with an aim to reduce global poverty.

  • Chief of Staff, Charlie Health (Healthcare)

    • Reporting directly to the CEO, the role will partner closely with the executive team to ensure teams are pursuing initiatives that are aligned with our strategic goals and mission.Personalized mental health treatment for adolescents, adults & families in crisis.

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