Description
Venture Partners are primarily responsible for sourcing, evaluating, and managing investments at High Street Equity Partners. Your work is key to us successfully implementing our vision of equitable investing.
High Street Equity Partners is a venture capital firm that invests in high-growth seed-stage technology companies led by diverse founders. We leverage our operational, financial, and policy expertise to ensure our portfolio companies reach their full potential.
Our Venture Partner position is a General Partner in-training position that will empower and equip you to contribute to our fund and our portfolio in a significant way while establishing yourself to build a career in VC at our firm and/or others. To ensure success, you should have a clear understanding of our Firm’s investment thesis and fund strategy framework as well as core values and culture fit. You must at a core be an excellent leader who can recruit, coach, and build up other leaders. You will work with founders and their teams to develop processes, and externally with investment partners to assist founders in developing and closing rounds. To be successful in this role, you should have extensive experience in senior leadership roles and/or as a founder and investor, because, you will “build up” great startups, invest in them, and help guide them to acquisition post-investment.
As a Venture Partner, you will assist in the following activities: fundraising, partner and co-investor development, and startup mentoring for a select portfolio of startups under your management. Your success will be measured by 4 key metrics in this order:
- Your ability to bring on partners and co-investors for your portfolio.
- Your ability to coach, train, and mentor a startup portfolio to success.
- Your ability to assist in raising additional capital to deploy in the fund.
- Your ability to source deal-flow from your network and region.
You will be required to be an excellent manager, team builder, teacher, recruiter, communicator, firefighter, and issue resolver as your work will contribute to building a foundation for startup success in our portfolio for years to come.
Culture Fit Requirements
- A compelling hunger and passion to achieve something great in life and change the world - remember that experience can be gained over time but your passion and drive are what will lead to success via sheer mental fortitude.
- Willing to do whatever it takes to get the job done, are humble and have a trainable mentality, and able to learn on the job - we're looking for partners that can not only operate in the chaos of a startup but thrive in it and earn a place on our team.
- Hyper-organized, resourceful, and truly enjoys working in a team to achieve the vision- able to proactively reach out for guidance, offer and receive guidance from your fellow team members, and solve roadblocks on your own.
Primary Responsibilities
- Establish, develop, and maintain positive partner and portfolio relationships.
- Network with investors through email, LinkedIn, events, etc
- Research, qualify, and build investor networks and industry partnerships
- Achieve agreed-upon targets, quotas, and portfolio outcomes
- Analyze market potential and track managed portfolios growth/traction
- Utilize best practices/research trends in the market for startups and VC
- Coach and mentor your portfolio on their needs/traction/growth
- Improve through feedback/ coaching with the management team
- Build reports on portfolio traction and investment potential
- Maximizing the value of the portfolio companies: Once investments are made, our VPs regularly monitor the performance of portfolio companies and provide direct support to founders in partnership with portfolio managers.
- Making follow-on investment decisions: VPs must help decide whether to follow on in subsequent financing rounds or be diluted.
- Raising the fund: One of your primary responsibilities is to support fundraising.
Performance Requirements & Benchmarks
- Deal Flow: Your ability to source deal-flow from your network and region.
- Portfolio Management: Your ability to coach, train, and mentor a startup portfolio to success. Your ability to bring on partners and co-investors for your portfolio. Daily management and support to at minimum 35% of portfolio companies, maintaining an above satisfactory evaluation score from portfolio company founders. An annual benchmark of 520 support hours to portfolio companies.
- LP: Venture Partners must be accredited investors with financial capability to be a Limited Partner (LP) in the fund at the advertised LP minimum. Venture Partners have “skin in the game” by investing their own money in the fund.
- Fundraising: Your ability to assist in raising additional capital to deploy in the fund. Origination, cultivation and closing of at minimum 10% of their fund.
Preferred Skills
- 5+ years of direct entrepreneur/startup experience or 3+ years of experience in venture capital, angel investing, or early-stage investing. [Preference going to exited entrepreneurs and angels with successful portfolios]
- Ability to develop relationships and make connections with anyone, anywhere
- Ability to google, learn independently, and solve roadblocks without handholding
- The personality type that talks to people on elevators and owns networking events
- Deep understanding of the startup processes, businesses, and their dynamics
- Proven track record in communication with expert negotiation skills
- A commitment to excellent service to deliver quality mentorship and coaching
- Highly motivated and target-driven with a proven track record in startups
- Excellent time management and organizational skills - personally and as a leader
- Ability to create and deliver presentations tailored to the audience needs
- Relationship management skills, openness to feedback, and ability to grow
- Ability to build productive business professional relationships via CRM
- Able to work comfortably in a fast-paced environment whether in-house or remote
- Experience working with entrepreneurs to grow and scale
- Experience interpreting data such as pitch decks, financial statements, business metrics, and making decisions based on this type of information
- Proven track record of building and running successful companies
- Experience with Monday.com, Typeform, and Google Suite (Gmail, Drive, and Calendar)
While all of these skills would be excellent, these are only preferred. You are encouraged to apply regardless of whether or not you meet all the skills below.
Compensation
Our Venture Partners are compensated in three ways: Fund Management fee, Carried Interest fee, distributions from investments as a LP.