Senior Associate/VP - Investor Relation - Venture Capital Fund

Job roles & responsibilities

The role entails identifying interesting markets, spotting trends, finding - rock-star founders-, leading business diligence and assisting in deal-making and portfolio management.

Unlike what you may have heard, an investment role in a Venture Capital firm has very little to do with building financial models or reading balance sheets. Read on to find out what it's really about!!

- Thesis: Build an investment thesis in your focus sectors (e.g. FinTech, e-commerce, SaaS, Health-tech, etc). Answer the question of whether the VC should invest in a particular space or not

- Conduct extensive (primary/secondary) research on various markets to identify areas that could be interesting to invest in.

- Study global trends, identify what you can learn from those markets and how is that applicable to India.

- Network: Build your network and meet executives in key bellwether companies in your sectors (e.g. Flipkart for e-commerce), angel investors, other founders.

- Identify and network with experts and nodes in the ecosystem who could help you refine your thesis.

- Identify high-potential executives who you would like to back if they start companies in the future.

- Sourcing: Find interesting founders and companies in your focus sectors

- Meet angel investors and the founders of their invested companies

- Be the first point of contact, representing VC in meetings with founders.

- Evaluation: Work with senior investment team members to evaluate investment opportunities in the companies sourced by you

- Lead primary diligence: speak with customers/suppliers/partners/employees of the company to assess the quality and effectiveness of the product/service offered by the company

- Lead secondary diligence: run analysis on data shared by the company e.g. verify lifetime value of a customer, compare and benchmark growth rates with other companies in the sector, etc

- Write investment memos

- Build a financial model (if required, more relevant for late-stage deals)

- Deal closing: Assist senior investment team members to consummate the investment

- Help in deal negotiation e.g. price/valuation, terms

- Help prepare the term sheet

- Assist in financial/accounting and legal diligence

- Portfolio management: Assist senior investment team members in day to day portfolio management (more relevant for Associates; analysts get some portfolio exposure as well but this is not a large part of their job)

- Assist in preparing and monitoring monthly MIS

- Assist in preparing Annual Operating Plans

- Participate selectively in Board Meetings

- Help the founders take key strategic decisions

- Help in business development

- Identify candidates who could join as senior members of the portfolio company

- Assist the company in preparing for follow-on rounds of funding - assist in preparing pitch decks, business plans, etc

Desired skills and traits :

- Driven, self-starter - a hunger to win

- Hustle - hard work and resourcefulness

- Broad understanding of key business drivers

- Ability to connect with people (EQ)

- Curiosity and strong networking skills - ideal candidate should love meeting and interacting with new people and be curious about learning about new products/markets/trends

- Good communication and interpersonal skills - Ability to articulate thoughts and communicate effectively with internal team members and the founders / senior professionals in the industry

- Strong research capabilities and analytical abilities

- Team player with the ability to work effectively in small groups

- Basic knowledge of Excel and Powerpoint