Investment Associate
San Francisco, CA +1
Junior +1 · Full time
Posted 2 years ago
Apply

Emergence is a pre-eminent enterprise cloud investor with a 20-year track record of success partnering with people who change the way the world works.

Our founders started the firm in 2003 with the philosophy that the best culture and best performance would be achieved by grooming people from within. Over the past two decades, we have maintained an intentional career development process at the firm with this as our North Star goal. In the same way Emergence approaches how we invest in companies, we are purposeful in how we build our team and develop our people. From the first non-founding investor that joined Emergence in 2006 through the present, the firm has maintained a true apprenticeship model. We’re lean by design—which has allowed for deep mentorship and collaboration between our tight-knit team of seasoned VCs, operating partners, and YOU!

Recently, we’ve been fortunate to work closely with the extraordinary entrepreneurs building Zoom, Bill.com, Blend, Chorus, Clearco, Doximity, G2, Gusto, Ironclad, project44, Salesloft, and others. We want to find the next generation of great entrepreneurs building enterprise companies that change the way the world works. Which brings us to our next point...

We’re excited to share that we are looking to bring on a few associates!

As a member of the investment team, you will actively participate in all stages of the investment process from identifying & evaluating potential investment opportunities to supporting current portfolio entrepreneurs. While you will be working directly with one General Partner (co-develop investment theses, take company pitches, source new opportunities, nurture relationships, attend the occasional board meeting, execute diligence, and more) who will be responsible for mentoring you, there will be opportunities to collaborate with other GPs and senior investors on cross-firm initiatives. This is a true vertical experience where you will have the opportunity to learn every aspect of venture capital.

This is a full-time role that will be based in the Bay Area once we can safely return to the office. Apply here.

Responsibilities include:

  • Represent Emergence well in first meetings with entrepreneurs, leaving a strong positive impression with the entrepreneur and gathering the data needed to make a decision on next steps.
  • Support development of new investment theses by conducting research and leading sector scrums.
  • Complete due diligence for your GP’s deals and synthesize your findings for the Investment Committee.
  • Support sourcing initiatives for the firm, such as developing relationships with angel/seed investors and supporting your GP's relationships.
  • Network heavily as a representative of Emergence, engaging and building your network to identify exciting enterprise startups.
  • Draft investment memos and co-author blog posts. Serve as a thought partner to your GP and provide them with leverage.
  • Support your GP’s portfolio companies on key initiatives and as requests/questions come in. Attend the occasional board meeting.
  • Manage Affinity CRM to ensure investment opportunities are accurately collected and are up-to-date.
  • Serve as an active, contributing member of our sourcing task force: drive weekly sourcing meetings, process data-driven sourcing leads, run sourcing analyses, among other sourcing and sourcing ops related tasks.

This position is not:

  • A “partner” role. At least not immediately. We believe in maintaining transparency and that includes how we represent ourselves externally. For exceptional performance, there is an opportunity for partner-track consideration.
  • A check-writing role on the investment team. Instead, it is a unique opportunity to gain invaluable hands-on experience in early-stage enterprise tech investing directly from veteran VCs steeped in the enterprise/SaaS industries. You will learn the art of thesis development and company-building from the Emergence team and begin to develop your “deal gut” and personal brand, things we think are foundational to becoming an effective “check-writer”.
  • All glamorous. There will be a lot of behind-the-scenes work (e.g. research, data entry, handling partner funnels, building dashboards, digging into metrics and financial models). Perhaps not glamorous, but what we believe is foundational to building your investor skill set.

What you’ll get out of this position:

  • A kind, interesting, and supportive team of fellow associates to grow and learn early-stage enterprise tech investing from as you build your career in VC.
  • Fundamental skills that we believe are critical to becoming a good investor
  • Key insights into early-stage investing in b2b/enterprise companies at a premier venture fund; seeing the inner workings of a institutional VC fund
  • Hands-on experience participating in all parts of the investment process with direct mentorship from our GPs.
  • Exposure to how early-stage VC funds actually support their portfolio. You’ll collaborate with the operating partners on our Platform team as they help support our companies.
  • Learnings from portfolio companies as they operate, fundraise, and scale from the earliest-stages through post-IPO.
  • Access to a premier network of entrepreneurs, executives, and investors.
  • An unparalleled career opportunity. For everyone who comes onboard, we commit to teaching you the business in the Emergence way. We're continuously iterating on how we develop talent—for top performers in this role, there's now a possibility to eventually become our next general partners at Emergence.

Who we’re looking for:

We’ve seen a range of backgrounds perform well in this role (and have showcased some below). Some examples of profiles we think could be great:

  • Prior experience in VC/PE. Bonus points if you focused on b2b/enterprise and early-stage. Wenz Xing joined us from Bullpen Capital and Cloudflare and demonstrated clear interest in early-stage investing during his undergraduate years.
  • Operating experience in Corp Dev, BizOps, Product or some combination of roles. Yaz El-Baba came from LinkedIn, where he did a rotation acros BizOps, Corp Dev and Product Strategy following an FP&A rotation at Microsoft.
  • Consulting/investment banking (TMT) experience from a top firm/bank.

How some would describe you:

  • You’re fascinated by technology (ideally enterprise software) and how today’s entrepreneurs are shaping the future.
  • You may not necessarily have deep knowledge of the venture capital industry, but are capable of activating a network of VCs/founders to lean on, are excited about the field, and eager to learn the business quickly.
  • You have a strong process orientation; affinity for designing and carrying out processes involving multiple stakeholders. You have a demonstrated ability to focus, synthesize and handle ambiguous tasks. Most would say you are execution-oriented.
  • You are constantly helping us think through how we can be better, thrive off new ideas and push our thinking. You enjoy thesis development and are a reliable thought partner.
  • You have a low ego, are self-motivated and take initiative. You’re willing to complete non-glamorous tasks (e.g. data entry) in an accurate and timely manner and take on new responsibilities at all levels with enthusiasm.
  • You’re highly analytical and logical, love uncovering non-obvious insights, and are intellectually curious and intuitive. You possess strong attention to detail.
  • You have exceptional written and verbal communication skills, solid presentation skills and are comfortable in Google Slides and PPT. You know the right questions to ask, as well as when to listen and learn.
  • You have the polish and presence to regularly interact with premier CEOs, founders, and entrepreneurs. Demonstrated ability to network, build rapport and maintain relationships with entrepreneurs.
  • You hustle, and come with a demonstrated track record of scrappiness.
  • You’re a great teammate who works well with others.

If this sounds like you, and you have 2-4 years of professional work experience, we’d love to hear from you.

At Emergence, we value resourcefulness, diversity, team play, excellence, and hustle. We believe in the importance of an inclusive and diverse team. We welcome people of all ages, genders, ethnicities, orientations and backgrounds to apply. Someone will follow up if your background is a fit for us and we want to dig in more.

Interested? Apply here!

Emergence
Emergence is a venture capital firm, investing in early and growth-stage cloud and SaaS visionaries that change the way the world works.
Size:  11-50 employees
Year Founded:  2003
Justine & Olivia Moore's Notes
Justine & Olivia Moore
Curator of Accelerated
Great opportunity to join a best-in-class enterprise software firm! Associates at Emergence get to apprentice directly with a General Partner while also working on cross-firm initiatives.
© 2023 Pallet Labs Inc. See privacy policy and terms of service
Get started on Pallet
This community is on Pallet — Where creators turn their community into recruiting networks