Mission Statement for Role

Startmate is the epicentre of startup ambition in Australia and New Zealand and exists to make ANZ the best place in the world to build a startup. 

One of the core pillars of this vision is to build a thriving community of investors in ANZ and empower them to believe in and back the next generation of early stage founders. This is the pillar that you will help us build.

This role is designed for someone hungry, not proven, and excited by the opportunity to grow and learn from the investments team. There is no formal investment experience required. This role will give you the opportunity to… 

• 🧠 rapidly build your investing frameworks and knowledge,

• ✨ form a network of ANZ’s brightest minds, 

• 🧐 assess ambitious startup ideas, 

• 🚀 find the next generational startup, and 

• 🧑‍🚀 work at the centre of the startup ecosystem

Startmate has a different investing approach to most traditional venture capital (VC) firms. Most VCs are limited by the capacity of a small team of investment partners and associates to find and select startups. Startmate leverages our powerful community of thousands of founders, investors, and operators to enable us to make great investments at scale. We see over 1,000 startups every year and are the most active early-stage investor in ANZ.

In this role, you'll manage the beating heart of our investor community, First Believers. The program has an average rating of 9.3/10. Over 200 high-flying and diverse angels have been upskilled and onboarded into our community through this angel investing program. These include founders of iconic Australian companies, Managing Engineers from Tesla, the Head of marketing from AirBnB, Head of Startups at Stripe, Global Product at Tik-Tok, Head of Product Amazon, Lead Recruiters at Canva, Security Engineers at Apple, GMs from UBER, partners at Bain and KPMG, ex-AFL Superstars and many, many more.

Our investor community supercharges our ability to find and invest in the most ambitious founders in ANZ. Many of them have become core parts of our ecosystem, investing directly into early-stage startups and becoming invaluable mentors to founders.On top of this, you have the exciting opportunity to impact the broader investments team, growing our ability to make great early-stage investments through our Small Bets Fund, new Syndicate, and Accelerator selection process.

Key info:

• Salary:$70k - $85k + super + equity + carry

• Location: Sydney, Auckland, or Melbourne (remote for the right candidate but preference for local)

• Reporting to: Ben Simai, Investment Manager

Role Scope: Your Responsibilities

• Responsibility 1: Program 

  • Description: Continue to improve and manage the processes that enable us to run a trajectory-changing First Believers program

  • Example: Participant selection, onboarding, program design, and facilitation

  • KPI/Metric: Program NPS 75+

• Responsibility 2: People

  • Description: Build high-trust, open relationships with our angel investing community and early-stage founders

  • Example: Post-program alumni engagement, in-person & virtual events, founder pitch nights, ongoing comms with founders of interest

• Responsibility 3: Investment Team Projects

  • Description: Build on and execute high-leverage strategic initiatives, alongside the investment team, to level up our investing function

  • Example: Integral part of the Accelerator selection process, leveraging the new Startmate Syndicate, sourcing and selecting founders for the Small Bets Fund

What you won’t do

• Investor onboarding 

• Investment execution (paperwork)

• Establishing investment funds

• Investor reporting

Position Requirements

Your background is less important than your key skills, which might include:

• Relationship Superhero - We’re looking for someone who spikes in their EQ and people skills. You can build trust, listen, understand what our investors and founders want and need, and action that feedback accordingly.

• Communication - You are a clear verbal and written communicator at scale. You derive energy from educating others and facilitating sessions. You can manage communication from 50+ investors and founders at any given time.

• Organisation - You love creating beautiful long-lived systems and can manage multiple competing priorities with the best in the business. You bring structure to chaos.

• Problem Solving - You thrive in situations of high ambiguity where structured, decisive, and creative thinking is required. You’re resourceful, have a learn-it-all attitude, and do what you need to drive a problem from identification through to resolution.