Mission Statement for Role

Startmate’s mission is to make Australia and New Zealand the best countries in the world to build a startup. The primary way we do this is by backing the most ambitious founders at the very beginning and supporting and championing them every step of their journey. 

The role of Head of Finance & Fund Operations is a multi-faceted role primarily focused on our funds business and heading up finance across the whole organisation, including our Fellowship, sponsorship and grant revenue.

Startmate invests in the earliest of stages through our Small Bets Fund, then every 6 months through our Accelerator Fund, and as of Q1 2023, in the post-Accelerator growth stages through our Continuity Fund.

You’ll be heading up one of the most active funds in the country with ~30 new, ~30 follow-on investments and hundreds of investors every year.

Role Scope: Your Responsibilities

You will holistically run Startmate’s funds and finance functions.

You’ll have the support of superstars Akshat Pande (Finance Manager) and Matt Kolomyjec (Fund Operations Associate), external legal providers, and a third-party finance provider we’re about to onboard to handle bookkeeping and accounting for the main operational entity.

You have fund-specific experience and are comfortable with fund vehicles and compliance, as well as accounting, bookkeeping, business operations, regulatory environment and talking to lawyers. 

You will be the conductor, coordinating legal, tax, compliance and accounting advice. You’re also not afraid to get your hands dirty and jump into bookkeeping and accounting yourself. You will build on existing processes and procedures — constantly iterating and improving to make us more efficient and effective. 

An added bonus is if you have compliance and legal experience, especially in the fund management space.

Among other things, you'll be responsible for...

• Fund management

  • Description

    • You run our fund vehicles. Everything from reporting, compliance, legal structuring and investor relations to carry vehicles and tax obligations.

  • Examples

    • AML compliance and reporting to AUSTRAC

    • Tax compliance and reporting in all its forms

    • NAV reporting to investors

• Accounting and bookkeeping

  • Description

    • You have full oversight of Startmate’s finances. Process improvement and automation will be highly valued.

  • Examples

    • Startmate budget

    • Running Startmate’s tax compliance from end to end

    • Oversight over reconciling of the Funds’ balance sheets and weekly cash reconciliations

    • Financial statement preparation

    • Oversight of Xero management (raising invoices and COA management)

    • Performing month-end processes (journals and monthly reconciliations)

    • General payables function

    • Payment of distributions

    • Invoicing of management fees and other Startmate revenue streams, and the timely collection of those receivables

• Legal liaison

  • Description

    • You know your way around legal documents, but more importantly know what questions need to be asked to lawyers.

  • Example:

    • Bridge to lawyers re: 

      • Fund matters (working knowledge of fund documents)

      • Secondary/Exit sales

      • IM drafting and updating

      • New fund documents 

      • ESOP

    • Structuring — think through the implications of new fund initiatives for AFSL and other regulatory purposes

    • Setting up and managing carry trusts

Position requirements

Below are the key skills and attributes you’ll need to be successful. 

• Fund Management (preferred): Expertise in operating VC/PE-style fund vehicles, which you can leverage to oversee the establishment, closing and day-to-day operations of such funds.

• Prioritisation and productivity: Startmate itself is a startup and running funds is a complicated job, with competing deliverables and often limited time. You will have a laser focus and be able to see what is business critical, get to the root of an issue and make commercial decisions, having weighed up the pros and cons. You will then pull in the resources (internal and external) to see the decisions through to their conclusion 

• Accounting acumen: Whether that’s a degree, a certificate, previously managed accountants or a personal love for P&Ls, Balance Sheets, BAS, tax returns, etc, you enjoy thinking through complex transactions and unique accounting situations (for example, experience with AASB 15, IFRS 9).

• Compliance mindset: We operate in a highly regulated environment and we need you to be the last line of defense to make sure we are hitting all of our obligations, all the time.

• Reporting love language: You live for acronyms and filing these reports with a high degree of accuracy. Whether it’s FATCA, CRS, AMMA, AML reporting — this is your love language.

• Legalese: You don’t shy away from legal documents and contracts. You don’t have to be a lawyer, but you know the right questions to ask a lawyer.

Working at Startmate

We believe that building a diverse and inclusive team is critical to Startmate’s success. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, national origin, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, or marital, veteran, or disability status. We use Applied to ensure every applicant gets an equal chance of success.

We offer:

• Community: The Startmate community is a unique mix of founders, operators and investors — the one thing everyone has in common is ambition. Startmate is much more than just our team, it’s a community built on paying it forward.

• Autonomy: You will have very high autonomy to realise your dreams within your area

• Flexibility: We are a remote-first team with coverage across Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Noosa and New Zealand. We currently have an office in Melbourne with satellite offices in Sydney and Auckland.

• Access: You get to work with every well known and less well-known Australian and Kiwi startup, VC and angel — Canva, Safety Culture, Propeller, Vend, Xero, Blackbird, Square Peg, AirTree, rampersand, Folklore — you name it!

• Great vibes: Being able to bring your best self to work is really important to us. We index heavily on wellbeing and engagement to make sure that you’re able to turn up with energy and resilience each day.

• A share of Startmate’s success: We think it is important to share successes with the whole team. All Startmate employees are owners in the management company.

You’ll thrive here if…

• You’re highly motivated and action-oriented

• You operate well in high-ambiguity environments, and have the ability to translate that uncertainty into strategy and execution

• You enjoy working closely with a team of high-performers and care deeply about being a custodian of the Startmate culture and values

• You can work and communicate very well asynchronously, and don't need to be in the same room as your teammates to work effectively as a team

About Startmate

We’re making Australia and New Zealand the best place in the world to build a startup. We’re achieving that through building a platform that unleashes startup ambition and accelerates exceptional companies.

At our core, we’re a community of the most ambitious founders, operators and investors propelled by a highly-trusted mentor-driven community, and backed by the best angels, venture funds and tech startups in the region.

Over the past decade we have invested in 200+ startups, with a combined value of $2 billion.

We’ve written a lot about what we love at Startmate, so check out our blog if you want some more information about us, and check out our mission, values, and team, and one of our most ambitious goals...