The role
A Founder's Associate takes work off the founder's desk and owns it. Not a support function. You will be given problems with no obvious answer and be expected to come back with a recommendation, then run it.
The mix changes month to month. Expect partnerships and business development support, investor and market research, operations, hiring coordination, and preparing the material that goes in front of banks, payment companies and investors. Some of the week is still calendar, inbox and travel, because we are small and someone has to do it.
It suits someone who has worked inside a bank or a fintech, understands how partnerships and product decisions actually move, and wants two years of experience compressed into one.
What you will do
- Own workstreams end to end and report back on outcomes, not activity
- Keep the partner and investor pipeline current, and chase what is outstanding
- Research companies, markets, regulation and competitors, and write up what matters in one page
- Prepare briefing notes, documents and decks for external meetings
- Sit in on partner and investor calls, write them up, and drive the follow ups
- Coordinate hiring: sourcing, scheduling, first pass screening
- Run day to day operations: vendors, invoices, expenses, tools, filing
- Manage the founder's calendar, inbox and meetings
What we need
- At least 2 years in banking, or at least 1 year in a fintech company
- Exposure to product management or partnerships is preferred
- Fluent written and spoken English.
- Strong writing. You can turn a 60 minute meeting into 10 clear lines
- Structured thinker. You break an open ended question into steps before starting
- Confident with spreadsheets, shared documents and basic project tools
- Discreet. You will see confidential material every day
- Comfortable with ambiguity and with being told your first answer is wrong
Nice to have
- Exposure to payments, compliance, merchant onboarding or KYB
- Experience working directly with a founder or senior executive
- Experience working with a team in another country
- A degree in Finance or Business, but we welcome people with a diverse background.
What you get
- Direct line to the founder and to every part of the business
- Visibility into partnerships with payment companies and acquirers, and into fundraising
- Room to grow into a product, partnerships or operations role as the company grows