About Us

Houghton Street Ventures is a newly-established early-stage venture capital firm backing world-class startups founded by London School of Economics alumni, students and academics. LSE founders form a burgeoning and exciting global ecosystem. They have raised more than $10bn over the last three years alone and, just in 2021, created ten unicorns.

We have signed an exclusive partnership agreement with the LSE, which provides us with a deep strategic connection and unprecedented access to everything that the School has to offer, including its academic body, the alumni associations, student societies, and the wider network. As investors, we are here to support with capital and act as a conduit to the whole community - bringing together and connecting talent, advisors, investors, partners and businesses, to help maximise their chances for success.

We invest across all verticals and geographies. Historically, LSE entrepreneurs have founded businesses in a range of sectors, including Fintech, E-commerce and Marketplaces, Healthtech, Edtech, Future of Work, and Data. 

We are also committed to taking the lead on ESG and have founded a global non-profit called VentureESG, which is working to define standards and practices, and drive adoption of ESG in early and growth-stage venture. 

We are now looking for an exceptional person to join us on our mission to back LSE’s best entrepreneurs and to support them as they grow from seed to IPO. This is not just a role for an LSE alum; for us, diversity of thought and networks is crucial, not to mention that the co-founders in businesses that we will be investing in may not have attended the LSE.

About the Role

This is an opportunity to join our small and ambitious team to build a fund from the ground up. You will be investing in and supporting some of the world’s most talented entrepreneurs, founders who are building businesses across the globe and making a difference to the world.

We are seeking an Investment Associate who will help identify promising founders and startups, track their progress, lead on deal diligence, and help connect companies within our network to give them the best chances for success. This role will play a crucial part in our investment journey, from the first meeting and beyond.

Job responsibilities (not to be limited to the following):

• Sourcing and triaging investment opportunities:
• Building relationships and interfacing with accelerators, pre-seed investors, and other entrepreneurial ecosystem players, globally 
• Maintaining our proprietary database for outbound opportunities
• Managing any inbound opportunities
• Managing pipeline for the team’s weekly review
• Supporting the partners throughout the investment process including:
• Preparing for meetings with founders
• Performing financial analysis on target companies
• Undertaking due diligence, including preparing and presenting investment memos
• Assisting in creating a data framework through the collation of company and industry metrics
• Assisting in negotiations, legal documentation and closing deals
• Tracking portfolio company operational and financial performance
• Shadowing partners at board meetings
• Strengthening our brand within the startup ecosystem by representing the fund at key events, supporting the broader LSE entrepreneurial ecosystem and helping with branding and marketing initiatives (e.g. leading “Why we invested” or “Why we’re excited about” thought pieces)

About You

This is a role suited to a self-starter who is excited about having a seat at the intersection of the entire LSE entrepreneurial ecosystem (a global community of 14,000 founders), and which provides for a fantastic opportunity to help shape the future of the firm and to progress quickly as we (and our portfolio) grows.

Our ideal Associate is a team player and contributor, who communicates clearly, learns new things on the go, takes feedback well, has incredible attention to detail, is highly analytical and is happy juggling multiple projects.

We want to speak with a wide range of candidates and are ultimately looking for someone who can demonstrate that they have a mix of the following:

• A strong record of academic and personal achievement
• A genuine interest in entrepreneurship and technology and an understanding of the current venture capital landscape (3-5 years of experience in venture capital or private equity where technology and private market analysis was a core part of the role)
• A highly analytical thinker with incredible attention to detail who goes well beyond the numbers to deeply understand things, is not afraid to challenge the status quo and can form a view
• Extensive proficiency in financial modelling skills and an ability to understand key drivers and assumptions behind the quantitative aspects of a company
• An independent self-starter who thrives in fast-paced environments where decisions have to be made under uncertainty and with limited information
• Able to take full ownership of deals, topics and processes
• A high degree of professionalism; we are looking for someone who can stay calm under pressure and who we can trust to interact with all our stakeholders (both internal and external)
• Strong communicator (both written and oral), good at building relationships, and has excellent presentation skills

We are an equal opportunity employer committed to a work environment that supports, inspires, and respects all individuals. As such, we value diversity and inclusion at our company and will not discriminate on the basis of sex, race, marital status, disability, age, sexual orientation, religion or any other protected characteristic.

Benefits

• Competitive salary and bonus
• Carry attribution
• Central London office with flexible work-from-home policy 
• Opportunities to work remotely within core geographies in the tech ecosystem