About JumpStart Inc.

JumpStart is a non-profit venture development organization whose mission is to unlock the full potential of entrepreneurship to transform entire communities and our vision is to collaborate with partners to generate dramatically improved and inclusive economic outcomes by supporting diverse entrepreneurs, optimizing entrepreneurial ecosystems, and accelerating innovation.

Key to JumpStart’s success is its ability to leverage the skills, experience, and creativity of its inspired team to transform entrepreneurial aspirations into actions with measurable impact. JumpStart leaders and teammates take great pride in JumpStart being a highly demanding yet incredibly fun place to work.

Position Summary

The Entrepreneur-in-Residence (EIR) is a 1099 contractor role with the primary responsibility of providing one-on-one business assistance to high-growth technology companies for the purposes of preparing them to successfully raise pre-seed and seed-stage venture capital.

The role would be compensated based on an hourly rate with a capacity of around 30 hours a week.

The EIR is responsible for working closely with assigned client companies to accelerate their growth and prepare them to raise venture capital. Having a solid understanding of early-stage funding sources (pre-seed through seed) and alignment with those funds’ investment process is essential to the role. This includes establishing communications and collaboration with the members of the JumpStart Ventures team which as both seed and Series A funds under management.

The EIR manages the client relationship of assigned companies, helping them to navigate the startup ecosystem by assessing client needs/priorities, making relevant connections (i.e. to resources, business and investor opportunities, etc.), and delivering high impact hands-on support. The role helps client companies generate the traction needed to attract early-stage investors, prepare for and execute fundraising rounds, and navigate the growth needs of a high-growth startup (i.e. financial forecasting, budgeting, go-to-market strategy, fundraising, product development, hiring, governance, etc.)

This role works closely with the Tech Services and Ventures team, including Investment and Deal Flow Associates, other EIRs, mentors, and subject matter experts from partners through Northern Ohio, to support high potential tech startups achieve high growth as a collective team.

Essential Job Functions

70% Client Management and Consulting Services

Provide 1-on-1 direct business assistance to early-stage tech startups to help them realize high growth and secure venture capital. Provide start-up client companies with consistent, value-added direct support and access to resources that will help them grow rapidly and attract venture capital.

Important aspects of the role include:

• Rapidly gain client/portfolio company CEO’s trust as a highly qualified advisor, guide and resource provider.
• Identify milestone-based plans to engage with client/portfolio companies over a 6-to-12-month timeframe to drive value.
• Help mobilize Jumpstart’s internal and extended network of resources to help successfully achieve value-based milestones and raise venture capital.

Specific responsibilities include:

• Serve as the primary point of contact for JumpStart and work with the founder as an extension of the startup team for assigned client companies (spending approximately 10 hours per company client per month).
• Champion the client to help them access startup ecosystem resources as needed to help successfully achieve startup specific Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and Objectives and Key Results (OKRs).
• Work closely with the founder to build out “capital access plan” and supporting fundraising materials for current and future capital needs
• Nurture and build an active list of angel investors and make appropriate introductions for the client companies.
• Actively educate and mentor clients on “venture capital” path and ensure that the clients understand the expectations of raising capital and driving growth
• Bring a network of subject matter experts and capital connections within your specific industry to help founders build their network to achieve growth goals by attracting revenue generating customers and securing venture capital.
• Develop relationships with the entrepreneurial, business development and technology resources in the region and beyond to build a better integrated ecosystem for referrals.

20% Program Development / Education

• Contribute to the development and delivery of startup programming and services while also connecting founders to existing programs and services.

10% Communications and Reporting

• Ensure timely reporting of metrics and information, independently and in conjunction with other members of the service delivery team, recognizing that metrics are critical in demonstrating success and program validation to current and potential customers).
• Track clients’ progress and milestones in Salesforce CRM.
• Support bi-annual survey process to clients to track startup progress and satisfaction.
• Participate as advocate and thought leader for entrepreneurship in various presentation forums and outreach speaking engagements, with a particular focus on engaging through the startup ecosystem.

Decision Making Responsibilities

This position requires a high degree of autonomy, business experience and strategic decision making. The EIR will be managing a large volume of early-stage startups and assessing what services they need based on assessment and discussions with other partners in order to make progress.

Physical Demands/Working Conditions

Normal office demands. Local travel, up to 75% including office hours and presence at partner organizations. Need to be able to accommodate flexible schedule for work during evenings and weekends to meet or support entrepreneurs when they are available.

Required Qualifications

Education, Training and/or Experience

• Founder/CEO at a venture-backed startup or minimum 2 years of experience in senior leadership role (preferably in a financial/fund raising role) at venture-backed company
• 5+ years of senior management experience in a venture-backed startup company, in leading early-stage tech companies and/or in scaling IT/Software company environments
• Direct experience with raising venture capital and interfacing with investors
• Ability to operate as a generalist with specific functional domain expertise or have experience in more than one functional domain
• Experience in SaaS business models
• Experience in building pre-seed, seed, and Series A stage companies

Knowledge, Skills, Abilities and Personal Characteristics

• Proficiency with Microsoft Office Suite
• Ability to give and coach from relevant experience
• Ability to manage several clients across the region and allocate meaningful time across them.
• Ability to see the larger strategic picture, absorb large amounts of data, draw out key findings and insights and synthesize thoughts in easy to follow, logical and coherent manner
• Ability to relate to all organizational levels and establish credibility with entrepreneurs
• Appreciation of all aspects and functions of a business
• Ability to build and operate in team-based environments
• Combination of strategic thinker and practical operational execution
• Empathy and people leadership skills

Preferred Qualifications

Education, Training and/or Experience

• Leadership experience in a tech company that raised pre-seed through Series A capital and beyond in excess of $10M
• Leadership experience in a tech company that had a successful wealth creating exit for founders/investors

JumpStart's Core Values and Key Cultural Behaviors

• Accountability: Act to deliver on commitments and generate results, and if expectations aren't clear, ask
• Entrepreneurial: Embrace opportunity, continuous improvement, and change, and contribute to the solution as we evolve
• Equity: Committed to corrective action regarding historically underserved and underrepresented populations through entrepreneurship and innovation
• Energy: Address our work with focus, grit, and enthusiasm
• Collaboration: Collaborate with others to play our most helpful role(s) and to increase effectiveness
• Humility: Balance self-assurance with listening to understand, having an open mind, and demonstrating patience

JumpStart's Definitions for Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity

• Diversity: A measure of psychological, demographic, physical, and social differences occurring among any and all individuals in a specific group; including but not limited to racial identity, ethnicity, nationality, religion, socioeconomic status, education, marital status, language, age, gender identification, sexual orientation, culture, developmental ability, and learning styles.
• Inclusion: The act of promoting and maintaining an environment in which diverse groups of individuals are welcomed, respected, supported, valued, and empowered. An environment prioritizing differences and offers respect and acceptance in the words/actions/thoughts of all people.
• Equity: An acknowledgment and understanding there are historically underserved and underrepresented populations, and corrective action regarding these unbalanced conditions is needed to eliminate barriers and guarantee equality in the provision of fair treatment, access opportunity, and advancement in the provision of effective opportunities to all groups.
• Emphasis Statement: Historically, African Americans, Latinx people, and women have been economically disenfranchised and disconnected from innovation and entrepreneurship. For these reasons, we place an emphasis on these populations as we work to diversify our culture and be inclusive in our daily interactions and decisions.

JumpStart's Operating Style: JumpStart team members are expected to be:

• Honest: We speak the truth, plainly and simply, kindly and considerately. We will challenge you as we seek to accomplish great things. And we hope you will do the same with us.
• Responsive: We respond rapidly to your inquiries and actively communicate so we are all on the same page.
• Resourceful: We will be creative and efficient in helping you to access relationships, contacts and other resources to help you succeed.
• Insightful: We will provide the knowledge and insight about entrepreneurship and innovation you aren't able to easily get from others

This position description is not intended to be a complete list of all responsibilities, duties or skills required for the job and is subject to review and change at any time, with or without notice, in accordance with the needs of JumpStart. Since no position description can detail all the duties and responsibilities that may be required from time to time in the performance of a job, duties and responsibilities that may be inherent in a job, reasonably required for its performance, or required due to the changing nature of the job shall also be considered part of the jobholder's responsibility.

Reasonable accommodation will be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. JumpStart Inc. is an Equal Opportunity Employer and offers competitive salary & comprehensive benefits (medical, vision, 401k, paid vacation).