Who We Are:

Kickstart is an industry agnostic, early-stage (pre-seed & seed) venture capital firm that invests in startups throughout Utah, Colorado, and the broader Mountain West. The firm’s mission is to build great companies by backing the most visionary entrepreneurs with capital, community, and expertise for the journey.

What You Will be Doing:

Sourcing - You will be responsible for finding outstanding prospective investments for Kickstart by discovering and nurturing relationships with the very best startups in the West. Bringing successful, proprietary deal flow is key to the fund's success; this requires leveraging your personal network and the Kickstart community as well as proactively sourcing via events, pitch competitions, and other mediums.
Diligence - You will lead and support diligence efforts, ultimately resulting in an investment recommendation. This requires the ability to familiarize yourself with new business models and industries rapidly, cogently think through key issues, and synthesize an investment thesis. Artifacts of your diligence will often include written investment memos, market maps, financial models, reference call notes, and key industry benchmarks. As a part of your diligence work, you will also play a key role in negotiation, term-setting, and deal-making.
Portfolio support - As a senior member of the investment team, you also will take ownership for select portfolio companies. Initially, this will mean ad-hoc work and board observership, working with a General Partner to help the company to be successful. Eventually, you will be expected to take board seats and provide the key relationship between Kickstart and the portfolio company.

What You Must Bring:

Experience - We prefer strong startup operating experience or experience as a full-time investor. Experience in management consulting or other highly analytical, intellectually rigorous professions is a plus.
Skills - The following skillset will enable success in this role:
- Articulate - Strong narrative writing skills as well as the capability to articulate complex issues to a diverse set of stakeholders.
- Comprehensive - Ability to think both optimistically and critically about a startup; how it might succeed and what the failure modes might be.
- Curious - Particular passion for startups, technology, and market trends at the earliest stage.
- Emotionally intelligent - Strong verbal communication skills with the ability to network and build rapport quickly.
- Flexible - Willing to do anything as a member of a small team; no task is beneath them.
- Professional - General business acumen and ability to adapt to a fast-moving, innovative industry.
- Resourceful - Able to get a lot done without having to spend a lot of money.
- Self-starter - Willing to take initiative, comfortable working in ambiguous environments, and resourceful in helping the startups and the firm.

What Our Culture is Like:

We are looking for a generalist, full-stack investor to join our team who embodies our core values:

All-in - We believe in aligned, focused, persistent effort over time.
Collaborative - We win as a team. We hire and invest in the best and need each other to be our best.
Ethical - We choose to behave with integrity and professionalism. We play a long-term game because it's the right thing to do and good for business.
Humble - It's not about us. Regardless of our success, we serve entrepreneurs and invest other people’s money.
Curious - We have a voracious appetite for learning about technology, the world, and ourselves.