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Cartography is actively interviewing for a full-time Senior Associate. This individual will lead sourcing and evaluating venture capital investment opportunities, planning and executing the diligence process, and developing investment thesis and strategic cases.
For this position, Cartography is seeking an exceptional individual who will work directly with our Partners and touch all aspects of the investment process, from sourcing to diligence, deal execution, and portfolio management. To succeed, they will need to build out the strategy, operations, tooling, and analytics for the analyst team while also managing and growing our existing team of analysts.
You’ll play a key role in conducting relevant industry research across public, private, and venture markets while incorporating macroeconomic, geopolitical, and policy trends to formulate recommendations related to potential targets, prepare related presentation materials, and administer transactional due diligence efforts.
The ideal candidate is comfortable and has experience reviewing and analyzing business plans and financial statements, developing and maintaining financial models, tracking performance of portfolio companies and maintaining an industry specific knowledge base on emerging capabilities and industry trends. With limited resources and an incomplete set of information, you’ve developed strategies and tools to operate quickly and decisively.
We are looking for someone who:
- is analytical in their approach - you’ve built and navigated financial models, cap tables, and large data sets to distill the key points and are comfortable creating novel frameworks and structures for decision making purposes where data does not exist for traditional analyses.
- has managed investment processes from origination through negotiation to execution.
- has been a key contributor in making and executing on investment strategies.
- has experience in fostering the talents of junior team members.
- is able to build rapport quickly with founders and investors.
- can thrive in a collaborative space where everyone is learning from each other - learning fast resonates deeply with Cartography’s core values of professional authenticity, integrity, and courage.
Key Responsibilities
- Developing our perspective on the markets where we invest. Every member of our investment team spends time building out investment theses across our key investment sectors. This work involves deep research on the market landscape and trends driving growth, as well as surveying the startups addressing each market.
- Building relationships with management teams and executives at companies and with investors at peer firms to generate investment ideas and deal flow
- Proactively anticipating the needs of portfolio companies and serving as an active and valuable partner to their team. Help guide portfolio companies on strategically important topics by conducting surveys, customer calls, and general industry research
- Developing moderately complex valuation models and business cases, and related presentation materials. Establishing valuation models appropriate for venture investing, outside of traditional discount cash flows.
- Providing project support and execution for the evaluation of potential targets, providing input to internal teams; assisting with formulating views on strategic fit, financial performance, potential positive and negative synergies, and overall attractiveness of transaction. Evaluating acquisition, investment and partnership opportunities, performing a broad range of qualitative and quantitative analyses.
- Supporting formulation of indicative bids, overseeing due diligence, obtaining internal approvals, providing support for negotiation and finalization of transaction terms and definitive agreements, and assisting with post-merger integration as needed.
- Staying attuned to industry trends and key players, strategically positioning Cartography within the competitive landscape. Your insights will enable us to stand out and align with prevailing market dynamics. You will represent Cartography at prominent industry events and conferences, fostering brand recognition and fostering connections with potential investors and founders.
- Extending your support to our portfolio companies as they navigate their fundraising endeavors as well as actively look for opportunities to connect LPS/investors to interesting other opportunities
Qualifications
- Extensive experience (5+ years) in venture capital, growth equity, investment banking, M&A, and/or fundraising roles.
- Finesse at weaving compelling and authentic stories, adept at translating intricate concepts into compelling, innovative, and informative narratives tailored to diverse audiences.
- Ability to swiftly adapt to emerging challenges, rapidly acquire new knowledge, and seamlessly integrate into novel settings. Your consistent track record of exceeding expectations in diverse situations is paramount.
- Excels at bringing structure to ambiguity, prioritizing tasks, managing projects, and adopting a results-driven approach to work (testing, measuring, iterating)
- History of exceptional performance characterized by meticulous information gathering, incisive analysis, hypothesis formulation, rigorous testing, and the persuasive communication of recommendations.
This role offers a unique opportunity to join an early-stage investment firm on the ground floor. The person we hire will be on our Partner track, and thus, we are only considering contributors who bring an ownership mentality and want to be part of building something new and transformative.
Cartography itself is a startup and no task is too small or ambition too big. Clarity of thought is your strength; you are able to communicate complex subject matters and your views clearly, concisely and persuasively both verbally and in writing.