This is an opportunity to get in right at the start of a brand new breed of venture in Australia and be a critical part of the formation of our investment frameworks and the composition of our portfolio. You will get front-line experience in venture capital investing and fund management with an ability to evolve over time into a specialisation that appeals. You will also get an exceptional entry into the Australian venture capital ecosystem and access to some of the minds that shape it.

As one of the first employees at SecondQuarter you’ll be working directly with the Managing Partner. You will receive an extremely solid grounding in venture capital investing, assessing technology companies and will develop specialised fund management skills. And, over time, we will support your career to evolve into a specialisation within SecondQuarter. 

To succeed in this role you will need to be good at independent working. You must have equal parts of initiative and natural drive which allows you to self-start and navigate issues with independence, self-assurance and confidence, knowing that you will have support if you need it.

Broadly speaking, this how you’ll spend your time:

1. Critical Assessment:

Investment Analysis of some of the country’s best venture-backed technology companies to work out whether they:

• Are attractive and investible; and
• Suit SecondQuarter’s investment thesis; and
• Can be priced reasonably.

This will involve collecting the information required to take investment opportunities from being a lead, through SecondQuarter’s investment funnel and to a point at which an investment decision can be made. It will include:

• Company and market research;
• Research on the competitive landscape of markets we invest in;
• Preparation of short form and long form investment notes;
• Dissemination of data room materials;
• Building a logical valuation argument for each investment we make;
• Monitoring SecondQuarter’s existing investment portfolio;
• Preparation of investment decks and/or other supporting investment material for co-invest opportunities.

We believe ongoing training, learning and education is an important part of being able to perform this role really well.

2. Development of our investment toolkit:

In conjunction with the Managing Partner, continuously improve the quality and efficiency of the frameworks that power SecondQuarter’s decision making in a manner that does not compromise speed. Examples of this might include improving how we assess:

• Founders and/or teams;
• Market size;
• Existence of product/market fit;
• Competitive landscape of each target company;
• The mix of VC investors in target companies.

It will also include working with the Managing Partner to establish the precedent toolkit including cap-table models, valuation models, general business models, portfolio monitoring tools and Pitchbook research queries.

3. Marketing, Comms & Reporting

This is a support function to help the Managing Partner maintain regular and clear communication with SecondQuarter’s investor base and other ecosystem partners. It will include:

• Occasional publication of pieces on an issue that interests or on one of SecondQuarter’s investee companies via a platform such as Medium;
• Working with the Managing Partner and the Operations Manager on the preparation of portfolio updates for SecondQuarter’s investor base;
• Preparing information about SecondQuarter for target companies or the Australian media;
• Regular LinkedIn posts and informal updates/insight/intelligence (on LinkedIn) relating to portfolio companies or the market.

Who should apply?

Anyone with a university degree and around 2+ years assessing technology companies, working at a top tier management consultancy or something similarly challenging.

You will need to be fluent in Excel/GoogleSheets and Canva and you must be really good at distilling simplicity from complex concepts. You'll need clear logical thinking and an ability to apply it laterally. You’ll be good at building clear, logical financial models in excel and, if you have deeper information systems experience, that is a plus.

You'll be comfortable working in the cloud, super organised and have a clear passion for solving for the considerable unknowns in the technology investing world. 

The position is ideally, but not necessarily, based in Sydney and we support remote working.

We offer a competitive base salary commensurate with experience. In addition, you will be offered a share of fund performance economics, subject to vesting over several years.