Do you read blogs and newsletters about startups, just for fun? Do you pride yourself on working quickly and being someone on whom others can depend to do the job right? Are you the one always trying out some new tool to do your job just a little bit better?
 
Bloomberg’s venture capital firm, Bloomberg Beta (https://www.bloombergbeta.com/), is looking to add an eventually-based-in-San Francisco person to our team (more on geography below)— and this role can be that person’s first job in tech.
The person in this role will work directly for the head of the firm. If we used official titles, we might call this role a “chief of staff” or “operations associate.”
 
We’re an early-stage #foundersfirst firm (http://tiny.cc/foundersfirst) that invests exclusively in the future of work — we were the first firm to focus on the future of work, and have done just that from the very beginning. We see founders as our customers.
Working with us, you’d get to spend time with some of the most promising startups in the technology industry, and with a venture firm that approaches its work in a one-of-a-kind way — for example, in our firm, anyone can say yes to investing in a startup (yes, that would include you).
 
This could be a great role if you want a view of the startup landscape before going to a(nother) startup. Note: we believe great investors almost always end up doing more than investing, so this role is explicitly not intended as a path to partnership in our fund. Past team members have gone on to, e.g., start their own companies, join successful startups like OpenDoor, work for Elon Musk, attend graduate school, etc.
 
We want low-ego, high-throughput people who can withstand our work’s intensity and create the team spirit on which we thrive.
 
We try to be as up front as possible, so you can see what the role includes below, and (in the name of transparency) some reasons why you shouldn’t want to work with us. We welcome questions.
 
Things you’d do (starting with the least glamorous):

• Taking on any tasks you’re able to complete that, otherwise, would fall to the head of our firm, e.g., handling his inbox. (We have administrative assistance.)
• Serving as a catchall handler — this job offers a healthy dose of grunt work. A typical week’s examples: sending out thank-you gifts, shuttling the back and forth of legal documents between our lawyers and a startup in which we might invest.
• Working with our head of operations to ensure the fund operates smoothly — including relationships with legal and accounting teams, as well as curating the stack of technology services we use.
• Writing our monthly investment memos and portfolio updates.
• Running our monthly “Turpentine Talks” — portfolio events for founders.
• Supporting founders in whom we’ve already invested. For example, monitoring our founder Slack, responding to founders’ questions, and surfacing anything important for others on the team to know.
• Organizing visits of business, government, and cultural leaders to Silicon Valley, including event management.
• Writing and researching new investment areas or founder support areas. Putting together presentations from time to time that explain our fund.
• Special projects: e.g., planning our “Comeback Cities” tours.
• Shaping our fund’s strategy — assessing our mix of activities, benchmarking performance, inventing new ways to support founders. You’d be a full participant in our regular team meetings, including when we meet in person every few months.

 
You have:
 


• Desire and ability to grow — you like receiving feedback, improving, and ingesting new ways of doing things. You know that, if you can grow, you can eventually do anything. You like to seek out the new, especially around startups in our team’s area of interest. We expect you to be up on the general startup industry.
• Judgment — being able to decide whether something is urgent or important, or spotting some missing-yet-critical context.
• Quickness — you grasp new things fast, get work done fast, and can therefore do much in a typical day.
• Attention to detail and ability to power through to complete “finished work” — when a document is important, you make it letter perfect. If you say you’ll handle it, it’s as good as done. You’re resilient when things are frustrating or even painful.
• Outstanding written and verbal communication — you care deeply about understanding and being understood, and have practiced writing vividly, with clarity. You’re honest and you volunteer what others need to know. You’re courageous in taking chances to give feedback, especially to people who you believe may have more power than you do.
• A moral compass — you’re honest and act in integrity with your values. Faced with a costly choice, you do the right thing.
• Self-direction — you’re fine getting started when things are ambiguous, without step-by-step instructions or someone else dictating your priorities. You can anticipate what needs to get done.
• Self-care — we value rest, enjoyment, and health.
• An easy hand with people — when you run into a founder at an event, you’re relaxed and make others feel comfortable. You’re also comfortable working solo (our team is often out and about for days at a time).
• Numeracy — you understand and can work with numbers.
 
We know we’re asking a lot. We have a small team, and every member matters. For example, you may be asking “why does it matter, in this day and age, and for a firm focused on the future of work, if the role is in San Francisco?!” We believe in the power of in-person collaboration, though we offer flexibility to work remotely and, at the moment, the person could be elsewhere. We may host many events and gatherings in San Francisco (as we did before Covid), most of the founders we back are still in the Bay Area, and collaborating in person with the head of our fund (based in San Francisco) will enable the person in this role to thrive.
 
We’re an equal opportunity employer and celebrate diversity — including among the founders we back. We’re committed to building a team that represents a variety of backgrounds including race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, and disability status. We will provide reasonable accommodation to that individuals with disabilities, to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment. The success of our work depends on being inclusive.