Managing Partner, Boston

OVERVIEW

Palm Venture Studios (PVS) is an active, nationwide network of venture studios that specializes in giving promising but "stuck" companies a second life via "rescue capital" and other resources that enable companies to turnaround and succeed. We are looking for an experienced founder and investor to lead our 11K square foot Boston studio (Somerville, MA). The venture studio network will provide portfolio companies with shared methodology, extensive networks and resources in functional business areas such as strategy, capital, FP&A, marketing, accounting, HR, and recruiting. PVS is backed by an active, single family investment office with a strong track record of acquiring underperforming businesses and pivoting them to a more disruptive business plan that drives results, as well as launching startups from scratch; the family office has acquired or started 65 companies since 1992, 18 of which have been sold for 21x return on capital invested.

THE ROLE

Our Managing Partners are the keystone of our venture studio model. They chart whitespace, identify opportunities, drive deals to conclusion, and then steward a portfolio of growing companies. This role is ideal for an experienced entrepreneur and investor who is excited about developing multiple companies simultaneously. The ideal candidate has developed and launched multiple startups, and has experience with turnarounds or similar operating environments.

ACCOUNTABILITIES

As our Managing Partner in Boston, you will be accountable for:

• Use your network to find early-stage companies that are "stuck" or distressed, but have a promising product that could potentially reach a large market and make a positive impact on the world. Rapidly evaluate such concepts across multiple industries, while collaboratively making go/no-go calls for further diligence.
• Work with the Palm deal team to prioritize promising deals, conduct diligence, and help drive deals to close. This entails developing and refining a deal thesis for each project, which could be a minority stake, majority stake, company restructure, asset purchase or licensing deal, or other creative structuring to accomplish a win-win-win for the company, existing shareholders, and Palm.
• Steward the companies in your portfolio through development and growth. This includes driving alignment on their strategic approach and roadmap, recruiting executive team members and key roles for the companies, acting as a sounding board and coach, and making industry connections to customers and advisers that will advance the business.
• Over time, refine your investment theses and chart white space and opportunities that Palm Venture Studios should pursue. If and when you uncover opportunities that are best pursued by building a de novo startup, propose the product and budget to the investment committee to be build in your Studio.
• Support cross-studio collaboration and help make the Palm Venture Studios network a high-performing organization.
• Build a community and network in Boston and portfolio of companies actively working out of the Boston venture studio.

Requirements

You are a perfect fit for this position if you have:

• A strong desire to build companies that make the world a better place.
• At least 8 years of executive-level business leadership experience, including operating roles and investment roles.
• Experience founding and selling at least one company, with an exit that was a strong win.
• Experience investing professionally (venture capital, private equity, distressed, or similar models).
• Experience recruiting and hiring talented people, especially for startups and companies with uncertain futures.
• A network that will enable you to find a steady stream of "stuck" companies that might be a great fit for our venture studio method, as well as white-space ideas for us to build de novo.
• An entrepreneurial, "extreme ownership" mindset and an appetite to take on a high level of responsibility commensurate with anticipated rewards.
• Excellent professional references and a demonstrable record of integrity.
• Ideally has spent a significant portion of time in the Boston area.

Benefits

The compensation for this role is $250-300K base salary, benefits, and substantial equity in the companies in your venture studio (both acquired companies and de novo startups). In sum, this compensation package is heavily weighted towards equity, and is a good fit for someone who is confident they can repeatedly build and sell companies with great outcomes.