We’re Hiring: Growth Principal

Help us build our growth platform

Our purpose at Obvious Ventures is to back companies reimagining trillion-dollar sectors through a world positive lens: biologically-grown materials, plant-based meats and cheeses, accelerated drug discovery powered by deep learning, and much more.

As former operators ourselves (e.g. Patagonia, Twitter, Apple, Medium, and more), we have deep empathy and profound respect for the purpose-led entrepreneurs in which we invest.

Clockwise from top left: Beyond Meat takes plant-based protein mainstream, Proterra electrifies transportation systems, Lilium’s eVTOL jet makes flying cars a reality, VSCO delivers a mobile creative suite, and Incredible Health helps healthcare pros find and do their best work.

As we scale our capabilities, Obvious is looking to expand our growth stage investing with the addition of a Growth Principal who will act as a steward in evaluating and executing growth-stage investment opportunities across our sectors.

Based at Obvious’ San Francisco headquarters in the Presidio, the core areas of focus for the Growth Principal will be:

• Managing the decision-making process for, and timing of, follow-on investments in Obvious portfolio companies in their growth stage.
• Proactively sourcing investments and working collaboratively with the team to support due diligence and execution of new growth investments.
• Systematically staying abreast of market trends related to our core themes, collecting information from key sources on upcoming changes and market best practices.

The right candidate will bring demonstrated skills which can be characterized in the following areas:

• Transaction execution skills. Candidates will ideally have a five-plus year track record of transaction execution, including successfully handling the different stages of a deal: analysis, due diligence, company valuations, preparing investment memorandums, and being active in all other deal phases. The candidate must also have a track record of direct negotiation of legal, business, and financial contractual deal points.
• Sound investment judgment. Candidates must have demonstrated examples of applying sound, strategic judgment in analyzing business plans, market, and macroeconomic information and company financials.
• Entrepreneurial and results-oriented. To succeed in this role, the individual will be a self-starter, with the ability to work comfortably with ambiguity and without clear direction.

The ideal candidate has several years of growth equity investing and/or investment banking, corporate development, or other operating experience in a diversity of sectors, with a proven track record of successfully executing transactions from start to finish. S/he will bring strong business judgment and a firm grounding in deal execution, including valuation, modeling, and process management.

In addition, the candidate will possess excellent stakeholder management skills, a network endemic to our field of work, and the ability to foster positive relationships with external constituencies.

If you’re interested, or simply want to learn more about the position, please drop us a line (and a resume) at talent@obvious.com.

If you don’t hit each of these qualifications above, but still feel like you might be right for the role, we’d still love to hear from you.