Team Talks: A Day in the Life of a Venture Director
Ever been curious about what it takes to be a Venture Director?
Meet Joanna Moore: fifth year student, music enthusiast, and IDEA’s current Venture Director. An IDEA veteran, Moore wore many hats during her time with the venture accelerator. Starting as an Investments Coordinator, she moved on to Go Stage Coordinator, Analyst and finally became Venture Director. As VD, Moore manages the Venture Team which exists to make entrepreneurship a more available opportunity for the Northeastern community. This is done through designing the venture experience through the program, communicating directly with ventures, running information sessions and events, and providing constructive feedback.
Keep reading to see what it takes to manage such a significant team.
1) What is something that people don’t know about your position?
As a manager, Moore’s role is very people focused. Between the ventures and fellow IDEAtors, “most of [her] job is talking to people and getting a sense of how those in operational roles on the team, such as coordinators and analysts, are feeling about their work. “I get to work with so many people ranging from NUCEE and other team leads to ventures. It has really given me a new perspective on IDEA [having] previously focused my work in Go Stage and particularly on Gap Fund.” Praising her team, the new Director revels in how easy her dedicated team members make her job: “I have been so impressed with everyone’s dedication so far this year.”
2) Individual or team driven?
Holding a lead “role has everything to do with the willingness to work together,” the venture lead notes. “Being thoughtful about who the stakeholders are as we approach problems in order to create a lasting and impactful solution helps us to bring together groups of people with the skill sets we need to succeed.”
3) What part are you most passionate about and why?
Being able to leverage collaboration across teams, especially with ventures. Excitedly, Moore states that the most interesting of the semester was getting to know how the other teams, such as Community, Tech, Marketing and Events, help ventures through their various functions. “I think the way we are building cross-team projects has made our management team not only more efficient, but more effective in creating impact for ventures. It makes us work faster and better. It allows us to meet people with different skill sets and learn from how they approach a problem. At IDEA we not only help innovators, but also we are innovators.”
4) Most rewarding experience?
For Moore, hearing people be enthusiastic about the work that she has a small hand in is very rewarding. “Seeing my team take ownership of their roles and their relationships with ventures has by far been the biggest motivator for me. It never gets old.”
5) What were your expectations starting out and what are they like now?
Having had a few different roles on the team, Moore’s expectations have shifted with every year. “I’m not sure I totally knew what I was getting into when I joined the team. Going into this year in a more management-heavy role, I expected to have to do a lot of waiting for the areas of growth the leadership team identified to take shape.” However, after only a few months of work (and only one and a half with a full team, she says), the current VD thinks she was definitely wrong. “I am so impressed with how everyone has focused on executing and iterating to better serve the people in our communities,” emphasizing that she had never experienced such support for IDEA from Northeastern and beyond before.
Moore would like to highlight her team in particular: working closely with the Tech team to improve processes for stage coordinators and ventures, they were able to quickly and thoroughly dive right into the stage gate process. That immersion allowed them to better understand and identify opportunities for improvement. Impressed, Moore states that “the results have been incredible so far.”
If you are interested in getting involved with IDEA or learning more about us, please visit this page or sign up for the next New Venture Information Session!
