Are you passionate about startups? Would your friends describe you as endlessly curious and are you obsessed with trying new products? Do you pride yourself on working quickly and being someone on whom others can depend? Do you try to help others without an expectation of anything in return?
Who are we?
Bloomberg LP’s venture capital firm, Bloomberg Beta, is looking to add a New York-based person to our team to work with one of our Partners. We invest in early-stage startups that make business work better (we were the first venture capital firm to focus on the future of work, when we launched in 2013) and we have a speciality in machine intelligence. We have invested in Flexport, Textio, MasterClass, Codecademy, LaunchDarkly, Meetup, Doma, Replit, Newfront, Domino Data Lab, and others (https://bit.ly/betaportfolio).
We aspire to be the most transparent venture firm (https://bit.ly/MeetOurFund). We’re data driven, we’re intense, and we treat customer service as a religion (hear from our founders here: https://workingwithbloombergbeta.capsule.video/) – just like the rest of Bloomberg. We’re a small, feisty team that relishes stretching our resources a long way. Returns that we generate go to fund Bloomberg Philanthropies, giving alongside Mike Bloomberg, to ensure better, longer lives for the greatest number of people by focusing on the arts, education, the environment, government innovation, and public health.
You will succeed in this role if you’re curious about the founders and startups we back – in areas like machine intelligence, productivity tools, media, robotics, data, sales, and operations – and have a service focus. We want low-ego, high-throughput people who founders and our team want to be around.
In this role, we will trust you to (starting with the least glamorous):
- Manage and prioritize a variety of tasks supporting one of our partners, from company research, founder follow-ups, relationship building, and a myriad of other tasks
- Support our head of operations and communications on fund and firm processes
- Support writing our monthly investment memos and portfolio updates
- Create and develop programs to amplify Bloomberg Beta’s value to the startup and technology community
- Collaborate with internal partners and senior leaders across Bloomberg LP to advance Bloomberg’s broader efforts
- Serve as an additional pair of eyes and hands to provide portfolio company support
- Help be Bloomberg Beta’s presence at key events and build a network of startup founders (and future founders), operators, and domain experts
- Assist with deal sourcing, screening, analysis, and make investments
You have (in order of priority):
- Effective interpersonal skills in building internal and external relationships
- Strong time management and prioritization skills – The role is unstructured and you’ll need to hone your judgment in deciding whether something is urgent versus important versus urgent and important.
- Intellectual curiosity – You like to learn and seek out the new. You’ll relish being asked to try a new product and offer feedback.
- Genuine interest in startups – Maybe you have a blog digging into new technologies or are always learning about new companies.
- Humility and hustle to take on unfamiliar tasks and execute them with poise
- Empathy, honesty, and integrity, particularly under pressure and ambiguity
- A customer service mindset – You prioritize serving our founders and our team.
- Strong analytical skills and quantitative know-how to organize large amounts of information
- Attention to detail and ability to do ‘finished work’ – When a document is important, you make it letter perfect.
Bloomberg Beta prides itself on supporting individuals as they progress in their careers. Most associate roles at Bloomberg Beta last for a few years and then teammates go into a startup — or start one. Our alumni have worked everywhere from Opendoor and On Deck, to working for Elon Musk, other VC’s, international media conglomerates and big technology companies, as well as executives at early companies, and starting companies in areas like cybersecurity and women’s empowerment.
