Chicago Ventures invests in early-stage enterprise and consumer software companies in the middle of the country. We believe innovation is unbounded by geography. Structural conditions like higher concentrations of talent and customers are accelerating the rise of non-coastal markets. Nonetheless, early-stage institutional capital remains heavily concentrated on the coasts. We fill the gap.

We are hiring an Analyst on our Investment Team to help us fulfill our mission of serving as the leading partner to founders building companies in non-coastal markets. This role will span a number of functional areas within the firm, including deal sourcing, portfolio support and fund operations. We are looking for a self-directed individual who can both adapt and bring clarity to unstructured environments.

Background

We’ve invested in 100 companies across healthcare, financial services, insurance, supply chain/logistics, manufacturing, education and more. Our portfolio includes high-growth companies including seven unicorns — we are among the top 10 firms in terms of percentage of unicorns in our portfolio per VCbenchmarks — and represents a diverse set of founders — we are among the top 25 firms investing in both under-represented founders and non-male founders in our portfolio per VCbenchmarks.

Our team is made up of former startup founders and operators, and we function much like the companies in which we invest. We are self-directed, hard working, resourceful, ego-less and personally invested in what we do.

We lean on our operating backgrounds to take a hands-on, partnership-based approach to working with our portfolio companies, providing operational support in the form of business development, talent acquisition, follow-on investment partners, peer mentorship and industry expertise.

Analyst Responsibilities

The reality of venture is that most functional responsibilities are shared. We all source new investment opportunities. We all help our founders build great companies. We all update the CRM.

How our Analyst allocates their time across the core functional areas of the business (described below) will differ over time. Their priorities will, at least initially, revolve around fund operations and diligence activities. Nonetheless, our expectation is that candidates will move seamlessly across these functions as they familiarize themselves with our operating model.

• Find and process new investment opportunities. Finding elite founders to partner with is the lifeblood of our firm. Investment Team members are expected to surface new investment opportunities, drive due diligence efforts and build cases for new investments.
• Support portfolio companies. Our success is determined by the success of our portfolio companies. To that end, Investment Team members are expected to reactively and proactively provide impactful operational support to our portfolio, from connecting founders to prospective customers to driving M&A processes.
• Manage internal fund operations. Every member of our team plays a role in managing and improving our fund operations. Responsibilities will range from limited partner reporting to intern hiring and management to portfolio construction analysis.

Our Analyst will report directly to a Partner but will work closely with all members of the Team.

Qualifications

Venture capital is an apprenticeship business without an ideal prerequisite. We don’t expect analyst candidates to have fully-formed skillsets perfectly suited for their role. Rather, we are looking for competencies that we believe correlate with success in these roles.

A few qualifications include a demonstrated interest and respect for entrepreneurship, exceptional analytical, communication (written and verbal) and project management skills, high aptitude for building strong relationships and working autonomously, a team-first mentality, and an inherent sense of accountability.

Candidates should be Chicago- or Austin-based or willing to relocate. Analysts are expected to have 2–5 years of professional experience.

To Apply:

Complete the short form here. We look forward to hearing from you.

Chicago Ventures prohibits discrimination and harassment of any kind. All applicants will be considered for employment without attention to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran, ability status, family or parental status, and age.