Head of Venture Support

We are seeking a Head of Venture Support to grow the organisation’s venture support activities and deliver business programmes for a wide range of early-stage and growing social and environmental impact ventures.

Position: Head of Venture Support

Location: East London or Cambridge with occasional travel to other locations (Cambridge, Peterborough and East London)

Hours: Full-time - 35 hours per week

Contract: Permanent

Salary: £55,000 - £62,000 per annum depending on experience

Closing date: 9th September 2024

Benefits: Strong commitment to personal and professional development, Company pension scheme; free on-site parking (Cambridge/Peterborough); Bike2Work Scheme, various discounts, a Healthcare cash plan, wellness programme, electric car lease scheme through salary sacrifice (subject to eligibility), private healthcare, life insurance, flexible working, casual dress, annual volunteering day to commit to a charity or cause of your choice, working for a multi-award winning organisation including previously awarded the best not for profit employer in the Eastern Region, being part of a community that drives innovation with a focus on addressing environmental and social challenges.

About the role:

As Head of Venture Support, you will grow the profile of the organisation’s venture support activities and lead our Venture Support team to deliver business programmes for a wide range of early-stage and growing social and environmental impact ventures including tech for good startups and social enterprises. You will also develop and implement new service offerings to support our ventures in becoming a force for good in society as we grow the profile of our work. Our support includes structured accelerator programmes, grant initiatives, innovation challenges, and social investment.

You will champion the organisation’s venture work to attract business partners and investors, managing key strategic relationships whilst creating new partnerships and business development opportunities.

You’ll manage and develop a brilliant team of Programme Managers, Venture Outreach Associates, and Venture Advisors and make sure they’re on track with programme design, recruitment, budgets, delivery, and impact. You’ll provide timely support and direction to the team members who are passionate about enabling business to be a force for good.

Key areas of responsibility include:

Develop and oversee the execution of a strategy for outreach, seeking, attracting and onboarding deserving and qualified innovative entrepreneurs and start-ups. Provide credible strategic guidance to programme managers in content areas such as business modelling, sales and marketing, financing, fundraising, overall strategy, operations etc. Create project plans and timelines to map out milestones and help assess resource requirements across central services such as marketing and accounts. Enable and support the professional growth of the Venture team as they work across a variety of clients, programmes and geographies. Liaise with senior management, the marketing and fundraising teams, and the broader organisation to sustainably grow the impact of our support, including our vision to grow impact business support to many more locations nationally. Manage the novel social investment programme we have established leveraging equity and revenue-based finance instruments.

About you:

As Head of Venture Support, your ability to build rapport quickly and develop strong working relationships across different stakeholder groups will be based on reading situations quickly and strong interpersonal skills. You will have experience working with start-ups, entrepreneurs, mentors, universities, research institutions, industry experts, business membership associations, local or central government, and angel investors.

In previous roles, you’ve led teams, complex projects and/or large programmes. You break down problems with a cool head and take tough decisions when needed but understand the role of mentoring to build strong teams. People leadership will be a large component of your day-to-day.

You’ve managed a P&L before and have the skill to quickly read a cash flow and the confidence to make tough decisions when the business demands them. You also understand equity investment, bring angel and VC connections, and have a passion for developing a new social investment vehicle in the Cambridgeshire area and beyond.

Whether it’s time spent being around and supporting them or your own experience you will understand the journey of the entrepreneur, the challenges and barriers faced and the fundamental building blocks that create impactful and sustainable businesses.

Essential requirements required for this role:

A passion for the mission of the organisation and our work supporting impact ventures. At least 4-6 years of experience working with entrepreneurs, start-ups, accelerators, incubators or incubation consultancy. Financial management skills, including P&L responsibility and social investment experience Excellent communication and relationship-building skills. A drive to continuously develop the team and organisation Comfortable speaking at events, roundtables and peer sessions Travel to Cambridge and Peterborough Future Business Centres fortnightly from an operating base in East London (Whitechapel) or if based in Cambridge travel to East London and Peterborough. Must be eligible to work in the UK without sponsorship

About the organisation:

The employer is a charity that helps small businesses and charities to develop, grow and achieve their impact aims, through a range of ways. From its Future Business Centres that support local business communities; its support programmes that help entrepreneurs and ventures to grow their ideas and businesses; and through advising and arranging responsible finance for charitable organisations.

Since 1999, with initiatives across the UK that include housing, cleantech and social innovation, it has helped hundreds of start-ups, small businesses and impact ventures to develop and scale, enabling significant regional employment opportunities, transforming communities and creating positive impact for people, place and planet.

You may also have experience in areas such as: Director of Programmes, Head of Programmes, Senior Programme Manager, Programmes and Impact Lead, Programme Coordinator, Impact Manager, Programme Lead, Venture Support etc.

PLEASE NOTE: This role is being advertised by NFP People on behalf of the organisation

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Head of Venture Support