VC Investment Associate

COMPANY INFORMATION

Collab+Currency is a New York-based, seed-stage venture firm investing in the next generation of financial infrastructure, intelligence and consumer technology. Since 2018, the Firm has backed over 175 companies, including category defining names: Nous Research, Prime Intellect, Bittensor, Squads, Sky Mavis, Bison Trails (acq Coinbase), Axelar (acq Circle), 21Shares (acq FalconX), Bitnomial (acq Kraken), Neural Fabric (acq Cisco) and Ready Player Me (acq Netflix).

The Firm is opening an LA office to serve as the epicenter of an investment strategy increasingly focused on the explosion of world-class technical talent spinning out of local giants: SpaceX, Anduril, Boeing, Chevron, Raytheon and others, to build their own companies.

Over the last two years, Collab+Currency has backed a growing number of LA-affiliated companies building in the AI,  robotics, and broader hard-tech category (energy, biology, material science): Nous Research (AI harness), Actual Computer (heterogeneous compute networking), Fuser (creative harness for AI), Robo (standardized low-cost robots), Truffle (local AI hardware), Gears (AI-enabled precision gear manufacturing), Western Chemicals (wastewater-based ethanol production), Anaula (autonomous bioreactors) and Proven Metal (fast-turn PCBs).
 

JOB DESCRIPTION

In this role, you will have the opportunity to spearhead the launch of Collab+Currency’s flagship LA office alongside the Firm’s LA-based Managing Partner. This is a highly autonomous position with a broad mandate: make Collab+Currency one of the most important nodes in the Los Angeles technology ecosystem by building deep relationships across the founders, researchers, engineers, investors and institutions leading the country’s reindustrialization effort.

You will be responsible for identifying the most interesting founders and builders across LA, developing relationships with them early, bringing them into the Firm’s network, and turning our office into a place where exceptional people want to spend time, exchange ideas and build new projects, often before a company formally exists.

As those relationships develop into companies that fit the Firm’s investment strategy, you will evaluate the opportunity, conduct diligence, develop an investment thesis, and pitch the investment to the broader investment team.

Success in this role is simple: make Collab+Currency synonymous with technology in Los Angeles. We want to become a gravitational center for the founders, researchers and investors shaping the next generation of technology in LA, and a destination for the smartest people passing through the city. The office should create a network and reputation that compounds over time, giving Collab+Currency differentiated access to exceptional founders, ideas and investment opportunities. When people think of LA tech, they should think of Collab+Currency.

Responsibilities include:

• Develop and execute creative strategies and programming (e.g. events, hackathons, research days) to bring exceptional founders, engineers, researchers and investors into the Collab+Currency LA orbit, and give them reasons to keep coming back to our space.
• Build Collab+Currency’s presence and brand across LA’s most important technology hubs, including nucleuses: El Segundo, the South Bay and Downtown LA, as well as the region’s leading universities (e.g. UCLA, USC, LMU), research communities and emerging centers of innovation.
• Relentlessly identify high-caliber people moving to or traveling through the region that can plug into the Firm’s network each week.
• Source investment opportunities through the network you build, develop investment theses, and present compelling opportunities to the Collab+Currency investment team.
• Work closely with the founders of the Firm’s existing LA-based portfolio companies to provide needed support on their journey to building billion dollar companies.

SKILLS & QUALIFICATIONS

You are the right candidate for this role if you have unusually high agency and thrive with significant ownership, limited structure and broad scope. You are intellectually curious, highly social and relentless about finding interesting people. You are equally comfortable building a relationship with a founder before they have incorporated a company as you are negotiating their Series A term sheet. 

You likely have:

• Exceptional relationship-building instincts and the ability to earn trust quickly
• Strong judgment, intellectual curiosity and independent thinking
• A genuine interest in emerging technology and the people building at its frontier
• The ability to identify unusually talented, differentiated and opinionated people early
• A bias toward action and comfort building networks, communities and initiatives from scratch
• The ambition to become deeply embedded in the Los Angeles technology ecosystem
• Although not required, a technical background. Mechanical or electrical experience is particularly relevant

Prior venture investing experience is valuable, but not required. We care more about judgment, curiosity, network-building ability, and demonstrated initiative.

Please submit applications to zack@collabcurrency.com with the subject line “LA Investor Role - [Your Name].” Applications should include a resume and a brief (1–2 paragraph) statement of interest.