Description

VENTURE ASSOCIATE

New Jersey Health Foundation's affiliate, Foundation Venture Capital Group (“FVCG”), is seeking a highly motivated and talented individual to join the team as a Venture Associate.  The Venture Associate will evaluate potential grants and startup company investment opportunities that impact health-related domains (broadly defined to support the paradigm of Healthy People, Healthy Planet and Healthy Communities). This position is a unique opportunity to join a non-profit organization focused on making impact-driven investments that help commercialize concepts that will improve health and healthcare in the future.

Background on Foundation Venture Capital Group

FVCG provides pre-seed funding to new health-related companies in New Jersey to help them advance toward and through the technology commercialization lifecycle. Through its affiliates, Foundation for Health Advancement (“FHA”) and the New Jersey Health Foundation (“NJHF”), it funds health-related research and education programs at organizations with which it has affiliations, including Cooper University Health Care, Hackensack Merdian Health, Kessler Foundation, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Princeton University, Rowan University, Rutgers University and Stevens Institute of Technology.  Through the Research Grant, Innovation Grant, HealthStart NJ and venture investment programs, FVCG, FHA & NJHF have put to work more than $60 million to support the health-related ecosystem in New Jersey.

Key Responsibilities:

The Venture Associate will have responsibilities related to conducting due diligence on new funding opportunities, portfolio management and operational duties including the following:

•  Assist in sourcing and completing deals through coordination with FVCG’s partner organizations.
•  Conduct and facilitate due diligence including evaluating the science, products, clinical need, competitive landscape, regulatory pathway, market opportunities, product/market fit, optimal business model, go-to-market strategy and determining the overall business and financial attractiveness of opportunities.
• Identify key risks of an investment and recommend potential further analysis to be conducted by specialists and consultants assisting with the due diligence.
• Track portfolio companies’ product development and financial performance.  Proactively manage relationships with principal research scientists and founders of the portfolio companies, including managing deliverables to achieve established goals.
• Through a “venture studio” style model, provide directly and/or facilitate through the staff at NJHF/FVCG and a network of service providers/consultants, strategic and operational support to NJHF/FHA/FVCG project teams and portfolio companies. 

 Qualifications:

The right Venture Associate candidate is a self-starter, impact-oriented professional with a broad set of interests and skills, as well as a commitment to supporting health-related research, education and commercialization.  This individual has wide interests in business and the technology and life science ecosystem. This person can: create and execute ideas successfully; is self-aware; communicates clearly; responds well to feedback; embraces change and ambiguity; and is able to work on multiple projects simultaneously.

The Venture Associate will be the point person in advancing the commercialization of health-related research and development for a portfolio of projects and companies.  Given the health-related focus of the organization, preference will be given to individuals with a background in related areas of study and work particularly in the therapeutic, device, diagnostic and healthcare IT areas.  Other qualifications for the Venture Associate position include:

•  Excellent academic record, strong analytical abilities and willingness to learn new things.
•   Working knowledge of health-related industries and fields of study, and preferably other interdisciplinary areas (evidenced by an advanced post graduate degree and/or work experience with hands-on scientific research and technical experience, which is preferred but not required for otherwise qualified candidates).
• Exposure to university technology transfer, licensing and venture capital investing is preferred.
• A strong interest in understanding and building optimized business models.
• Self-starter with a track record of taking initiative and producing high quality results and work product.
• Ability to prioritize, coordinate and manage several projects and portfolio companies simultaneously.
• An ability to build and maintain good relationships with colleagues, partners, entrepreneurs and other investors.
• A strong interest in the end-to-end product and service development process.
• Working experience in both academic and industry settings is preferred.
• Expertise in using databases and on-line resources to assess up-to-date market and company information is preferred.

The Venture Associate will report to the Vice President and work closely with other Venture Associates, as well as the leadership and staff within FVCG and NJHF.  This is a salaried position.  We offer a hybrid work environment (office/remote) with the Venture Associate working out of FVCG’s Princeton, NJ office. 

The essential elements for this work are: passion for achieving mission oriented outcomes; courage to push for change; willingness to explore new ideas; expertise to accomplish the work; and tenacity to reach the desired results. If you share this passion, we want to hear from you. Tell us what excites you about this opportunity and why you are right for it.