About the Role

645 Ventures is seeking a Partner or Principal to join our Investment & Research team as a senior member of our investment team. In this role, you will lead investments in developer tools, infrastructure software, AI/ML, and other technical areas with breakout potential. Your passion for technology, startups, and investing will be instrumental as you work on our Investment & Research team to identify, diligence, and invest in exceptional early-stage companies that have the potential to achieve significant scale.

We have been innovating in venture capital investing for over a decade as a software-powered firm. Our internal tools and software platform Voyager enable us to perform essential functions such as identifying potential investment opportunities, conducting due diligence, monitoring our portfolio, partnering with other firms, and assessing the effectiveness of our team.

We are looking for an individual who has a passion for early-stage startup investing and venture capital, paired with a strong engineering knowledge/background. You will lead the firm’s developer tools and infrastructure investment practice while working closely with the firm’s founders and existing team members across the entire organization.

Responsibilities may include, but are not limited to:

• Investment Strategy: Lead the firm's investment strategy in the areas of Infrastructure Software and Developer Tools, positioning us to establish a leading practice over several years that will allow us to identify, invest in, and support early-stage companies that can become large publicly traded companies and/or M&A targets. Identify the market and technological trends that will drive the expansion of these companies, and assist our firm in refining its investment strategy to capitalize on the top companies benefiting from these trends.
• Team Building: Create a world-class infrastructure and developer tools practice in partnership with the Investment & Research team, and prioritize the gradual hiring of individuals possessing substantial technical expertise and experience at companies that have achieved significant scale. Grow the firm’s Venture Partner program with current operators and founders who have comparable experience.
• Deal Management, Evaluation, and Winning: Focus and expand the firm’s capacity to source and evaluate the high potential investments by organizing sourcing and screening initiatives, leading due diligence, as well as leveraging both internal software and the firm’s networks to surface high-quality deals. Collaborate with the General Partners to negotiate, structure, and win deals. Collaborate with the General Partners to negotiate, structure, and win deals.
• Relationship Building: Deepen relationships with top seed and early-stage investors, founders, accelerators, portfolio companies, universities, and other venture capital firms.
• Exits and Corporate Development: Working alongside 645 Ventures Finance Team, identify and assess partial secondary and exit opportunities for our portfolio companies. Engage with growth funds, late-stage funds, and corporate development leaders from large technology companies.
• 645 Thought Leadership: Support the ideation, design, execution and promotion of content authored by 645 for both our website and external publishing platforms, including securing contributor placements in media publications. Present at conferences, produce a podcast, host events, or publish your ideas on engineering and technology investing concepts. Be a leader among and valuable contributor to the community.

Skills and Experience Requirements:

• We are prioritizing Venture Capital experience in developer tools, infrastructure or AI/ML, where you have invested in companies that have achieved considerable growth or successful exits.
• Proven ability to build relationships in the startup community among exceptional founders, technologists, venture capitalists, and others who are on the cutting edge of innovation and startup formation.
• Ability to translate technical and operational skills to strong investment acumen over the long term, including in categories such as venture capital valuation, market assessment, and negotiating deal terms.
• Strong communication abilities, including proficiency in written communication, interpersonal interactions, and public speaking.
• Ability to listen, understand, connect and build strong relationships.
• A history of angel investing or access to an exceptional network of technical startup founders
• Experience providing technical due diligence for investment or M&A
• Up-to-date technical knowledge and passion for staying recent on the modern infrastructure stack including an understanding of the open-source ecosystem.
• Responsible, responsive, communicative, and transparent.
• Energetic,self-motivated, and achievement-oriented. Capable of working independently as a self-starter.
• Highly organized with strong time and project management skills, adept at managing several projects simultaneously within strict time constraints.
• Ability to execute sizable projects from start to finish.