Manager for Startups

The Global Entrepreneurship Network is seeking an outgoing and detail-oriented individual with a strong knowledge of entrepreneurship trends, challenges and opportunities to join its team and serve its founder community.

Working to build one global entrepreneurial ecosystem, GEN operates programs in 200 countries aimed at making it easier for anyone, anywhere to start and scale a company. By fostering deeper cross-border collaboration and initiatives between founders, investors, policymakers, ecosystem builders and other community leaders, GEN works to fuel healthier start and scale ecosystems that create more jobs, accelerate innovation and strengthen economic growth.

JOB DESCRIPTION + KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

The Manager for Startups serves as GEN’s primary liaison to its current and future community of founders and startups. The organization is seeking to scale its GEN Founders network and increase their engagement in GEN and its partners’ programs, including the Entrepreneurship World Cup, GEN Starters Club and utilization of online tools to connect them with potential mentors, investors and ecosystem supporters to help them grow.

Responsibilities include:

• Entrepreneurship World Cup:  Under the direction of the Executive Vice President, serve as the key member of the implementing team in:
  • Recruiting applicants through individual outreach and partners identified alongside other GEN staff seeking 20,000 entries from across GEN’s operations and markets
  • Managing GEN’s community of assessors in screening and judging applications on the provided platform, narrowing them down to the top 250.
  • Supporting the development and execution of a virtual bootcamp
  • Managing the community of finalists and providing on-site support at the EWC Global Finals in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in November.
• GEN Founders Community Management: Serve as the lead external representative of GEN to founders and startups by:
  • Answering inquiries and engaging the GEN Founders community regularly online through, for example, monthly Zoom calls, timely responsiveness to email and the existing WhatsApp community.
  • Planning and running GEN sessions and founder tracks as the lead point of contact at events such as the Global Entrepreneurship Congress and GEC+.
  • Managing a VIP group of founders invited into the GEN Starters Club.
• Recruit New Founder Members: Develop and manage a massive list of founders – compiled from a wide range of sources – to be used to communicate opportunities to engage in GEN programs and resources.
• Recruit Partners for GEN Founders:  Working with all of the GEN staff, identify and recruit organizations with communities of startups around the world to join as partners of GEN and EWC and collaborate with other GEN staff on their engagement.
• Engage with GEN: Educate founders about GEN and its programs to encourage access to and use of the resources available on the organization’s online platform as well as deeper engagement in GEN programs to support their growth. 
• Website and Story-Telling: Work closely with the communications team to ensure relevant program websites are up-to-date – especially the Entrepreneurship World Cup and GEN Founders website. Also, track the performance of founders in the GEN community and coordinate with select members on their recent successes to develop engaging content that demonstrates the impact of GEN and its programs.
• Mentor Connect:  Manage online community of mentors signing up for Mentor Connect –  removing spam, tagging those recommended or certified by GEN, and occasionally adding new mentors to the platform.
• Sustainability:  Support GEN management pitches to secure sponsorship and program support.
• Administration:  Ensure founders are tagged accurately in HubSpot and Drupal and maintain data hygiene real-time.

WHAT YOU BRING TO THE ROLE

The ideal candidate is someone that has some experience as a founder or co-founder of a startup regardless of its success, an understanding of methodologies for building a startup and knowledge of due diligence and investor pitch strategies. Individual should be outgoing and willing to do substantial outreach to startup community organizations and individual startups to invite them to join the GEN community and possess excellent data management and communications skills.

• Familiarity with the startup lifecycle and ability to correctly anticipate founder motivations
• Knowledge of entrepreneurship trends, challenges, and opportunities globally.
• Proven ability to manage complex projects in a fast-paced environment and deliver results within deadlines.
• A self-starter attitude, motivated to work independently, collaborate virtually and be assessed based on outputs and KPIs
• Excellent verbal communication and sales skills
• Excellent written communication skills
• Data management skills
• Excellent visual presentation skills (e.g. PowerPoint, Canva, document formatting, direct email)
• Experience working in a multicultural and diverse environment.
• Additional languages desirable.

TO APPLY 

GEN is a not-for-profit organization with global headquarters in Washington, DC. This entry-level position can work from anywhere in the world but is only open to candidates fluent in English.

Please submit a resume and relevant work samples to William Charter ([email protected]).