Location: Berlin | Type: Full-time | Start: ASAP

Mission

• Build and run UNITE Acceleration end-to-end: Acceleration Program (Ecosystem-as-a-Service) targeting Venture-Clienting & Co-Creation Readiness and ensuring Investor Access for the best portfolio companies.
• Identify and activate experts & scientists (AI, Health, Greentech) as mentors, advisors, and project contributors for startups.
• Represent UNITE as strong and trusted partner for founders, corporate partners and investors on stage and off stage through thought leadership, success stories, and high quality of service.

Core Responsibilities

• Program Operations (hands-on)
  • Build and manage a strong acceleration program focussed on UNITE’s focus areas (AI, Health and Greentech) and its scalability
  • Ensure excellence regarding:
    • Sourcing: Creating visibility of the program across research partners, the wider Berlin and Brandenburg ecosystem, and beyond (in close cooperation with Head of Talent and Education, marketing, events and community management)
    • Selecting: Build a lean, fast and low / no bias selection process rooted in strong market and product understanding to select true high potentials
    • Servicing: Support teams with defining their Product Roadmap and PMF, GTM and ICP, Pricing, Growth and Marketing, Hiring, Leadership, Finance and Fundraising.
    • Success enablement (end / post program): Direct customer access, venture-client paths and access to investors for top portfolio companies; strong alumni community and engagement (see below)
    • Growth support (post program): Build and lead a structured offer for advanced top startups. Support teams in standardizing their products, scaling sales, building a second management layer, achieving certifications and addressing data protection requirements and more. Guide their first steps into international markets and prepare them for the next financing rounds.
  • Own templates & playbooks (e.g. pitch decks, investor memos, corporate readiness checklist, investor data-room checklist) to make UNITE accessible even for teams not selected into our programs / portfolio.
• Venture-Clienting & Co-Creation for most promising portfolio companies
  • Help our partnership managers with translating corporate needs into clear briefs; scout & match startups; be a sparring partner for startups scoping (paid) ****POCs with e.g. KPIs and timelines.
  • Be a trusted partner and bring in additional expertise to guide founders during pilots to ensure high success rates.
• Investor Access & Fundraising Paths for most promising portfolio companies
  • Build and maintain a curated network of angels, VCs, CVCs, family offices, etc.
  • Orchestrate Investor Journeys for startups: office hours, partner/investor days, qualified intros, data-room standards, term-sheet prep, memo prep.
  • Be sparring partner or bring in additional expertise during fundraising processes and provide high-value connections for top tier startups.
• Experts & Scientists Activation
  • Map demand of experts and mentors for the partnership team (science, corporate and beyond) which will be matched with portfolio companies.
  • Bring in this curated expertise and mentorship at the right point in time to help startups build with confidence and clarity while reducing distraction.
• Data & KPI Management (to be defined together, suggestions here)
  • Northstar is to deliver longterm positiv impact on our portfolio development (NPS-like scoring for impact measurement)
  • POCs delivered and funding received as early signal of program success
• Internationalisation
  • In the future: Enable soft-landings and cross-border pilots with partner programs (with Start2 Group)
  • Learn from international ecosystems to incorporate best practices and program development.
• Team leadership: Lead and develop your team to be high impact, driven by our mission and strong advocates for our portfolio companies.

Key Interfaces (how you’ll work across teams)

• Your team of program managers, support and community functions, plus someone with VC expertise.
• Talent and Education
  • They: spread the word about entrepreneurship, identify high potentials and strong early ideas
  • You: support in brining in expertise to early entrepreneurship education as rolemodels, provide case studies and similar to enhance their experience, potentially with a special focus on female and migrant founders
• Partnership Team (Business and Science Partners)
  • They: hold strategic partner relationships and decision-maker access.
  • You: translate needs of teams into briefs for experts and mentors
• Community Manager (Ecosystems)
  • They: create overview of all things “outside” UNITE.
  • You: identify how to bring in the best talent and startups (and potentially experts, mentors and best practices)

Profile

• 6–10+ years in VC, accelerator, or corporate innovation, with a proven record of paid POCs/co-creation and enterprise deals.