Associate

Amberstone; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 110,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Amberstone invites applications for an Associate to join our growth-focused team in San Francisco. The role encompasses evaluating deal opportunities, managing our deal flow, supporting due diligence, and collaborating with Principals to push portfolio investments forward.

You will help develop new investment theses and explore markets for opportunities in a fast-paced setting. The ideal candidate has 2-4+ years in investment banking or private equity, with a passion for branded consumer

Qualifications

• 2-4+ years of professional experience, ideally in investment banking or private equity.
• Experience with or strong demonstrated interest in branded consumer products.
• Strong analytical skills and comfort with financial modeling.
• Clear written and verbal communication skills.
• Entrepreneurial mindset and ability to thrive in a small, fast-paced setting with minimal supervision.

Responsibilities

• Evaluate new deal opportunities.
• Manage deal flow pipeline and evaluation process.
• Support deal execution and due diligence efforts.
• Work directly with Amberstone Principal/s to support portfolio investments.
• Develop new investment theses, and research markets and opportunities.
• Identify and leverage AI platforms to improve team efficiency and investment processes.

Skills

Investment experience

Branded consumer products

Financial modeling

Analytical skills

Clear communication

Job description

Amberstone is a growth stage investment firm that focuses exclusively on investing in the most disruptive and innovative consumer product companies that are serving the wellness needs for the next generations of consumers and their families.

Through our work, we back ambitious entrepreneurs scaling brand-first consumer product companies into nationally distributed category leaders. We combine rigorous, data-driven analysis and extensive experience in CPG to provide capital and purposeful partnership to help entrepreneurs achieve their visions.

As a firm, we manage ~$200M of investor capital and are investing out of Fund II. Our active investments include BetterWild Pets, Bloom Nutrition, Clean Skin Club, Cleveland Kitchen, Crown Affair, Honey Mama’s, Javvy, JuneShine, MUSH and Partake Brewing.

About the Role

We are hiring an Associate to join our team. This will be an expansive role and an excellent opportunity for an entrepreneurial and self-driven individual to join at the formative stages of our firm.

Key responsibilities for this role include:

• Evaluation of new deal opportunities
• Managing our deal flow pipeline and evaluation process
• Supporting deal execution and due diligence efforts
• Working directly with Amberstone Principal/s to support our portfolio investments
• Developing new investment theses, and researching new markets and opportunities
• Identifying and leveraging AI platforms and workflows to improve team efficiency and overall investment processes

The ideal candidate will have:

• 2-4+ years of professional experience, ideally in investment banking or private equity
• Experience with or strong demonstrated interest in branded consumer products
• Strong analytical skills and comfort with financial modeling
• Clear written and verbal communication skills
• Entrepreneurial mindset and ability to thrive in a small, fast-paced setting with minimal supervision

We are based in the Marina District of San Francisco and expect the successful candidate to join our team here full-time. We are targeting a Q1 2027 start date.

Scorecard

Mission

to expand our team’s ability to execute new investments by managing deal flow triage, leading due diligence, sourcing new opportunities and proactively developing theses for new investment opportunities.

Deal execution

Fully support lead deal Principal/s on completing diligence for new investment opportunities.

• Efficiency - able to produce significant output with minimal wasted effort.
• Attention to detail - does not let important details slip through the cracks or derail a project.
• High standards - expects personal performance and team performance to be nothing short of the best.

Sourcing triage

manage weekly deal flow meetings and ensure fi rm-wide compliance with deal flow triage procedures.

• Organisation and planning - plans, organises and scheduled in an effi cient, productive manner. Focuses on key priorities.
• Communication - speaks and writes clearly and articulately focusing on the highest-priority items and topics with the most impact.

New deal sourcing

bring in at least one new on-spec investment opportunity per week:

• Follow-through on commitments - is able to hold oneself accountable without being directly managed to do so.
• Proactivity - acts without being told what to do. Brings in new ideas.
• Push the ball forward - moves quickly and takes a forceful stand without being abrasive.

Research and thesis development

Present one new fully developed investment thesis per quarter.

• Intellectual curiosity - able to generate ideas proactively and independently. Develops new investment theses through self-directed research.
• Strategic thinking - able to see and communicate the big picture. Determines opportunities and threats through comprehensive analyses.
• Analytical skills - able to structure and process qualitative or quantitative data and draw insightful conclusions from it.