Investment Associate

53 Stations; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 100,000 - 140,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive base salary with bonus

Direct ownership of deal execution

Remote and flexible work arrangements

Job summary

53 Stations is looking for an Investment Associate in San Francisco to manage the investment execution process from sourcing to close. The role requires strong financial modeling skills and experience in private equity or investment banking.

The ideal candidate will lead due diligence efforts and collaborate across teams to ensure successful deal execution. A competitive salary and exposure to the full investment lifecycle are offered.

Qualifications

• 3 to 5 years of experience in private equity, growth equity, or investment banking with direct deal execution exposure.
• Strong financial modeling skills across LBO, DCF, and SaaS-specific KPI frameworks.
• Ability to write clear, concise Investment Committee memos.

Responsibilities

• Lead financial and operational due diligence on acquisition targets.
• Build comprehensive financial models covering unit economics and SaaS KPIs.
• Collaborate with legal and finance teams for clean deal execution.

Skills

Investment execution

Financial modeling

Due diligence

Enterprise software understanding

Job description

Investment Associate | New York/San Francisco/Toronto - Full-Time / Part-Time | Onsite

Who We Are

Emergence is a thematic holding company backed by the Pritzker Organization focused exclusively on acquiring and scaling category-defining software businesses. We organize investments into focused portfolios with deep domain expertise and proven operational playbooks. We combine permanent capital with a growth equity mindset — partnering closely with leadership teams to drive sustainable ARR growth, profitability improvements, and industry-leading customer outcomes.

What that looks like in practice: a tight-knit investing team that covers the full deal lifecycle together — sourcing, diligence, structuring, close, and everything that comes after. We keep the team small on purpose. Everyone owns real work, everyone has a real voice, and the people you work alongside are the people you'll travel with, eat with, and build something with over a long time. That's a deliberate choice, and we intend to keep it that way.

Nobody does this job well if they dread coming to work. Our goal isn't to extract the best years of someone's career and move on. We want this to be the last seat you have to find.

The Mission

Own the investment execution process end to end - from first look through close - on majority buyout transactions in enterprise software.

What You'll Do

• Lead financial and operational due diligence on acquisition targets, owning the workstream from kickoff to IC.
• Build comprehensive financial models covering unit economics, SaaS KPIs, valuation, and operating leverage.
• Run quality of earnings analyses and own the net working capital bridge and indebtedness definitions.
• Write and present Investment Committee memos with clear diligence findings and a defensible point of view.
• Assess and synthesize deal terms and majority buyout structures, identifying risks in negotiated positions.
• Collaborate with legal, finance, and operations teams to drive clean deal execution and post-close integration planning.
• Develop retention analyses and customer cohort work to evaluate pipeline health of acquisition targets.
• Support portfolio company operations post-close — tracking performance against investment theses, engaging directly with management teams, and owning the analytical work behind key operational initiatives.

What We're Looking For

Must-haves

• 3 to 5 years of experience in private equity, growth equity, or investment banking with direct deal execution exposure.
• Has run a full diligence process and contributed directly to a closed transaction.
• Deep understanding of enterprise software and SaaS business models - can assess a business independently.
• Strong financial modelling skills across LBO, DCF, and SaaS-specific KPI frameworks.
• Can write a clear, concise IC memo that stands on its own without being walked through.

Nice-to-haves

• Experience with majority buyout structuring and complex transaction terms.
• Prior exposure to post-acquisition integration planning.
• Software-focused PE or growth equity background.
• Genuinely excited about AI tools and has already started building with them — automating workflows, accelerating research, making the repetitive parts of the job disappear.

Who you are

You have run a data room without being told what to look for. You have pushed back on a deal and explained why with numbers. You write things once and they are right. You pull problems toward yourself instead of waiting for someone to assign them. You have changed your view on a business because the data said something different and you said so out loud.

We are a small team and we spend real time together — the person we are looking for is exceptional at the job and genuinely good to be around. If you aren't getting a wedding invite from anyone on the team, we haven't done our job.

We Offer

• Direct ownership of deal execution with exposure to the full lifecycle from sourcing through close and post-acquisition integration.
• Competitive base with bonus and meaningful carry participation.
• A team that is actively building the most efficient, automated version of this job — AI-native workflows, purpose-built tools, and a genuine belief that working smarter is better than working longer.
• Office locations across the US and abroad, with travel and accommodations that make being on the road something to look forward to rather than grind through.
• Back-office infrastructure and resources that most firms our size don't have — so you can focus on the work that actually matters.
• Go to the gym. Take the vacation. Work remote when it makes sense. We're all adults and we treat each other that way.