Senior Associate, Endeavor Midwest

Startup Council; Michigan; On-site; USD 75,000 - 85,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Flexible vacation policy

Remote work

401K plan

Health and dental benefits

Global travel experiences

Sabbatical opportunities

Job summary

Endeavor Midwest seeks a Senior Associate to partner with entrepreneurs and mentors across the Midwest, driving research, outreach, and diligence for high-potential ventures.

You will collaborate with the EX team to source candidates, analyze business metrics, and coordinate selection panels while fostering relationships within Michigan’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. Significant travel to events and global connections may be required.

Qualifications

• 3–4 years of relevant work experience in business, consulting, entrepreneurship, venture capital, or finance.
• Strong interest and passion for economic development, entrepreneurship, and/or venture capital.
• Excellent communication skills (oral and written) and ability to build relationships.
• Willingness to travel and participate in events as needed.

Responsibilities

• Identify top Midwest startups and high-potential founders through research, referrals, and events.
• Lead outreach, meetings, and diligence to build a pipeline of candidate companies.
• Support servicing of portfolio entrepreneurs and connect them to resources.
• Represent Endeavor Midwest and build Michigan networks through events and partnerships.

Skills

Entrepreneurship passion

Relationship building

Communication skills

Project management

Notion familiarity

Sales capabilities

Education

Bachelor's degree in business/related field

Tools

Notion

Salesforce

Job description

Senior Associate, Endeavor Midwest

Job Title: Senior Associate, Endeavor Midwest

Location: Detroit or Ann Arbor, MI

Works With: Endeavor Entrepreneurs, network members, and staff across the U.S. and worldwide.

Company Overview

Endeavor is the leading global community of, by, and for high-growth entrepreneurs — those who dream bigger, scale faster, and pay it forward. Driven by our belief that high-growth entrepreneurs transform economies, Endeavor is on a mission to build thriving entrepreneurial ecosystems in emerging and underserved markets around the world. Innovative leaders like Reid Hoffman, Nick Beim, Bill Ford, Edgar Bronfman, Joanna Rees, and U2’s The Edge have joined the movement. Endeavor supports its entrepreneurs with access to an unrivaled global network, peer-to-peer community, and demand-driven services. The organization also works to elevate Endeavor Entrepreneurs as aspirational role models and provide avenues for them to mentor and inspire others to reimagine what is possible. Headquartered in New York City, Endeavor currently operates in 50+ growth markets throughout Europe, Latin America, North America, Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East. The Endeavor Midwest office was established in 2015 and works with Entrepreneurs and mentors throughout the Midwest region. The team currently works with 41 entrepreneurs leading 28 companies, such as Altruist, Banza, WorkitHealth, SkySpecs, Electric Plant Company, The Lip Bar, and Covertree.

The Role

As a part of the Entrepreneur Experience (EX) team at Endeavor, you will collaborate with team members in the search, selection, and servicing of high-potential entrepreneurs in the Midwest region. The EX team's primary responsibilities include conducting research to build a pipeline of companies, conducting analysis on business metrics to identify the highest quality companies, running meetings and selection panels, developing and writing high-quality analytical profiles and reports on candidate companies, and providing best-in-class services to selected Endeavor Entrepreneurs. EX staff work directly with some of the region’s most visible founders to build a relationship of trust, diagnose their needs, and identify key contacts in the global Endeavor network to mitigate their challenges. This is not a typical nonprofit role. You will work directly with founders scaling some of the most ambitious companies in the Midwest — companies like Altruist, Skyspecs, Workit Health, Tovala, Cameo, The Lip Bar, and Covertree. You will diagnose their challenges, connect them to capital and mentorship through a global network of 3,100+ entrepreneurs across 50+ markets, and see the impact of your work in real time. You will travel to selection panels alongside global investors and operators, and sit in rooms most people at any stage of their career never get access to. If you want to be in the room where it happens for Midwest entrepreneurship, this is the role.

Job Responsibilities

• 1. Independently pursue the search and selection of entrepreneurs leading fast-growing, post-startup stage companies in the Midwest region: Identify the top companies and high-potential founders in the ecosystem through referrals, research, networking, attending, and speaking at key community events, and leveraging relationships with pipeline sourcing partners. Craft curated outreach and engagement strategies for relevant candidate companies. Actively lead meetings and calls with early stage prospect companies. Independently research and analyze the strength of the pipeline companies’ leadership teams of the companies; conduct analysis of business models, growth/scale potential, financials/projections, leadership potential, competitive landscape, market size, etc. Independently complete detailed and high-quality diligence report. Lead in the logistics and management of all local / virtual selection events as needed. Stay connected to relevant reports and media sources to monitor updates and developments within the Midwest entrepreneurial ecosystem to build the pipeline of candidate companies.
• 2. Support Midwest portfolio entrepreneur servicing: Assist EX Manager in servicing plans for each entrepreneur (candidate and Endeavor Entrepreneurs) to ensure the EX team is focusing on the top priorities for each company. Manage recurring touch points to ensure entrepreneurs’ needs are being met and they are aware of Endeavor’s latest offerings (events, programs, mentorship opportunities, etc.) Proactively diagnose entrepreneur needs and look to add value in every interaction. Network independently and extensively across Endeavor’s global network to increase awareness of resources, offerings, and lessons learned and enhance knowledge-sharing. Proactively think of ways to help entrepreneurs access capital, markets, mentorship, and leadership development. This can be done by using Endeavor’s regional and global network as well as thinking outside the box and tapping into your own network. Actively manage the mentor network to ensure the Midwest office has a robust and high-quality roster of mentors.
• 3. Relationship and Community Building in the Michigan Ecosystem: Become an ambassador for Endeavor, and network independently and extensively across Michigan to increase Endeavor’s brand visibility. Continue building relationships with new and existing partners in Michigan. Organize and attend in-person events to further the Endeavor brand in Michigan.
• 4. Other: Lead in the management of all in-person and virtual events as needed. Be proactive in CRM management and data clean-up. Actively participate in relevant strategic initiatives to improve team operational efficiency and effectiveness (e.g., onboarding processes, or new service offering concepts). Represent the Midwest office at the U.S. and Global level. Propose/develop/lead local, regional, and global initiatives as directed by leadership. Manage day-to-day office responsibilities.

Skills and abilities

• Endeavor employs professionals who are passionate about entrepreneurship and believe in Endeavor’s mission to support high-impact entrepreneurs to catalyze economic growth in the Midwest region. The organization provides a dynamic and entrepreneurial workplace for those who enjoy taking the initiative to lead projects to support entrepreneurs.
• 3-4 years of relevant work experience in business, consulting, entrepreneurship, venture capital, or finance.
• Strong interest and passion for economic development, entrepreneurship, and/or venture capital.
• Exceptional interpersonal skills and enthusiasm for helping to cultivate Michigan’s entrepreneurial ecosystem.
• Experience (academic or work) across multiple business disciplines, with an understanding of finance and the ability to identify and evaluate entrepreneurs, business models, companies, and projects.
• Comfortable working with a variety of people at all levels, strong sales capabilities, and willingness to be persistent and creative to solve problems and meet the needs of our entrepreneurs.
• Optimistic nature with a creative, self-motivated, and strong work ethic.
• Excellent communication skills (oral and written).
• Strong organizational abilities and attention to detail.
• Strong project management and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to attend multiple events during the week (sometimes late afternoon and night) and light travel once per quarter to Endeavor U.S. events or Global events.
• Familiarity with project management platforms such as Notion is a plus.
• Familiarity with Salesforce or other CRM platforms is a plus.

Benefits

The salary range for this role is $75K - $85K base plus performance-based bonus.

Benefits include:

• flexible vacation policy
• remote and flexible working days
• 401K plans
• health and dental benefits
• global travel experiences
• sabbatical/immersion opportunities