Vanderbilt University

Associate Director, Center for Entrepreneurship

Vanderbilt University • $95K — $115K *
Nashville, TN 37211In-Person
Education, Government & Non-Profit
Less than 5 years of experience
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Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • Bachelor's degree required.
  • 3-5 years experience in venture-backed startups or venture capital operations.
  • Proven ability to work independently and meet key performance indicators.
  • Strong interpersonal, communication, and organizational skills.
  • Knowledge of available resources for entrepreneurs and the startup landscape.
  • Familiarity with Vanderbilt University's culture and environment.
  • Established relationships with relevant entrepreneurial figures and resources.

Responsibilities

  • Engage Vanderbilt founders by using research and marketing to increase service demand.
  • Design efficient intake workflows for founders, assessing startup status and offering resources.
  • Lead workshops and speaker series, enhancing content based on founder feedback and needs.
  • Provide one-on-one mentoring to startup founders when appropriate.
  • Develop processes to attract and onboard Alumni mentors into the program.
  • Facilitate matching mechanisms between founders and Alumni mentors to enhance support.
  • Coordinate marketing and operations of the Vanderbilt Venture Scout Program to support startup funding.

Benefits

  • Access to resources tailored for entrepreneurial development.
  • Opportunity to mentor and guide innovative student founders.
  • Collaboration with a network of distinguished alumni and industry professionals.
  • Involvement in a vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem within a prestigious university.
Full Job Description
Job Description

Job Description

The Owen Graduate School of Management at Vanderbilt University seeks a dynamic and innovative Associate Director within the Center for Entrepreneurship. This position is crucial in fostering a vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem for Vanderbilt founders. The ideal candidate will have operational and strategic experience inside of startups.

Duties and Responsibilities

  • Engage and Support Vanderbilt Founders:
    • Use research, marketing, and other techniques to grow demand for services from Vanderbilt founders.
    • Design workflows to efficiently intake founders into the C4E ecosystem - including but not limited to designing digital and human intake processes which assess startup status and prescribe C4E resources.
    • Lead C4E workshops and speaker series - including but not limited to redesigning workshop content and progression based on founder needs; designing new exercises and tools to support workshop learning objectives; recruiting speakers as needed; working with other C4E resources to drive attendance; teaching and/or moderating sessions; and gathering feedback to improve future offerings.
    • Provide 1:1 mentoring to startup founders as appropriate.
  • Grow the Alumni Mentor Program:
    • Build processes to attract, categorize, and onboard Alumni mentors within the Center's CRM tool.
    • Lead processes to prepare founders for mentorship and create mechanisms that match founders with mentors.
    • Build systems to gather feedback on interactions from both sides of the marketplace to improve the design of the matching program and achieve a net promoter score of 70.
  • Drive the Vanderbilt Venture Scout Program:
    • Coordinate with alumni advisors and student leaders to grow the sophistication of marketing, intake, and investment memo development capabilities so that the Venture Scouts support 20 founders a year with 50% receiving funding.
    • Work with student leaders to develop more sophisticated marketing, interview, selection, onboarding, training, and evaluation of Venture Scout students.
  • Execute Grant Competitions:
    • Strategize and execute marketing strategies to drive 120+ student-led startup applications annually to the Firestarter, Chancellor's Launch Grants, and Summer Enterprise Development Grant competitions.
    • Refine selection criteria, feedback mechanisms, and evaluation processes to select the most deserving Vanderbilt startups as winners of each competition.
    • Oversee programmatic aspects for grant competition winners - including coordination of payments, access to in-kind products and services, matching with mentors, access to special lectures and events, and progress check ins as appropriate.
  • Other duties as assigned


Supervisory Relationships

This position does not currently have supervisory responsibility; this position reports administratively and functionally to the Director of the Center for Entrepreneurship.

Education, Experience, and Skills

  • Bachelor's degree required.
  • Minimum of 3-5 years of experience inside of venture-backed startups or portfolio operations of a venture capital fund.
  • Demonstrated history of taking initiative and working autonomously to solve problems with a proven ability to deliver against organizational key performance indicators.
  • Strong interpersonal, communication, and organizational skills.
  • Knowledge of the startup landscape and resources available for entrepreneurs.
  • Familiarity with the Vanderbilt University environment and culture.
  • Relationships with noteworthy entrepreneurial figures and/or entities who can provide meaningful resources to Vanderbilt founders.
  • Passion for entrepreneurship and supporting student innovation.


About Vanderbilt University

Vanderbilt University is a private research university located in Nashville, Tennessee. It was founded in 1873 and named after shipping and rail magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provided the school its initial $1 million endowment despite having never been to the South. Vanderbilt enrolls approximately 12,000 students from all 50 U.S. states and over 100 foreign countries in four undergraduate and six graduate and professional schools. The university is organized into ten schools, including four undergraduate and six graduate and professional schools. Vanderbilt is ranked among the top 20 universities in the United States by U.S. News & World Report, and is considered one of the most prestigious universities in the world. Vanderbilt's endowment is one of the largest among American universities, standing at $7.2 billion as of 2020.
Learn more about Vanderbilt University
Size
12,700 employees
Industry
Education, Government & Non-Profit
* Ladders Estimates

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