Sr. Associate, Strategic Capital
We are PEAK6, a leading investment firm. You'll find us headquartered in the historic Chicago Board of Trade building, where we first opened our doors in 1997. Over 20 years ago, we were among the first firms to develop sophisticated proprietary technology in our trading business. Today, we continue to leverage our technical ingenuity and operational excellence across several investment areas, spanning early-to-mid stage growth capital, operational control, trading and esports. Throughout the years, we've built and operated several financial technology firms and we continue to evolve.
Strategic Capital is an opportunistic investment group within PEAK6 that makes venture capital and growth equity investments in companies with mission-driven founders. We invest off the PEAK6 balance sheet, putting to work the excess returns generated by PEAK6’s operating companies. This unique model enables us to be flexible, long-term oriented and apply an operator first mindset to our investing. As a Sr. Associate on the team, you will be responsible for sourcing new investment opportunities, conducting business and financial due diligence and supporting our existing portfolio companies with strategic projects.
The successful candidate is an independent, analytical, and intellectually curious individual who can identify issues, structure analyses, develop solutions, and articulate findings to wide range of business stakeholders, including senior leadership throughout the organization. The ideal candidate will a minimum of two years investment banking or consulting experience and a minimum of two years at a high-growth startup. It is essential that a candidate has outstanding interpersonal and communication skills and is comfortable taking on responsibility in a fast-paced, dynamic – and oftentimes ambiguous – environment.
You’ll be responsible for:
Sourcing New Investment Opportunities
- Conducting research, including market research, and financial analysis on potential investment targets.
- Developing and building relationships with investment bankers, entrepreneurs, management teams and other investors in order to source deals and maintain relationships with qualified leads.
Deal Due Diligence, Presentation and Execution
- Screening investment opportunities and coordinating investment process and execution, including due diligence, financial analysis and oversight of third-party advisors.
- Assisting in developing operating and financial models, valuation comparables, precedent transaction analysis and industry analysis for prospective deals.
- Assisting with core financial diligence including analyzing detailed financial statement information including income statement, balance sheet, cash flow and key operational data to help to identify key risks and assess the strengths and weaknesses of the business against industry benchmarks.
- Preparing written summaries, due diligence findings, presentation materials and investment memoranda that clearly communicate diligence findings and investment recommendations for the investment committee.
Negotiation and Review of Transaction Documentation
- Assisting in the negotiation of key transaction terms with legal team support.
- Supporting legal team with deal structuring and the evaluation of term sheets, letters of intent and key deal points.
Community Development
- Representing PEAK6 in a highly engaging and professional manner throughout the entrepreneurial and investing community, including networking and marketing functions.
You’ll gain loads of experience in this role, but before you do, you should have:
- A strong learning agility and proactive mindset – you love data and are intellectually curious – always asking “why” and finding areas for improvement and opportunity.
- Comfort with ambiguity – demonstrating resiliency, maturity, and sound judgment.
- A desire to learn and grow – you’re driven to be the best and challenge yourself by setting goals, beating them, and encouraging your teammates to do the same.
- High ethics and integrity – you always conduct yourself with honesty and operate ethically. You say what you mean, and mean what you say.
- The ability to take ownership – you take active responsibility not only for those tasks that you directly control, but also support teammates to ensure success.
Additional Qualifications:
- Bachelor’s degree with 4-6 years of work experience including a minimum of two years at a top investment bank and two years in an operational role at a high growth startup.
- High level of proficiency and comfort with 3-statement financial modeling and analysis. Exceptional problem-solving, decision-making and quantitative skills, including strong financial modeling abilities and research and analytical skills to support data-driven decision making.
- Entrepreneurial self-starter who thrives in a fast-moving environment and is independently capable of seeking information, corralling resources, and delivering results without waiting for direction.
- Ability to prioritize deliverables and meet demanding deadlines.
- Ability to move seamlessly between conversing with engineers or frontline ops employees to leading presentations with senior executives.
- High-energy, positive team player who has a proven ability to influence without authority and build strong working relationships with business partners; this is a highly cross-functional role, so a low ego and a high instinct for collaboration are musts.
- Strong judgment and ability to make well-informed decisions – displaying both high IQ and EQ.