Our purpose at Obvious Ventures is to back founders reimagining trillion-dollar sectors through a world positive lens. These companies create massive new value in the fields of planetary, human and financial health.

As former operators ourselves (e.g. Patagonia, NextEra, Twitter, Apple, Medium, and more), we have deep empathy and profound respect for the purpose-led entrepreneurs in which we invest.

From the start, Obvious has been very focused on climate. Being early in companies like Planet, Beyond Meat, Proterra and Mosaic makes us part of the OG of the recent climate tech excitement. But our backgrounds before Obvious take us even further back.

Now we’re taking the climate team at Obvious to the next level. We are hiring a Principal reporting to Andrew Beebe, Managing Director and the lead of our Sustainable Systems practice.

Different firms have different definitions for various titles, so we want to be clear about the role here. A Principal at Obvious is someone who will be part of the investment team, will take meetings independently with founders, and will team up with a Partner or Managing Director to complete an investment. We hope and expect many of our Principals will become partners. Obvious has a proud track record of promoting from within, and that is our goal with this role over time.

Based at Obvious’ San Francisco headquarters in Jackson Square, the core areas of focus for the Climate Principal will be:

·      Proactively sourcing investments and working collaboratively with the team to support due diligence and execution of new climate investments.

·      Developing new investment theses to build into flywheels where we can use our shared expertise to invest in multiple companies.

·      Support Partners and MDs to help meet the needs of our portfolio companies as they scale.

The right candidate will bring demonstrated skills which can be characterized in the following areas:

·      Extraordinary sourcing skills. We invest in fewer than 1% of the companies we see each year. But the selection process starts with seeing them. That top of funnel is a team-wide effort, and we need to know that’s something you can excel at.

·      Sound investment judgment. Candidates should have demonstrated examples of applying sound, strategic judgment in analyzing business plans, market, and macroeconomic information and company financials.

·      Entrepreneurial and results-oriented. To succeed in this role, the individual will be a self-starter, with the ability to work comfortably with ambiguity.

·      Relationship building. In addition, the candidate will possess excellent stakeholder management skills, a network aligned with our field of work, and the ability to foster positive relationships with external constituencies.

The role is expected to have a base compensation between $200,000 and $300,000. We are an in-office culture in San Francisco. We are deeply committed to creating and nurturing a diverse team.