Head of Venture Support

Head of Venture Support

• Base: East London with occasional travel to other Allia locations in Cambridge and Peterborough
• Annual Salary: £50k - £60k per annum depending on experience
• Hours: Full-time, 35 hours per week
• Reports to: Chief Executive of Allia Impact
• Benefits: Company pension scheme; private healthcare, healthcare cashback plan, wellness programme, store discounts, life insurance, flexible working, a strong commitment to personal & professional development...and more

Must be eligible to work in the UK without sponsorship.

Allia is looking for a Head of Venture Support

As Head of Venture Support, you will grow the profile of Allia’s venture support activities and lead our Venture Support team to deliver business programmes for a wide range of early stage and growing social and environmental impact ventures including tech for good startups and social enterprises. You will also develop and implement new service offerings to support our ventures in becoming a force for good in society as we grow the profile of our work. Our support includes structured accelerator programmes, grant initiatives, innovation challenges, and social investment.

You will champion Allia’s venture work to attract business partners and investors, managing key strategic relationships whilst creating new partnerships and business development opportunities.

You’ll manage and develop a brilliant team of Programme Managers, Venture Outreach Associates, and Venture Advisors and make sure they’re on track with programme design, recruitment, budgets, delivery, and impact. You’ll provide timely support and direction to the team members who are passionate about enabling business to be a force for good.

Allia Ltd is a charity that empowers good businesses through workspace, support and finance, creating positive impact for people, place and planet. Its subsidiary Allia Impact runs our venture support team of business advisors and programme managers that help hundreds of small businesses every year so that they can thrive and grow – and is where this role sits.

Allia Future Business Centres are home to start-ups, charities and local businesses forming a supportive community of workspace and networking. And Allia C&C is an expert on socially responsible finance, advising & arranging for borrowers and offering brokerage and trading services for investors.

You will be able to leverage your commercial and entrepreneurial experience to:

• Develop and oversee the execution of a strategy for outreach, seeking, attracting and onboarding deserving and qualified innovative entrepreneurs and start-ups
• Provide credible strategic guidance to programme managers in content areas such as business modelling, sales and marketing, financing, fundraising, overall strategy, operations etc.
• Create project plans and timelines to map out milestones and help assess resource requirements across central services such as marketing and accounts
• Enable and support the professional growth of the Venture team as they work across a variety of clients, programmes and geographies.
• Liaise with senior management, the marketing and fundraising teams, and the broader organisation to sustainably grow the impact of our support, including our vision to grow impact business support to many more locations nationally.
• Manage the novel social investment programme we have established leveraging equity and revenue based finance instruments.

The role is critical for Allia’s growth, and the successful applicant will be considered for our executive team after a successful initial period in the role. You will report to the Chief Executive of Allia Impact.

Person Specification

You’re a confident and competent leader

In previous roles, you’ve led teams, complex projects and/or large programmes. You break down problems with a cool head and take tough decisions when needed but understand the role of mentoring to build strong teams. People leadership will be a large component of your day to day.

You have strong financial skills

You’ve managed a P&L before and you have the skill to quickly read a cash flow and the confidence to make tough decisions when the business demands them. You also understand equity investment and bring angel and VC connections, and have a passion for developing out a new social investment vehicle in the Cambridgeshire area and beyond.

You understand entrepreneurs

Whether it’s time spent being around and supporting them or your own experience you will understand the journey of the entrepreneur, the challenges and barriers faced and the fundamental building blocks that create impactful and sustainable businesses.

You’re a shrewd relationship builder

Your ability to build rapport quickly and develop strong working relationships across different stakeholder groups will be based on reading situations quickly and strong interpersonal skills. You will have experience of working with start-ups, entrepreneurs, mentors, universities, research institutions, industry experts, business membership associations, local or central government, and angel investors. You will be a team player and keen to develop and maintain strong working relationships with the whole team at Allia.

You’re not afraid of working hard in pursuit of a big vision.

You are a strategic thinker, reliable, deeply collaborative, passionate about people, a quick learner, and thrive in an evolving environment

In summary, you will have:

Essential:

• A passion for the mission of Allia and our work supporting impact ventures
• At least 4-6 years’ experience working with entrepreneurs, start-ups, accelerators or incubators or incubation consultancy.
• Financial management skills, including P&L responsibility and social investment experience
• Excellent communication and relationship building skills
• A drive to continuously develop the team and organisation
• Comfortable speaking at events, roundtables and peer sessions
• Travel to Cambridge and Peterborough Future Business Centres fortnightly from an operating base in East London (Whitechapel)
• Must be eligible to work in the UK without sponsorship

Nice to Haves:

• Experience of working in Tech for Good / Social Tech or Environmental Tech sectors
• Experience of managing similar incubator / accelerator programmes
• Experience of raising grant and other funding, pitching to organisations and writing proposals
• An MBA or MSc in Business Administration or relevant qualification in innovation or incubator management
• Experience managing remote teams
• Valid driving licence and own vehicle to enable travel to all FBC locations

In return:

You’ll be apart of a multi-award-winning organisation that drives innovation with a focus on addressing environmental and social challenges. We offer great benefits, flexible working options, and the chance to develop your fundraiser experience.

We are committed to equality and diversity for our ventures, tenants, colleagues, volunteers, trustees and supporters. We value the strength that comes with difference and the positive contribution that diversity brings to the communities in which we serve. We are working to increase diversity and would particularly welcome applications from groups that are currently under-represented, including those from a BAME background.

To apply for this role, please send an up-to-date CV with a supporting covering letter highlighting your skills and experience along with why we should consider you for the role and your salary expectations to recruitment@allia.org.uk by close of Friday 12th July 2024. Applications will not be considered without this information.

Early application is encouraged, as we will be interviewing strong candidates as they apply.