Assistant Head of Strategic Research, Hedge Fund

About Us / Why Join?

We are a rapidly growing crypto hedge fund, 2 years old, managing a 9-figure AUM, generating 200%+ annualized returns with a 4 Sharpe.

Part of our out-performance comes from our Head of Strategic Investments. They run a strategic research and investment department that:

• Makes venture investments in (illiquid) tokens; these have performed very well for us
• Provides strategic advisory services; this has also generated significant PnL
• Build relationships across the ecosystem; this has greatly facilitated our discretionary trading

We are seeking an assistant to our Head of Strategic Investments to:

1. On a strategic level, complement their strengths and weaknesses by being an extremely organized operator who drives prioritization, organization, and writing on the Strategic team.
2. On a daily tactical level, provide bread-and-butter research, brainstorming, and advisory to cryptocurrency projects.

This is an opportunity to:

• Learn from one of the best connected operators in the cryptocurrency venture and advisory space.
• Be compensated very well, as our profitability per researcher is very high. Think: retirement money after 5 years.
• Get in on the ground floor of one of the strongest hedge funds in a nascent asset class that will balloon in the future.

Our Requirements

We've divided up our requirements into a strategic level where you will be driving change and a tactical level which is already on-going tasks that simply need more manpower.

Strategic Level

Our Head of Strategic Investments is extremely strong at brainstorming and idea generation, deal structuring, and networking / dealflow.

They would like you to take the lead in the following areas to bring the team to the next level:

1. Creating a framework to prioritize and rank the many projects that ask us to invest in them.
   • Right now, it is an overwhelming number, and the lack of a framework causes great inbounds to sometimes fall through the cracks.
   • The best deals are often time-sensitive. Remind the team what is important each day and week.
   • Be an intellectual sparring partner / ad-hoc investment committee to ensure we don't miss great projects from subjective biases.
2. Help the team go from being reactive to proactive so we don't suffer from adverse selection. Many of the best projects may not reach out to us.
   • Taking all inbounds and first calls, especially on the market making and VC side.
   • Dealing with all nitty gritty post-management part of advisory.
   • Come up with additional ideas to save our Head time and prioritize the most promising projects.
3. Be in charge of writing and communicating our plans to the rest of the team.
   • Take our team's vision, fill out the details, and communicate it to the organization what we need to succeed.
   • We often have many synergies with our discretionary and on-chain research counter-parts and need to make sure we're sharing our plans, needs, and discoveries.

In summary, most of the requirements on the strategic level have to do with soft-skills (organization, detail-orientation, writing/communication), and your ability to complement our Head.

Tactical Level

Our Head of Strategic Investments is extremely strong in the perp DEX and stablecoin space. We envisage eventually expanding beyond these areas (e.g. ZK, NFT, Web3 Gaming, infrastructure-related outside exchange and trading space), but in the initial stage of this team, we want to first focus on dominating the perp DEX and stablecoin space.

1. Somebody who knows (or can quickly learn) all the perp DEX and stablecoin projects out there and what they're doing.
   • Domain knowledge and awareness of all these projects. What they've done in terms of catalysts, major breakthroughs. What has been successful in the past.
   • To be able to guide these projects and provide high quality feedback on what they should do. Design, implementation, feedback.
     • For example: you're generally aware of what's going on with all the other DEX's in terms of key innovations. Often you can give good ideas borrowed from other projects.
2. You need to be very senior on crypto fundamental (valuation) research techniques, we expect to not need to train you.
   • Senior enough to have conviction & opinions on valuation and investment decisions driven by your research. You likely have a private network to identify what might be the next meta.
   • Examples of "fundamental research" that backs investment theses: emission schedules, coin economics, team, partnerships, technical innovation.
3. A technical background will also help complement our existing skillset.
   • Required:
     • The level we're looking for is a crypto-native person who is familiar with all major technical terminology and meaning in crypto. For example, a good gauge of this is able to read and understand audit reports and all terms in the report without looking them up.
   • Bonus, but NOT required:
     • Be able to evaluate smart contract code and find possible errors.
     • Right now, we don't have someone who understands sequencers, provers, and major processes in L2 projects are trying to solve.

Summary of Tactical Level Hard Requirements

• Crypto native with at least 2+ years of full-time experience doing research (understanding the technical details of a space) in the field
  • Best:
    • Projects themselves, e.g. developers at Berachain.
    • Fundamental research-specific firms like Meserai, Nansen, Delphi Digital.
    • Exchanges like Binance that publish research.
  • Good
    • VCs that publish in-depth research like Pantera, Multicoin. Sole job is to do research. Lower than projects because many VCs are top-down evaluative.
  • Not good:
    • A trading firm. Looking for more builder-centric people.
• Performed crypto research before
  • Advisory for whitepaper
  • Building block-level research in trading/investment firms/exchanges/VC firms

Interview Process

After you apply, you can expect the following interview process:

1. CV Screening - Against the criteria above.
2. (Optional) Recruiter Call - If your CV needs additional screening.
3. First Interview - To explain more about the role with case study.
4. Head of Research Interview - Your direct manager, to assess complementary fit
5. CIO Interview - Final interview with the CIO for cultural fit

To increase your chance of entering our interview process, please write to recruiting+Strat@hermeneutic.investments with your CV and cover letter that includes the answers to the following questions:

1. Why do you meet the requirement outlined in this JD?
2. Can you describe (and ideally link to) a single piece of research you did in the past that is most similar to the work we do?

During the first interview, you'll be asked a case study:

• Pitch me a project you think is undervalued, has a token, and one thing you'd recommend they could change to make the project / valuation better.

You may optionally prepare ahead of time and include one of these in your cover letter, which will increase the chance you receive an interview.

Throughout the process, you'll be assessed for cultural fit through our company values:

1. Drive - We believe the best team members are passionate about what they do, and that propels them to greater heights in their career. It drives them to be part of the best teams where they are exposed to the best ideas.
2. Ownership - We aim to give ownership interest to as many people in the firm as possible, but in return, we expect everyone to act like owners. "Not my responsibility" is a repugnant phrase to us.
3. Judgement - We look for team members who consistently look at the big picture and spend their time on the activities that most drive PnL. They are pragmatic with their time; they don't stick to their narrow domain if it doesn't move the needle.
4. Openness - We want a culture where we proactively share information with one another and challenge each other with constructive debate to reach the truth.
5. Competence - We value people with high intellectual horsepower. They have already become an expert in one or more domains and learn extremely quickly when in unfamiliar territory.

FAQ

Is previous crypto experience necessary?

No, we prefer candidates who are coming from premier TradFi buy-side hedge funds.

However, we expect all candidates to have a strong interest in digital assets and ideally trade or invest in their personal account.