Senior Associate, Vertical AI

About Primary

Primary is a seed-stage venture capital firm dedicated to delivering exceptional support to the founders of transformational businesses. By pairing meaningful investment resources with the largest portfolio impact team of any seed investor, our portfolio companies have reached an industry-best seed-to-A graduation rate.

About The Role

We are looking for a Senior Associate to work in lockstep with General Partner, Jason Shuman. You’ll support Jason in finding, conducting diligence on, and winning great Vertical AI businesses. You’ll also spend your time supporting Jason’s efforts to incubate new businesses through our venture studio, Primary Labs. Here is a note from Jason about the opportunity:

We’re at a unique point in time where massive swathes of the economy – across traditional software and services – are set to be fundamentally transformed by AI, and I’m looking for my right hand to invest in and create this next generation of category defining businesses from day 0. You should be obsessed with the craft of venture capital and excited about methodically picking apart verticals, functions, and current software landscapes that are set to be reimagined from the ground up in an AI-native way.

I want someone who recognizes that VC is a services business where we will go above and beyond to try and create an edge for exceptional founders. You should be willing to challenge the status quo, be able to look at analysis from multiple perspectives, and should have a deep desire to push the boundaries of what seed stage investing means. I’m looking for an investor who is insatiably curious, an independent thinker, someone obsessed with tech, stories of business building, and human psychology. I’ve backed companies including Dandy, Latch, January AI, Standard Bots and more. I’ve also launched businesses with the former CEO of Angi’s List, 4 of the top 10 multi-family developers in the country, and signed a number of enterprise deals pre-product. If you’re excited to operate at the frontier of what’s possible in Vertical AI, and want to be part of a high-velocity, hyper-competitive team with deep conviction, this is the place to do it.

What You'Ll Do

• Deal Sourcing: Conduct market research and actively seek out promising investment opportunities startups through various channels. Represent the firm to conduct an initial screen of prospects
• Due Diligence: Perform thorough due diligence on potential investments including financial analysis, market assessment, competitive landscape evaluation, and team assessment. Independently run diligence processes with assistance from the Partner, effectively prioritizing diligence areas, synthesizing diligence work
• Financial Analysis: Own relevant analyses for potential opportunities including financial, market sizing, unit economics, and cap table modeling.
• Portfolio Support: Provide ongoing support to existing portfolio companies by coordinating with the portfolio impact team
• Incubations: Ride shotgun with Jason on his work with Primary Labs to incubate new businesses and provide ad-hoc support where needed.
• Market Insights: Stay on top of industry trends, news, and regulatory developments. Surface regular market insights and lead research on thematic deep dives on new potential investment areas.
• Network Expansion: Cultivate and maintain relationships with key stakeholders in the vertical AI community, including founders, industry experts, talented operators, and other investors
• Thought Leadership: Represent the firm at industry events, conferences, and panels. Support and execute on strategic brand building and thought leadership initiatives.
• Firm Building: Support Partners with ongoing LP reporting and other firm building initiatives

About You

• Must be available to work full-time in NYC
• 4-7 years of relevant experience in venture capital or related investing roles with a demonstrated interest in Vertical AI and early stage investing
• Entrepreneurial Spirit: You have an entrepreneur’s intrinsic motivation and are capable of independently running with business ideas with substantial ambiguity. You are resourceful, passionate about ownership and willing to hustle to win deals
• Deeply curious: You have a strong desire to become an expert in a certain industry or business model and are willing to put in the work to do so
• Analytical-thinker: You have a strong grasp of what makes a good business. You’re comfortable with financial statements & models and concepts and can quickly assess the feasibility and scalability of a new venture idea
• Relationship-builder: You’re comfortable developing relationships with industry leaders from the ground up and have a deep knowledge of technology investing as well as a strong understanding of the VC ecosystem
• Fast-learner: You’re able to learn rapidly, develop a strong point of view, and communicate compelling narratives
• Strong communicator: Excellent verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to present complex ideas in a clear and concise manner

Compensation is market-competitive with a yearly cash base of $150,000-$200,000 and will include upside in our funds.