Business Builder
Lead

Our Company 

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Stellenbosch University LaunchLab (“SU LL”) is Africa’s leading University Business Incubator focused on transforming seemingly impossible ideas into world shaping businesses. Focusing on the 0 to 1 journey for early-stage ventures allows SU LL to build the next generation of high impact, sustainable companies. We focus our business building efforts on commercialising university technology and growing Climate Tech ventures across Southern and East Africa. Over 250 companies have come through our programs resulting in over $30M USD of funds raised, $32M of annual revenue and 250+ jobs created.  

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Our Culture

 

What we do is who we are. Our entire team lives our LaunchPAD culture. We focus on creating a People First, Authentic & Driven (PAD) environment for everyone to achieve their full potential and we expect our Ignite Directoy to exhibit the values that embody our culture.

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Position

 

SU LL is seeking a dedicated, dynamic, entrepreneurial individual who is passionate about building world-shaping businesses within the Stellenbosch University environment and across the continent. The ideal candidate will have the following: 

 

• Extensive experience working in or with pre-Product Market Fit and pre-Series A start-ups. 

• Pattern recognition with respect to the challenges, strategies, and business models of early-stage companies.  

• Experience building insightful, investor ready financial models for start-ups based on previous performance as well as projected future needs.  

• Knowledge and personal experience fundraising for pre-PMF start-ups in Africa.  

• Ability to bring different stakeholders together through insightful links, and then manage and own those relationships with start-ups, program funders, investors, experts, mentors and the internal team. 

• Strong project management skills with a proven track record of leading initiatives from start to finish, delivering extremely high-quality outputs with minimal supervision. 

• Enthusiasm and comfort with ‘getting out of the building’ to find the most promising entrepreneurs within the university and in the broader start-up ecosystem in Africa.  

• Excellent bedside manner, with a strong ability to empathize with entrepreneurs, create positive partnerships with the university and other sources of entrepreneur pipeline, and be an excellent brand representative of SU LaunchLab across Africa. 

 

The ideal candidate will have 5+ years of venture building experience and a minimum of 7+ years of experience in a start-up environment.  Former entrepreneurs and founders are a plus. 

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Position Details

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Position: Business Builder Lead  

Role: Consulting or FTE with 6 month probationary period

Reporting: Reports directly to CEO 

Fixed Salary: R50-60k gross per month  

Variable Salary: Bonus, profit sharing & pay-outs based on liquidity events within portfolio  

Location: Western Cape, SA  

Work Style: In office at least 2 days per week  

Timing: Start date on or before 1 February 2023  

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Key Workstreams

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Business Building program management 

• Manage and run SU LaunchLab’s flagship later-stage start-up accelerator 

• Build a pipeline of high potential start-ups from across the continent  

• Work directly with the Investment Committee to determine start-ups for the program  

• Work day-to-day with cohort companies via a standardised program format augmented by bespoke business building sessions  

• Support development of world class curriculum and templates for program content 

• Build a pool of world class mentors, experts, and investors to work alongside the start-ups  

• Strategically utilize external experts & resources based on needs of the portfolio  

 

Strategic analysis & insights 

• Conduct an in-depth gap analysis on every start-up business 

• Understand and prioritise the strategic needs of each business 

• Give strategic insights and direction to entrepreneurs that will focus them on their most impactful growth objectives 

• Help the entrepreneurs execute on the strategic priorities through regular contact, reporting and accountability 

 

Technical expertise 

• Guide businesses in critical commercial strategy: market mapping, customer profiling & identification, customer interviews, MVPs informed by customer insights, pricing, closing sales, etc. 

• Provide entrepreneurs with guidance in building their pitch decks and training on how to deliver an effective sales and investment pitch 

• Build financial models in partnership with the cohort companies 

• Create templates for financial capital for use by the cohort companies 

 

Entrepreneur & partner sales and management 

• Create, develop and manage start-up pipeline, including collaboration with university partners for technology transfer entrepreneur pipeline 

• Develop the assessment criteria for selecting the best businesses for the program 

• Build and run the application, recruitment, interview, evaluation and selection process to determine membership of each cohort 

 

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Qualifications & Skill Requirements

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• Bachelor degree a must; advanced degree holds great value (MBA, CFA, Six Sigma, MsC, etc.)  

• 5+ years of venture building experience highly preferred  

• 7+ years working in a leadership role in start-up environments highly preferred  

• Experience within technology transfer or spinning a business out of a university setting viewed very highly  

• Experience teaching and applying start-up principles such as Design Thinking, Lean Startup, etc. to broad audiences 

• Financial acumen- ability to analyse and build financial models 

• Experience interacting and managing senior executives, C-Level clients, etc.  

• Ability to perform research into a market- detailing trends, opportunities, challenges, etc.  

• Excited by ambiguity, self-starter, intellectually curious 

• Proven track record of owning projects from start to finish with minimal oversight 

• Excellent communication & critical thinking skills  

• Superior bedside manner and empathy 

• Creative, out of the box thinker that isn’t afraid to try new things, test, iterate & learn 

• Proven passion for driving entrepreneurism amongst specific target segments  

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Let's transform seemingly impossible into world-shaping together.