Investment Director – Fund Cofounder/Partner
Founded in 2019, Atto is a startup school for women founders. Our mission is to democratise tech entrepreneurship making it accessible to all – building the pipeline of female founders, through quality, founder-led startup education programs.
Atto started as a world-first remote pre-accelerator program for women and we’ve since gone on to launch additional programs and memberships. We’ve spent countless hours with each of the 115+ founders (25% WoC) we’ve supported to date and our pipeline keeps growing. We believe that radical transparency aids change so list our portfolio publicly here.
"Ever since I've entered the startup world, I've constantly seen that the best and brightest female-led startups gone through Atto's Accelerator Program." – Yesha Patel 🚀, founder of after (Atto 2022).
Our next step is Atto Micro Fund: first-in, fast capital for pre-seed to seed-stage founders. Everyone knows that less than 2% of capital goes to women founders, yet nothing changes year after year. The founders in our network continually fall through the cracks – even with existing diversity-minded funds and programs. We seek to be that change with the goal to be on the cap table of every female-founded company globally – and change the face of investment, seeing more women investors on cap tables.
Atto the word is a metric prefix denoting a factor of 10−18, playing on the notion that even tiny amounts of first-believer capital can have a huge impact long term. We’ve made a solid start on this mission with lean resources yet are now looking for partner(s) and advisors to help drive our next stage.
Our initial target is a super small fund of less than $1M to be invested across three years, backing ~60 female founders with first-in checks helping founders incorporate, cover cloud service, legal fees, and early costs. Sometimes this capital can mean the difference between being able to start at all. Getting that first yes is also the hardest. So the more yeses > the more rounds we’ll see.
The Role
Atto is looking for an Investment Director to cofound the creation of Atto Micro Fund. Right now, we are exploring all possibilities – this role could be an individual, an organization, or even an existing fund looking to target early-stage diverse deal flow. We have already been approached by funds, family offices, high-profile angels, and other accelerator programs looking to help – and as we look to 2023, hope to put structure and action around these conversations.
This is a great opportunity for a person or partner passionate about changing the face of entrepreneurship to leverage the already existing platform, pipeline, reputation, and relationships to effect this change.
Your responsibilities:
Lead investor outreach, relations and communication
Work with legal and financial partners to structure the fund
Work with Atto’s founder on refining the investment thesis, iterating on the fund economics and strategy
Work with Atto team on deal flow management (some sourcing), composing deal memos, and portfolio tracking
Where possible, get involved in the platform and programming side of Atto – attending events, office hours, startup showcases and more (these have been designed with parent-friendly programming in mind so online during work hours)
As an industry leader and champion, represent Atto publicly
The role:
Is a great opportunity for someone looking to cocreate a leadership role in the tech investment space, independent of existing players/structures
Due to Atto’s pre-existing infrastructure and the micro nature of the fund, it’s expected that this flexible role will equate to ~1/2 to 1/day per week – the time commitment will fluctuate as the demands change and the fund becomes more established
Is remote (we’ve been working remotely for 10+ years) with a preference for a candidate located in or able to travel to Victoria, Australia
Offers a platform for women founder advocacy and global network expansion
Carry and comp structure is all open for discussion due to founding partnership nature
About you:
You are passionate about this issue and determined to effect change
You might have already enjoyed some level of success in a related or unrelated field – and now want to focus on giving back
You might have a day job but are looking for additional leadership opportunities such as NED, advisory and/or investment roles
You should have some investment management experience (ideally in tech investing but not a requirement)
You are structured, process-oriented, and a succinct communicator
You easily see the potential and possibility in early-stage founders
Application:
As this is an early-stage consultative process, the application process is fluid and flexible with many conversations expected. We wanted to put the role out there to open up the playing field further from people outside our network. We welcome applications from all backgrounds, genders, age groups, regions, and so forth.
Please email Kate at hello@atto.vc with:
A short blurb about why you’re interested in chatting about the role
A link to your website, and/or LinkedIn
Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis and we will strive to have a conversation with everyone who expresses interest. 🙏