Director ESG Strategy | Climax Ventures | West Coast
About Climax Ventures
Founded in 2022, Climax Ventures is a new style venture capital firm with the vision of “accelerating the world into the environmental age”. We are focused on investing in ambitious founders and teams, obsessed with creating climate-first businesses that have the ability to dominate a market. Climax believes that there is an environmental version of every product and service which will rapidly be adopted in order to solve the climate crisis and create a better future. As early-stage investors looking to help thousands of founders through our accelerator program and ecosystem, we are fiercely capitalistic and view the climate crisis as the most urgent, important, and rewarding investment opportunity of our generation. We love web3 and believe in the power of community, therefore we are allocating 50% of our equity and GP returns to the external community of founders, mentors, evangelists etc.
About the role
You are ESG – and that excites you, not scares you! We are seeking an experienced environmental, social, and governance (ESG) director in an instrumental role, enabling the full power of our company and ecosystem. To us, ESG is a tool for value creation rather than derisking. You are the first member of this team to set the strategy, standards and help build our ESG goals. You need to have the confidence and experience to set a path for the whole company when it comes to the look, feel and communication style of ESG in early-stage venture capital. You will know what to execute yourself and where to bolster your skills with third party experts or members of our ecosystem. We expect you to not only develop strategic plans, but also be extremely hands-on in the implementation both internally and with startups in the program or portfolio. ESG is core to our business, and we believe it to be a fundamental tool for systemic change in creating a better future. For the right candidate, this is a dream role to get in at the start and set the strategy and direction of the business.
Components of the role include
- Above all else “help Climax win”
- Strategically plan how best to execute our vision with ESG and sustainability at the core
- Create and deliver ESG curriculum to startups in the accelerator program in the form of large scale workshops, focused on value creation
- Provide ESG advice to startup founders in small groups or 1on1’s, as necessary
- Design quantitative and qualitative due diligence and portfolio analysis frameworks in collaboration with the investment team, with ESG at the core
- Operate as a strategic ESG thought-leader to Climax team members
- In collaboration with marketing, you will drive Climax ESG initiatives by engaging key external stakeholder like: media, investors, founders, etc., ultimately establishing Climax as an ESG leader in the startup ecosystem
- Shape Climax’s ESG and sustainability narrative in collaboration with our marketing team
- Create, drive, and report on internal ESG goals resulting in a more robust company and ecosystem
- Develop and implement an ESG value creation playbook for early-stage startups
- Long-term you will inspire, develop, and lead a team of ESG professionals
- Collaborate with external ESG and sustainability partners to support the Climax ecosystem, especially startup founders
About you
It is critical that you are honest with yourself in asking: “Does this matter to me? Would success in this role inspire me, make me proud, and challenge me to do my best work? Does this team feel good to me? Will this work motivate me to the core?”.
You have significant ESG experience and have run and built teams in the past. You are happy to “do the work” and also to hire excellence into applicable roles. You are itching for an opportunity to build something iconic, bold and new in a role to help change the world.
In a semi-remote work environment, we feel employee-company fit is a new essential for happiness. We look for self-starters and team players, but it is fundamental that the work we ask you to do is the work you feel inspired to do.
As a startup, you must thrive in a fast-paced environment. In the nature of early-stage company building, the freedom and responsibilities, lack of structure and processes, and the ability to make decisions with poor or little data, should be appealing to your work style. You need to have excellent communication skills and a passion and curiosity for modern media.
We behave like a high-performance sports team. Every day is game day and every day we must earn our position to stay in the team. We must support our teammates and develop our own skills so our performance inspires and lifts the rest of the company. This is not a job or a lifestyle, Climax is a platform for you to drive yourself and constantly exceed your capabilities.
Reporting & Collaboration
As this role is a core part of our business, you will be working directly with a cofounder at the highest level, and collaborating with all internal teams:
- Operations
- Product-Market Fit
- Marketing
- Investment
○ Sourcing
○ Portfolio Companies
- Growth & Strategy
Our work environment expectations
We believe remote work has enabled access to a much greater talent pool than before which is great for talent and companies. This new way of work is still evolving and we encourage over communicating while remote working. We believe that a regular in person work environment is an advantage. As such we expect:
- Our team works “west coast hours”
- Our team is willing to come to California (SF, LA) for up to 1 week per month if needed, “offsites are the new onsites”
- Our team have a quiet place of focus to work at home or nearby
Requirements
- You have significant experience developing, advising, and implementing ESG initiatives with both internal and external stakeholders, focused on value creation
- You bring substantial knowledge of the private equity ecosystem, especially in venture capital as it relates to startups, accelerators, or incubators
- You have a passion and understanding of the climate crisis and sustainability, specifically as it relates to technology
- You posses a strong understanding of the evolving global ESG regulatory landscape
- You have exceptional written and verbal communication skills
- You have experience managing numerous priorities at once, in an extremely fast paced environment with limited resources and little data
- You are passionate about building things and achieving a vision
We do not tolerate
- Company Politics – manipulation of data or situations for personal gain
- Misalignment – disagreements are welcomed, but once a decision is made we all must execute with passion
- Disrespecting entrepreneurs – their effort and passion are fundamental to the ecosystem
- Poor communication – speak up or shut up
- Personal agendas – we each win when the company wins
Please send your resume and top 5 requirements to matthew@climax.vc
