Common Magic is hiring a ~Venture Fellow~

Hi! I’m Sarah, solo general partner at Common Magic, an early stage microfund investing in products with community at their core. I’m looking for a Venture Fellow.

Launched in 2023, Common Magic is built to leverage my background as an operator and community builder, and based on three core beliefs:

• There will be a next wave of companies built bottom-up, from open source to crypto to consumer. “Community” is how they build ecosystems around their products that enable the success of those products
• Companies built like this stay close to their customer base and are therefore more resilient
• Small funds can win if they have unique operational ability

Since launch, the fund has made eight investments at pre-seed and seed across Europe; as the fund scales, I’m looking for a Venture Fellow. This is a part-time intern level role ideal for someone who is currently studying and interested in a career, longer term, in early stage startups or pre-seed venture capital.

To be transparent:

• As a solo GP fund, you’ll work closely with me on investments but this is not an investment role
• In-person matters to me; I can only accept applications from candidates who either live in London or are able to travel to London regularly
• The role has a stipend
• Ideal duration would be 15 hours a week for six months from June 2024 but we can discuss

The role

Essentially, you’ll be my right hand as we focus on serving founders, building the brand and creating operational excellence within Common Magic. The role day-to-day will be decided by you and I but could include:

• Platform — thinking through how CM supports our founder community better and scales that support as the portfolio grows
• Events — creating and executing events to bring together founders/LPs and build the CM brand from curated small dinners to larger events such as hackathons
• Operations — going deep on how CM can uplevel operations
• Research — creating original research on topics of interest to you, the fund, the portfolio and wider tech scene

The person

• High agency; I’m here for guidance but you’ll be self sufficient and motivated
• Extremely strong communicator
• Passion for (and ideally some knowledge about) pre-seed investing or early stage startups
• Humble; venture capital is full of ego but ego can get in the way of good decisions
• Eternally curious; you’ll love to meet people and discover + synthesise new networks and topics
• Pragmatic; if the chairs need putting out, you do it yourself
• In an ideal world, you’ll have a stronger analytical background than me but that’s not essential

Values

The right person will bring good diversity of thought but share the same strong values.

• Service mindset; founders first, always. CM earns the right to do what we do every day through being a great partner.
• Pragmatic optimism: there’s a million reasons why things can’t work. CM strives to get the balance right between critical thinking + believing the future will not look like the past, and that technology can bridge the gap between now and next.
• Act like an owner; CM holds ourselves accountable for the choices we make and aspires to maintain high standards.
• The best way to learn is to do; CM believes funds are products, and that often products need to be launched then iterated.
• Be transparent; sometimes being a great partner means hearing + delivering hard feedback. You can only do that if you’ve already earned trust through being transparent.
• Don’t forget to have fun

If this sounds like it could be for you, please send me:

a) a little about you and/or any online profile

b) answers to these questions below

c) confirmation you’re currently a student and live in or near London

d) in an email to sarah@commonmagic.xyz with the subject line “Venture Fellow”

by Tues 26th March 2024:

• What’s the first job you had, and the first unpaid “work” you did?
• What’s something you’ve done or taken part in that you’re proud of? Why?
• Why does Common Magic’s thesis resonate with you?
• What’s a project you’d want to pitch + execute in this role?
• What do you want to be doing in, say, five years?

Thanks for your interest ✌️