Director, Startup Experience

What is our Startup Experience

“A startup is an organization formed to search for a repeatable and scalable business model”

• Steve Blank

Startups in our community range from those with just an idea to those poised for high growth with proven product-market fit. In between those two points are a lot of ups and downs, a lot of failures, and even more lessons. Startups progress through 4-stages of growth from idea to product-market fit and their needs change throughout each stage. Our goal is to guide the founder's progression through each of the stages.

We deliver value to our startups through…

1. Community: A purposefully built and engaging community of peers, mentors, investors, and more. 
2. Programs: Immersive programs to either educate (Ex: 4 week program on How To Raise a Seed Round) or to provide an experience and connections (Ex: Investor Showcase and Networking)
3. Resources: A digital platform designed to facilitate connections, provide startups with a self-guided startup roadmap and asynchronous learning courses, and take advantage of self-service resources like our job board or podcast studio. 

The Director of Startup Experience is responsible for designing, iterating upon, and executing a strategy for each of the three pillars above for each of the four startup stages. For stage 1, for those with an idea, the Director may run a “How to Build an MVP” program. Whereas, for stage 3, those with a product in the market and rapidly growing, curriculum is no longer needed. Therefore, for Stage 3, the Director may plan an expert-led Problem-Solving session where the founders can discuss their biggest challenges amongst peers. 

Ultimate Responsibility

The Director of Startup Experience is ultimately responsible for the engagement and retention of our startup members. They will own and deliver a suite of digital learning and community-building tools, live programming and community events, and the highest caliber pool of mentors and advisors.

Core Responsibilities

The Director of Startup Experience will own the experience for our 300+ startups. Core responsibilities include: 

• Own the design and maintenance of the digital platform, including the startup roadmap, asynchronous curriculum, resource hub, mentor booking system, and more.
• Plan and execute high-quality workshops and community networking events
• Design, contract instructors, launch, and execute immersive learning programs, ensuring they are engaging, educational, and impactful for startups.
• Maintain a high-caliber mentor pool, ensuring mentors gain significant value and provide impactful guidance.
• Build and coordinate relationships with key partners, like our Investor-in-Residence to provide startups with vetted, accessible advisors.

Further, the Director sits on the Product Team and, therefore, must think like a product leader. The Director will also:

• Perform regular customer discovery to ensure we deliver the highest valued experience to each startup stage. They will use these insights to inform their product roadmap. 
• Coordinate with sales and marketing so they understand your product offerings and can adequately sell new memberships to startups. 
• Collaborate with others on the Product Team who also build experiences for startups (and others) like the Sr. Director of Affinities, who builds experiences for founders who identify as an underrepresented minority or the Sr. Director of Innovation Labs, who builds experiences for startups, investors and corporations in specific industries (like Supply Chain or Finance). You must coordinate to provide a cohesive experience for the startups. 

Requirements

Desired Skills

The ideal candidate will possess the below skills.

• Adaptable Leader: You thrive in ambiguity, are strategically self-driven, and excel in cross-functional collaboration and solving challenges.
• Proactive: You have a bias toward action and are able to swiftly implement plans and drive results.
• Experienced with Digital Tools: Experience in designing and delivering asynchronous learning courses and platforms.
• Skilled: Skill in hosting large events, moderating panels, and serving as the face of the organization for startups.
• Analytical: Strong KPI data analysis and product mindset, with the ability to test, iterate, and continuously enhance our offerings.
• Organized: Extremely organized, capable of planning and flawlessly executing 25+ events per month with a lean team.
• Strategic: Ability to prioritize and economically deliver product offerings to ensure the viability of the organization’s business model.

You’ve succeeded in this role at the end of year 1 if:

• The Digital Learning Hub - a portal by which founders access webinars, articles, templates, and more - is brimming with top-quality content from 1871’s deep bench of mentors as well as an easy-to-use and interactive Startup Roadmap for startups to track their progress.
• Each of the 4 stages of startups has a defined experience (right now only 2 are robust and 2 are on the back burner).
• Engagement and retention metrics are not only easily monitored but have doubled from their base number today.
• Each stage has an advisory council of 3-5 key mentors to help the Director ensure the content and programming at each stage is top-tier quality.
• The operational execution of over 150+ workshops, 50+ community events, 300+ mentors, and 100+ digital resources for our founders is down to a clear set of standard operating procedures from design through delivery through feedback.
• The collateral of what the Startup Experience is and how it works is available to all internal stakeholders and is very clearly laid out to all external potential customers.

Big Picture

Below are some big-picture and longer-term goals for this role.

• Our Experience is able to be scaled to our B2B partners, including university partners and other incubators, and we are poised to build a global community.
• Through robust execution and greatly improved storytelling, 1871 is recognized across the country as the best place for founders to build and scale innovative businesses, displacing our competitors and scaling to reach 5000 active founders. 
• Our Startup Roadmap is the go-to resource for founders and serves as the highest quality guide for startup success. This Roadmap is interactive (track their progress), available in their pocket (mobile app), and filled with resources. 

Role Overview

This role reports to the Chief Product Officer and works alongside various other product owners. The role currently has one direct report, a Program Manager, who helps deliver the programs and community events. The Director also manages contracted experts-in-residence who lead a large part of the curriculum at each stage and provide the Director with expert guidance on content. Other functional leaders you will work closely with include the membership/community, operations, finance, marketing, business development, fundraising, and corporate innovation.