SU LaunchLab University Startup Lab Director
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 across University Technology Transfer, Climate, AgriTech and FoodTech. Over 250 companies have come through our programs resulting in over $30M USD of funds raised, $32M of annual revenue and 250+ jobs created.
SU LL is seeking a dedicated, entrepreneurial individual who is passionate about growing entrepreneurism within the University. The ideal candidate will be a strong project manager with a proven track record of leading initiatives from start to finish delivering extremely high-quality outputs with minimal supervision. They will be enthusiastic and comfortable with ‘getting out of the building’ to interact with students while also demonstrating the strong quantitative background necessary to determine the ROI of projects with clear hypotheses and KPI tracking.
A minimum of 7+ years of experience in a marketing, project management, business development or entrepreneurial role is necessary. If you have a passion for using your qualitative & quantitative skills to help grow entrepreneurism on University campuses then SU LaunchLab will be an excellent place for you to learn, grow and contribute to a fast-growing team.
Position: University Startup Lab Director
Role: Full-Time Employment
Reporting: Reports directly to CEO
Fixed Salary: R50-60k per month
Variable Salary: Incentive Package including quarterly bonus, annual profit sharing & payouts based on liquidity events of portfolio companies
Location: Western Cape, SA
Timing: 1 September 2021 or earlier
Duties & Responsibilities:
Overall Duties & Responsibilities: University Startup Lab (USL)
- Develop and own a list of key KPIs that will determine success within the USL business unit
- Develop and own a financial model detailing revenue, expenses, and operating profit of the USL business unit
- Own hiring and successful onboarding of USL team members
Work Streams
- Varsity Engagement
– Develop mission, vision, and strategic plan for engagement across the Stellenbosch University community
– Develop, manage, facilitate, and test programs (i.e. bootcamps, hackathons, student projects, office hours, etc) and other events and activities to optimally engage students
– Build relationships across various departments of the University in order to create a pipeline of willing, eager and excited student entrepreneurs that may plug into LaunchLab companies
– Track all entrepreneurial student opportunities across campus for the LaunchLab website
– Utilise creativity to help SU LL achieve its aim of empowering 1,000+ students per annum with real, tangible, actionable entrepreneurial opportunities
– Manage and oversee SU LL Techpreneurship Centre - University Spin-out Builder
– Manage and oversee establishment of Spin-out Builder sub-unit
– Assist Spin-out Builder lead in developing a list of key KPIs that will determine success within the sub-unit
Qualifications & Skill Requirements:
- Bachelor degree a must; advanced degree holds great value (MBA, CFA, CIMA, Six Sigma, MsC, etc)
- 5+ years of entrepreneurial experience a must
- 5+ years in a project management, business development, commercial or marketing
- Experience teaching and applying startup principles such as Design Thinking, Lean Startup, etc to broad audiences
- Experience within technology transfer or spinning a business out of a University setting viewed very highly
- Experience interacting and managing senior executives, C-Level clients, etc
- Ability to perform research into a market detailing trends, opportunities, challenges, etc
- Comfort in utilising both qualitative and quantitative techniques to collect and report on market research & testing experiments to test hypotheses
- Experience in a startup environment; 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
- 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
In order to apply, please submit the following information here:
- Curriculum Vitae
- Video of 60 seconds or less discussing your ‘why’ for working with SU LaunchLab
- Motivation Letter of 250 words or less describing your applicable experience in entrepreneurism, engagement or other role applicable areas
Let’s transform seemingly impossible into world shaping together!