Nucleation is expanding our syndication team!
Nucleation Capital is the first pronuclear venture fund that is working to nucleate a carbon-managed economy. Our focus is democratizing investment into ventures developing advanced low-carbon technologies including next-generation nuclear and carbon capture, recycling and utilization. We are seeking to broaden our deal flow by recruiting Venture Associates and other independent allies to assist with finding and syndicating nuclear or carbon-related deals on a part-time / remote basis.
This is an incredible opportunity for those who are already connected in the clean energy and climatetech space and keen to learn the ins and outs of deal syndication. We will help you engage with early-stage founders, ask the right questions and, if appropriate, help them raise the capital they need to grow. We’ll help you learn invaluable skills around due diligence, venture investment analysis and fundraising, working closely with Nucleation’s managing partners, participating in investment reviews and learning how deal syndication works.
About the role: Venture Associate or Informal Ally
In just three years, Nucleation Capital has become widely known as the leading venture fund focused on investing in nuclear energy and carbon management innovation. This seems like a very narrow niche but it spans fission, fusion, LENR, subcritical, supercritical, RTGs and other types of nuclear batteries and that’s before including the broad area of carbon capture, utilization and sequestration, including production of sustainable fuels, carbon-based materials and other applications. New ventures are launching all the time and we want to have an opportunity to engage with them and assess whether or not to invest and/or to give our LP network access. We can accomplish this by recruiting a team of Venture Associates and other allies motivated to introducie deals to us and use our growing LP network to float syndicates that help these ventures raise capital. It’s a win-win-win.
You may already have a full-time job, be in a full-time academic program or be on the hunt for a full-time job. Nevertheless, if you have extra time, a passion for innovation and an interest in learning about venture finance, this could be a wonderful side gig. Emerging ventures can be found at local universities, incubators, accelerators, venture studios, and start-up founders’ events. We can help you identify and vet potential deals that we could syndicate together. Whether you already hang out at places like Plug n’ Play, Y Combinator, Activate or ARPA-E, if and when you find a cool, early-stage venture that fits our thesis, we can help you connect with the founders, assess their venture and potentially offer to help them raise some capital through our network of investors.
As a new Venture Associate, don’t worry if this is all new. Nucleation will help you find the start-up activity that is happening near you, and support you in assessing new ventures. We will coach you on how to approach founders and, should their venture seem promising, how to conduct due diligence, draft deal memos and LP invitations to invest. In most cases, when we approve your deal for synidcation, we can guarantee a minimal amount of funding and potentially even more. Based upon the deal, allocation size and timing, we may even be able to line up additional co-syndicators. For those already experienced evaluating ventures for your own investment purposes, allying with Nucleation to introduce deals can allow you to benefit from helping the venture raise even more capital than what you can invest.
Note: This role is not intended to be full-time work but rather something meaningful to do in your spare time. How much time you spend and how many deals you introduce are up to you. The more you do, the easier it gets and the broader your connections will be.
The compensation
Venture Associates and allies are primarily incentivized for success and not paid on hourly or weekly basis. For any new deal that you introduce to Nucleation that we successfully syndicate, you will earn a $250 cash success fee. Additionally, you will be given a share of the carried interest (“carry”) earned on those deals that you syndicated which return proceeds to our LPs.
Carry is a standard component of venture capital success fees. It is paid out after the underlying venture achieves liquidity, however many years that may take. Your percentage of the total deal carry earned will reflect your relative contributions to getting the deal done. Thus, the more deals you do, the more you’ll learn and the greater your share of the carry. To give you a sense of how carry might work, here’s an example of how a successful deal might play out.
EXAMPLE OF CARRIED INTEREST EARNED:
- You bring us a deal in Venture A. Together, we syndicate that deal and raise $200,000 for Venture A at a $20,000,000 post-money valuation.
- Assuming standard carry rates, Nucleation is entitled to a 20% carried interest on this $200,000 SPV investment.
- Assuming you contriibuted 50% of the work, we might agree to give you 50% of our earned fee upon the closing.
- Venture A is successful and gets acquired by Corporation B, which is a public entity. In that time, the value of Venture A has grown by 10x (including dilution). The value of the equity held by the syndicated SPV is now worth $2 million.
- After the holding period, Nucleation liquidates the investment held by the SPV and first repays the investors their principal of $250k, which leaves $1.75 million in net profits.
- The investors receive 80% of the net profits and get $1,400,000 as their return on investment.
- Nucleation gets 20% and we receive $350,000 as our carried interest share.
- Per our deal with you, you would get half, earning $175,000.
Serving as a Venture Associate or informal ally provides numerous interim benefits, including valuable experience and network building. You’ll get a front row seat to engaging with venture founders both through the deals you generate, plus occasional opportunities to assist on other deals. This role is great for someone who loves innovation and wants to build investment acumen by assessing deals and helping to raise capital for the best early-stage ventures they can find.
**IMPORTANT: This is a part-time, independent contractor role that does not provide benefits. If you earn more than $600 in fees, you will get a 1099 form and be responsible for paying your own taxes.**
Background requirements
We anticipate that this role will appeal to individuals who have developed a certain amount of technical expertise but who have little or no experience in investing or running a business. Candidates will likely include those working in or around the nuclear or energy industry, the national labs, or who have nuclear, chemical or mechanical engineering skills. You may, in fact, know painfully little about the world of business, finance, entrepreneurship, or venture investing but you are curious and want to know more. Plus, you are a self-starter who perhaps has supported others who were considering launching a venture or thought about doing so yourself.
If you are interested in this role, you likely recognize that innovation is the way that we will solve humanity’s most critical problems. You may already be connected to some founders, technical experts or angel investors. You may have used your technical skills to help advise one or more R&D projects or venture teams. You are keen to learn more about the ins and outs of finance and private equity investing and using that to help founders build new and exciting ventures.
Applications from those already working in nuclear, energy, carbon engineering or hardware technologies will take priority. You can also be working in any capacity with exposure to founders, investors or seed or later-stage ventures to qualify. For those with angel or early-stage venture investing experience, this is an opportunity to learn more about advanced nuclear and carbon innovation and build your skills and networks.
Skill requirements
For Nucleation Capital to be able to float a syndicate, there are many steps involved: A) finding the venture, B) connecting with the founding team, C) learning about their tech, market, business and financing needs, D) assessing the venture for suitability and success, E) doing deeper diligence and verifying information, F) drafting a comprehensive deal memo, G) forming the syndicate and H) inviting investors to review it and promoting it to our network. We don’t expect Venture Associates to know how to do all these things at the get-go: we will train you. But the best candidates will have the following basic skills:
- Deep interest in, curiosity and willingness to learn about technology, innovation, venture capital, and entrepreneurship
- An ability to take the initiative to attend venture events, connect with founders, ask perceptive questions and build a rapport, so that deeper conversation and exploration about a venture can happen
- Strong writing and analytic skills and an understanding of how to create a compelling narrative (such as through experience writing articles, blogs, memos, or essays) around new technologies and markets.
- Self-starting and motivating, high fidelity to detail and accuracy and an ability to complete assignments independently and expeditiously
- Ability to work both independently as well as part of a team, ask questions and follow through to accomplish broader goals and objectives.
- A willingness to learn about the AngelList platform and its protocols is sufficient. Extra credit for experience with AngelList, past angel or syndicated investments.
Apply and learn more
If this Venture Associate role or being informally allied interests you, we are happy to meet with you to answer your questions. Please complete the application form at the link below and we’ll be in touch.
