Senior Advisor, Enterprise
- Job Type
- Full Time
- Job Level
- Senior
- Location
- Toronto, ON
- Impact Area
- Economic Development
- Impact Category
- Nonprofit
- Company Type
- Nonprofit
About this position
About MaRS
MaRS Discovery District (@MaRSDD) in Toronto is the one of the world’s largest urban innovation hubs. MaRS supports promising ventures tackling key societal challenges in the Fintech, Cleantech, Enterprise and Health sectors. In addition to helping new ventures start, grow and scale, the MaRS community is dedicated to cross-disciplinary collaboration, commercialization of Canadian entrepreneurial innovation.
About your role
The Senior Advisor, Enterprise will provide leadership to the MaRS Enterprise portfolio. The portfolio encompasses ventures across all sub sectors of the Enterprise Tech market including; IT infrastructure, sales and marketing, business operations, talent management, employee productivity, skills development, deep tech. Our portfolio of firms are heavy developers and users of advanced analytics, artificial intelligence, cloud, data and cybersecurity technologies. Our Enterprise cluster includes ventures who are seeking capital, pursuing new markets, and have recurring revenues ranging from $1 million to over $50 million annually.
You will provide guidance and mentorship to growth and scaling stage ventures on business and product strategies, and day-to-day operations; helping to develop, finance, and commercialize their technologies, products, and services. You will aid them with connections — to talent, customers, experts, and funding. The end goal: to scale these world-class Canadian innovations to global market successes, building on our strong history and deep roots in enterprise technology innovation.
This is an opportunity to make a difference – for the entrepreneurs this role supports – and for the overall success of Canadian Enterprises. The timing couldn’t be better. Investment, revenue growth, and employment in the Enterprise sector globally are all on a rapid upwards growth trajectory. Our ventures are ready to challenge the world’s best – and you can be a part of leading the charge.
About you
You already know the industry. You’ve likely got a background as an Enterprise tech founder, entrepreneur, senior team member, or operator. You know how hard it is to achieve success and you’re passionate about the opportunity to help up-and-coming Enterprise ventures succeed – not just in Canada, but also on the world stage.
Smart, humble, and dynamic, you have unfaltering positive energy and a drive to accelerate the growth of emerging enterprise companies. You likely have a proven track record as an entrepreneur, financier, and/or leader with a high-growth (preferably venture backed) business, and are a strong connector of people and ideas in the sector globally. If you’re passionate about the sector and want to be part of a dynamic team driving Enterprise ventures to global success, this is the role for you.
Core element of your role will be
- Advisory Services: advising growing and scaling ventures; developing commercialization opportunities and scale-up companies.
Other parts of the role will come from some combination of:
- Events: participating and creating industry specific events and education (meet ups, panels, hackathons, best practices, etc.).
- Thought Leadership: creating and facilitating the creation of blogs, white papers, online articles, speaking engagements, etc.
- Corporate Engagement: creating partnerships with industry to benefit MaRS and the ventures we support, including corporates, investors, financial services industry organizations, and government bodies.
What you’ll be doing will include many of the following elements:
- Providing a broad range of advisory support to our Growth- and Scale-stage ventures from the Enterprise community. Services include the full spectrum of commercialization including, among others, strategic and business planning; intellectual property review; product development; customer development, corporate partnership; human resources, operations and finance.
- Working closely with other members of the Enterprise venture services team and the broader venture services team, effectively assess client requirements and assist portfolio companies in achieving business results.
- Proactively draw on the skills and knowledge of other functional team members from such diverse groups as the MaRS Market Intelligence group, Talent services, Corporate engagement, and our Capital services group.
- Provide industry leading thought leadership to the Canadian and global Enterprise innovation community through some combination of blogs, publications/white papers (internal and external), speaking opportunities, event creation, and participation.
- Keep abreast of industry and/or domain knowledge, including current events, breakthroughs, trends, regulatory issues, and key contacts; possess a solid understanding of the venture creation process to be able to provide just in time, relevant guidance, mentoring, and advice.
- Engage, develop, and maintain strong networks with individual and corporate contacts, research partners, professional service providers, and other consultants, investors, agencies who can effectively assist with specific requirements such as product and business model development; business planning, financing, and promotion.
- Establish and manage key community partners in the Enterprise ecosystem.
- Participate in the corporate engagement strategy for MaRS, including developing key partnerships with leading organizations that can mutually benefit our growth and scaling ventures and the organizations.
- Identify conferences, speaking opportunities, and publication opportunities to promote and address the needs of our clients and promote the MaRS brand. Create industry-leading events.
- MaRS Discovery District staff at all levels, particularly other members of Enterprise Venture Services, MaRS Venture Services, Market Intelligence, Talent, Corporate, and Capital services.
External Contacts:
- Startup Community
- Executive Business community
- Early Adopters of Enterprise Technology
- Investors, venture bankers and lending institutions
- International partners and associations
- Industry associations
- Government agencies and ministries – at all levels, federal, provincial and municipal
- Investment Community - Early stage investors including local angel groups, Canadian and other seed venture capital firms, as well as investment bankers and analysts
- Lawyers - Corporate and Patent Specialists, Accountants/Auditors and members of other professional service firms and consulting communities.
Qualifications:
- 10+ years of relevant management, sales, industrial, research, or business development
- Entrepreneurship background either as a founder of a start-up, or as a senior leader in a scaling company of revenues between $1M-$50M. (ideally with angel / venture backed start-up) is desired.
- MBA or Masters in economics or technology related field, an asset
- Familiar with the “language” and terminology of industry, finance, government, and the academic community; deep knowledge of key sub-sectors of the enterprise and IT economies including an extensive network of business contacts
- Highly developed analytical and interpretive skills, conceptual thinker, able to solve complex problems
- Demonstrated passion for building businesses
Key Attributes for Success:
- Strong collaborator and convener
- Strong communications skills – oral, written, and presentation skills
- Superior interpersonal skills
- Ability to multi-task, comfortable working in a fast-paced, high energy environment
- Maturity and high level of personal integrity
- Highly developed organizational and process management skills
- Consummate professional, able to represent the organization in all circumstances
- Self-motivated - able to work independently or as a team member
- Proven driver of change in a positive way
- Personal accountability and commitment to achieving and exceeding goals and objectives
Working Conditions
General office environment with operating business hours of 8:30am to 5pm Monday to Friday.
Some evening events support may be occasionally required.
Applications are due by 6:59 PM Eastern Time on the Close Date indicated at the top of this job posting.
Applicants must be legally eligible to work in Canada.
MaRS Discovery District is committed to diversity and encourages applications from all qualified candidates, including aboriginal persons, francophones, members of sexual minority groups, persons with disabilities, visible minorities and women. We will provide any requested accommodation to candidates with disabilities throughout the recruitment process.
About us
Based in Toronto’s Discovery District, MaRS is the world’s largest urban innovation hub.
Focusing on four key sectors – health, energy & environment, finance & commerce and work & learning – MaRS supports more than 1,000 ventures that are striving to make the world a better place. MaRS provides these ventures with expert advice, and connects them to capital, talent and new markets to accelerate their growth and scale up their impact.
MaRS is also home to cutting-edge research institutes advancing knowledge in areas like healthcare and artificial intelligence, as well as the Canadian offices for several globally leading tech companies like Facebook, PayPal, Autodesk and Airbnb.
Our Impact
MaRS supports scaling ventures that create jobs, increase prosperity and help tackle important societal issues like climate change or rising healthcare costs.
MaRS has also been instrumental in growing Canada’s market for socially conscious investments through its Centre for Impact Investing and SVX online investing platform.
On the capital side, MaRS manages a fund (MaRS Catalyst Fund) that invests in companies creating positive social or environmental change, and also manages the StandUp Ventures fund, which invests in women-led tech startups.
What it's like to work here
The MaRS Centre is a vibrant, architecturally inspiring innovation hub. It draws 6,000 researchers, innovators and entrepreneurs to work each day at a diverse, curated tenant mix of startups, scaleups and multinational high-tech companies in the building.
MaRS itself is a lean organization with a flat management structure. Dedicated to supporting startups, the culture is entrepreneurial and employees are encouraged to find unique solutions to problems. Teams tend to be small and responsible for the full lifecycle of a project, from ideation and design to development and rollout.
MaRS employees enjoy extras, such as:
i. Access to a wide range of tech industry events that take place in the MaRS Centre, such as the MaRS Mornings entrepreneur talks.
ii. An active social committee that organizes regular events, “serendipity coffees” to meet members of other teams, a summer games tournament, team-building outings and summer golf day.
iii. MaRS softball team, free weekly yoga in the atrium, and discounted gym memberships
iv. Indoor bike parking and showers
Career Growth Opportunities
Career growth at MaRS is fostered by the breadth of experiences and educational opportunities available to employees, as well as exposure to startups, entrepreneurs and diverse networks. Personal development opportunities set the foundation for a successful career within and beyond the organization.
For employees at an earlier stage in their career, the innovation ecosystem and entrepreneurial environment offer opportunities to develop expertise in some of the most important sectors of the economy.
What We Look For When Hiring
MaRS seeks candidates who have an entrepreneurial spirit, who are collaborative and team-oriented and share a passion for innovation and MaRS’ mission.
Candidates should be motivated by the prospect of continuous learning, improving their skills and being given the responsibility to manage projects and find novel solutions to problems.
MaRS looks for people whose unique personal experiences and background can add to its culture of innovation.
Application instructions
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