Director, Ecosystem Growth & Partnerships

Company Description

LvlUp Ventures is a global venture capital firm that invests in and accelerates both early-stage and late-stage startups across sectors. Ranked among the most active venture capital firms worldwide, LvlUp holds leading positions in overall investment activity as well as consumer goods and technology investing.

The firm’s opportunistic investment thesis centers on pairing capital with deep expertise, strategic partnerships, and an expansive global ecosystem to unlock outsized growth for founders. Beyond funding, LvlUp acts as an extended team to its portfolio, providing hands-on growth and fundraising support, strategic resources, and access to a powerful network of corporate, investment, and ecosystem partners.

A global network of more than 2,500 core and extended team members is united by a mission to help founders build enduring, category-defining companies.

Role Description

The **Head of Ecosystem Growth & Partnerships** is a high-ownership role responsible for helping scale LvlUp’s global ecosystem across partnerships, founder sourcing, events, community, brand, organic growth, and new revenue initiatives.

This role is designed for someone highly entrepreneurial, ambitious, and self-directed—someone who operates more like an **intrapreneur within LvlUp** than a traditional functional leader. The ideal candidate will be comfortable identifying opportunities independently, building new initiatives from the ground up, creating repeatable systems, and moving quickly from concept to execution and scale.

A major focus of the role is building and expanding LvlUp’s **events and programming engine**. The Head of Ecosystem Growth & Partnerships will develop and execute multiple high-impact programs each month, including VC-led founder buildathons and bootcamps, founder deck and pitch review experiences, fundraising and company-building programs, customer pitch days with corporate partners, corporate innovation challenges, startup competitions, founder and investor gatherings, and other creative online and in-person experiences.

LvlUp’s event strategy is centered around creating practical, differentiated experiences where founders **leave with something tangible**—whether that is a stronger fundraising strategy, improved pitch, new customer opportunity, corporate relationship, operating playbook, or other meaningful outcome. The role will be responsible for making these programs increasingly successful through strong positioning, marketing, distribution, attendance, engagement, sponsorship, and continuous iteration.

Events are expected to function as a broader growth engine for LvlUp, helping drive **founder sourcing, community growth, brand awareness, corporate partnerships, investment opportunities, and revenue**.

The role will also own the development of new strategic partnerships across corporations, investors, venture firms, universities, accelerators, technology companies, startup organizations, and other ecosystem participants. This includes identifying prospective partners, developing creative partnership concepts, leading outreach, structuring collaborations, negotiating opportunities, and expanding successful relationships over time.

Another core responsibility is developing **new systems for founder sourcing and pipeline growth**. The Head of Ecosystem Growth & Partnerships will identify and build repeatable channels for attracting exceptional founders through events, portfolio referrals, founder communities, scouts, strategic partnerships, universities, accelerators, vertical-specific initiatives, online communities, social media, content, in-person activations, and other creative sourcing strategies.

The objective is not simply to increase application volume, but to expand the quality, consistency, and reach of LvlUp’s sourcing funnel while strengthening positive awareness of the LvlUp brand throughout the startup ecosystem.

The role will also help build LvlUp’s **organic brand and distribution engine**, identifying creative ways to grow the firm’s presence across social platforms, founder communities, online channels, and in-person ecosystems. This may include founder and portfolio storytelling, startup rankings, sector-focused initiatives, founder education, ecosystem reports, recurring content franchises, community campaigns, strategic collaborations, and other formats designed to create meaningful engagement and organic distribution.

Rather than simply managing social media or executing individual campaigns, the role should think in terms of **systems and growth loops**—finding ways for events, partnerships, content, community, founder sourcing, and portfolio activity to reinforce one another and continuously expand LvlUp’s reach.

The Head of Ecosystem Growth & Partnerships will also help develop and strengthen LvlUp’s broader founder, investor, corporate, and portfolio community through online and in-person initiatives, recurring programming, referral systems, ecosystem activations, and new engagement strategies.

More broadly, this person will be expected to continuously identify new opportunities for LvlUp across partnerships, sponsorships, community, founder acquisition, corporate innovation, brand, investment relationships, events, and revenue.

Some of the most valuable initiatives this person builds may not exist at LvlUp today. We are looking for someone who is comfortable identifying an opportunity, developing the strategy, and saying: **“I think we should build this, and I can own it.”**

The role works closely with LvlUp’s investment, platform, marketing, and operations teams to align initiatives with firm priorities, measure performance, and continuously improve results.

Qualifications

* Demonstrated experience in partnerships, business development, growth, startup ecosystems, community, venture capital, corporate innovation, events, or a related entrepreneurial environment.

* Highly entrepreneurial mindset with a demonstrated ability to identify opportunities, build initiatives from scratch, and operate with significant autonomy.

* Strong track record of developing and managing strategic partnerships with corporations, startups, investors, institutions, or ecosystem organizations.

* Experience creating and scaling high-quality events, programs, communities, or founder-facing initiatives that drive meaningful participation and engagement.

* Ability to develop creative partnership concepts and turn them into concrete commercial, strategic, or ecosystem relationships.

* Strong understanding of founder acquisition, community-driven growth, referral systems, organic distribution, or other methods of building repeatable sourcing funnels.

* Strong instinct for brand building and the ability to develop creative strategies that increase positive awareness, engagement, and organic presence.

* Commercially minded, with an interest in building sponsorship, partnership, and other revenue opportunities.

* Exceptional relationship-building and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to communicate effectively with founders, executives, investors, corporate partners, and internal teams.

* Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to position initiatives and partnerships compellingly.

* Highly resourceful, proactive, and comfortable working without a predefined playbook.

* Ability to move quickly from idea to execution, test initiatives, evaluate results, and scale successful concepts.

* Strong organizational skills and ability to manage multiple initiatives, partnerships, events, and priorities simultaneously.

* Strategic and analytical mindset, including the ability to establish KPIs, evaluate sourcing and engagement channels, and use data to inform decisions.

* Comfortable operating in a fast-paced, global, and remote environment with a high degree of ownership and accountability.

* Familiarity with CRM systems, community platforms, event technologies, marketing tools, and other digital systems used to manage and scale ecosystem initiatives.

* Background in venture capital, startups, accelerators, innovation, corporate development, growth, or related ecosystems is highly beneficial.

* Bachelor’s degree or equivalent professional experience; advanced degrees are welcome but not required.

Compensation

**Base Compensation:** $80,000–$130,000 base salary, depending on experience and demonstrated ability, plus significant perfomance-based upside through a discretionary bonus or revenue share structure.

**Performance Upside:** Meaningful commission and/or performance-based bonus opportunities tied to areas including strategic partnerships, sponsorships, revenue generation, successful programs, and growth initiatives.

The role is designed to reward exceptional ownership and impact, with significant opportunity for responsibility, scope, and compensation to grow alongside the value created for LvlUp Ventures.