Strategy & Ventures Lead

NewsBreak•Mountain View, CA

2d•$180,000 - $240,000

About The Position

NewsBreak is seeking a Strategy & Ventures Lead to bring operating and investment discipline to the company's core business, new AI initiatives, and NexBreak Ventures. NewsBreak is a Content Intelligence platform founded in 2015, with over 40 million monthly active users. Their flagship platform delivers personalized local news powered by AI, recommendation systems, and adtech. Recognized by Fast Company and Great Place to Work® certified, NewsBreak achieved unicorn status in 2021 and is focused on building the infrastructure layer for content intelligence.

Requirements

3–5 years in top-tier investment banking, management consulting, corporate development, or strategy/BizOps, with meaningful exposure to technology
Strong financial modeling skills: business cases, market sizing, unit economics and valuation
Hands-on data skills: comfortable writing SQL and working with large datasets to test assumptions yourself
Structured problem solving and clear executive communication; you turn ambiguous questions into clear recommendations
Commercial judgment and a willingness to challenge constructively, plus the ability to influence across functions
Curious, proactive and low-ego; equally comfortable discussing strategy with leadership and digging into customer cohorts

Nice To Haves

Experience with Hive, Spark or Python; cohort analysis and experimentation
Corporate venture, VC or growth equity experience, including sourcing and diligence
M&A modeling or tech corporate development experience
Background in marketplaces, consumer internet, media/adtech or AI
Empathy for founders and a strong network for sourcing deals

Responsibilities

Evaluate NDot AI and Nearby AI on strategy, product-market fit, progress, team, resourcing and unit economics.
Analyze growth, funnels, retention and monetization directly in our data systems (SQL / Hive / Spark) to guide strategy and operating decisions.
Build business cases and financial models that inform resource allocation and accelerate / continue / pivot / stop decisions.
Set KPIs, milestones and stage gates, and track performance against the original investment case.
Run regular business reviews with initiative leaders and help them find execution gaps and resourcing needs.
Help build an active corporate venture platform from the ground up.
Develop investment theses, source opportunities, lead diligence, model valuation and returns, and make investment recommendations.
Define how NewsBreak adds value beyond capital: distribution, AI/technology, monetization, data, operating expertise and partnerships.
Support and monitor portfolio companies after investment, including building a portfolio-support playbook.
Assess build, partner, invest and acquire options, and strategic transactions as they come up.