Strategy & Ventures Lead

NewsBreak•Mountain View, CA

About The Position

About NewsBreak Founded in 2015, NewsBreak is the Content Intelligence platform shaping the future content economy. With over 40 million monthly active users, our flagship platform delivers highly personalized local news and information powered by advanced AI, recommendation systems, and adtech. Recognized by Fast Company as #32 on the Top Workplaces for Innovators, we're proud to be Great Place to Work® certified and home to a dynamic team of technologists, product innovators, and business leaders who are passionate about solving meaningful challenges at scale. Together, we reached unicorn status in 2021, and we remain committed to continuing this high-growth trajectory with the right team to fulfill our mission: building the infrastructure layer for content intelligence. If you’re inspired to dream big, innovate fast, and make a difference, we’d love to hear from you! For more information, visit www.newsbreak.com/about The Role We're looking for a Strategy & Ventures Lead to bring operating and investment discipline to NewsBreak's core business, our two new AI initiatives, and NexBreak Ventures. The initiatives are NDot AI , an AI growth platform for publishers, short-drama producers and other content creators, and Nearby AI , a local-intent marketplace. NexBreak Ventures is our new corporate venture arm: it invests in startups and helps them grow with NewsBreak's distribution, data, AI and monetization expertise. What You'll Do Strategy, BizOps & Analytics 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 NexBreak Ventures 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 Corporate Development (Build / Partner / Buy) Assess build, partner, invest and acquire options, and strategic transactions as they come up

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