Associate

Associate, Farmhand Ventures

Location: Remote/Hybrid, U.S.-based; St. Louis, MO or Central Valley California preferred, with regular travel for events, field days, and partner meetings

Type: Full-time

Compensation: $80,000–$100,000 target annual compensation

Timeline: Please apply by Wednesday, September 9, 2026, 9:00am ET.

About Farmhand Ventures

Farmhand Ventures is an impact-first investment firm shaping the Future of Work in Agriculture by enabling strategic programs and innovation to make farm work more attractive, productive, profitable, and resilient in order to improve the lives and livelihoods of farmers, farmworkers, and rural communities.

We work closely with founders, researchers, and our LP network to back category-defining agtech companies. Additionally, we selectively run farmer-driven programs that connect startups with the resources they need to succeed, including co-powering UC ANR Innovate’s Connect Field Day programs and Build CRL-advancement programs, and WashU’s Bursky School of Public Health’s Growing Health Challenge.

The Role

We're hiring an Associate (or Senior Associate) to be a core operating partner to our General Partner. We’re looking for someone who keeps the fund's work moving operationally, deepens our firm’s strategic startup, investor, and industry relationships, and represents Farmhand publicly at events, on panels, and across our community.

This role includes both back-office and front-facing components. You'll work directly with startups to shape their thesis-aligned projects, recruit founders and researchers into our Build ecosystem, and help manage relationships with the LPs and investors who make our work possible.

What You'll Do

• Operational Partnership: Keep the trains (and the General Partner) on track by owning operations. This includes managing and building systems, proactively following up, re-engaging on dropped threads, and making sure nothing falls through the cracks.
• Deal & Portfolio Support: Assist with deal flow, diligence, and portfolio company relationships as needed, including written analysis and prep for investment decisions.
• Investor Relations: Support GP in managing day-to-day investor relations on the backend. This includes supporting LP communications, reporting cadence, and relationship-building that keeps our investor base engaged and informed.
• Startup & Build Program Support: Design and shape thesis-aligned projects with startups; recruit startups and researchers into Build projects; connect founders to Farmhand's network and resources.
• Public Representation: Represent Farmhand Ventures at industry events, on panels, and across social channels as you grow into the role.

What Success Looks Like

In your first 30 days

• Shadow GP on startup calls and LP calls.
• Deliver startup project and investment write-ups.
• Iterate on said write-ups - be prepared to receive constructive critical feedback.
• Help schedule stuff - you’ll be cc’d in a bunch of conversations and you’ll have access to team-wide calendars and AI systems, and the GP will rely on you to go back and forth and get meetings scheduled.
• Support Field Days - sometimes this means directing traffic, running A/V, hammering stakes, getting coffee…who knows! In every instance, it means communicating clearly with the team, which includes the GP and external partners.
• Conduct research on specific ag problem areas and corresponding solutions (inclusive of but not limited to startups.)
• Do what you say you’ll do, when you say you’ll do it. (We follow Impeccable Agreements)

In your first 90 days

• Co-lead, and eventually lead, Partner meetings - this means prepping the agenda, deck (as needed), managing time.
• Author due diligence memos - we’ll likely only make 1 more investment in 2026, but we’ll be looking to ramp up that cadence in 2027.
• Own (iterate upon, co-design, and maintain) Farmhand Ventures CRM. This includes managing the GP and Venture Partners such that they comply with the system.
• Make a mistake (or 3), own it, learn from it, grow from it, and work with GP to fix it. You should be prepared to take risks and stretch yourself, and you should hold yourself accountable and take action to avoid replicating similar mistakes.
• Support GP in LP data room creation and maintenance. This means paying careful attention to details, communicating promptly and clearly, and constantly iterating.

In your first year

• Continue all of the above, with increasing independence and responsibility.
• Represent Farmhand Ventures at conferences and events - this means interacting with other investors, startups, farmers, farmworkers, policy-makers - everyone that makes the agtech ecosystem work.
• Support GP in full startup investment process - sourcing, diligence, negotiations, closing, and portfolio support.
• Co-design and own systems for portfolio management.
• Influence firm decisions around projects, startups, LP communications, marketing, and more.
• Deliver constructive feedback directly to the GP on a quarterly basis.
• Receive constructive feedback directly from the GP on a quarterly basis.

Who You Are

• You understand agriculture and are genuinely energized by the sector's problems
• You have experience managing investor and/or customer relationships.
• You're comfortable in Airtable and modern AI tools;
• You pick up new systems fast and you learn quickly, independently, and act on feedback
• You ask good questions before and after you make mistakes
• You communicate clearly and proactively, in writing and in person
• You're proactive by nature — you notice what needs to happen and do it, rather than waiting to be asked
• Above all: You're a high-integrity person who believes in Farmhand Ventures' mission and values. If you’re not sure if you’re experienced enough, or a good fit for this, apply anyways.

Why Farmhand

You'll work at the center of a small, ambitious firm with outsized reach in AgTech. This is the kind of place where your judgment and initiative directly shape outcomes for founders, researchers, and the future of the food system.

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To apply, email info@farmhandventures.com with subject line “Farmhand Ventures Associate Role: [your name]”. Include your CV/resume in a visible format (attachments or links are fine) and a few paragraphs answering the questions below.

1. Tell us about the unglamorous, uncredited work you’ve done to keep something alive, and what it taught you.

2. A real one: a portfolio company has ignored three emails requesting updates, a quarterly update is due Friday, and the GP is unreachable until Monday. Walk us through exactly what you’d do, in order — and what you’d change so it doesn’t happen again.

3. What’s the hardest part of this job you can foresee — for you, personally?