Investment Associate

Swift Ventures backs early-stage AI and automation companies. We're a small firm led by former founders, and we're looking for an Investment Associate who is good at meeting ambitious people and bringing them together.

You know who's working on interesting things, enjoy getting to know founders, engineers, and researchers, and are often the person making introductions or organizing the dinner. Your job is to help us meet great builders early and find promising companies before they're on everyone's radar.

You'll work directly with Brett Wilson and John Hughes, with real responsibility for sourcing and building relationships while learning how we evaluate companies and make investments. You don't need previous VC experience. We care more about whether you're curious, take initiative, exercise good judgment, and follow through.

About You

• Deep technical curiosity. You want to understand how AI actually works, what it makes possible, and where it can solve important customer problems.
• Bringing people together comes naturally to you. Maybe you've hosted hackathons, organized dinners, started campus clubs, or built a community.
• You seek out promising engineers, builders, and researchers, often before they start companies. You're interested in what they're building and earn their trust over time.
• You're curious about what makes a company worth backing. You ask good questions, form your own point of view, and can explain clearly why a founder or company deserves a closer look.
• You might have 0-3 years of work experience, but you've already shown that you make things happen by building something, starting a community, or turning an idea into a real project.
• Low ego and highly collaborative. You're comfortable sharing your views, asking for help, and changing your mind when you learn something new.
• People know you as someone who follows through, makes useful introductions, and helps without expecting something in return.

The Job

• Find promising AI companies early. Build relationships with founders, engineers, and researchers before they raise or launch, and uncover opportunities that aren't already making the rounds.
• Be active in the Bay Area AI community, during the day and after hours. Visit labs, attend hackathons and demos, and bring interesting people together over founder dinners.
• Be useful without being asked. Follow up promptly, make thoughtful introductions, and help builders before there's a deal on the table.
• Own sourcing projects and community events, from deciding where to spend time and who to meet through planning and follow-up.
• Work directly with our two General Partners. Join founder meetings, research companies and markets, and learn how to evaluate early-stage startups.
• Dig into products, customers, and competitors. Develop a clear view of what makes a company promising, what remains unproven, and what we should investigate next. The General Partners lead investment decisions and deal negotiations.

We have offices in San Francisco and Lafayette, CA, with flexible work options.

Benefits

• Learn directly from two experienced founders and investors who will help you develop your investment judgment.
• Real responsibility and a budget to host events, bring people together, and shape how we find companies.
• Build lasting relationships with ambitious founders, operators, and investors across the AI community.
• Health insurance with a generous employer contribution toward premiums.
• Flexible PTO and sick leave.

Swift Ventures backs early-stage AI and automation companies with B2B business models. We're former founders and operators who built TubeMogul, took it public, and sold it to Adobe. We started Swift to be the fund we wished we'd had: low ego, candid, and sincerely helpful.

We know how hard building a company can be. We help founders win customers, recruit great people, raise capital, and work through tough decisions. We value bold founders with a high Do ratio—and hold ourselves to the same standard.

Apply at info@swift.vc. Along with your resume, tell us about a promising founder, engineer, researcher, or builder you spotted early. How did you find them? What did you see? What did you do to build the relationship or help them succeed? What happened? They don't need to be well-known or have raised funding.