Program Associate

Who we are

Plug and Play is a global innovation platform and venture capital firm. Our mission is to make innovation open to anyone, anywhere. Each year, hundreds of entrepreneurs join our vertical-specific accelerator programs to team up with our corporate members or receive a direct investment from Plug and Play. Plug and Play has over 40 locations across the world and our corporate members include: The Alliance to End Plastic Waste, USAA, Visa, Nationwide, Aflac, Daimler, Ford, Nissan, BP, Johnson & Johnson, Roche, Pfizer, Walmart, Coca Cola, Adidas, and over 500 more. Plug and Play’s corporate members utilize Plug and Play to identify the best startups to meet their challenges. Plug and Play’s proven investment track record includes Honey, Guardant Health, ApplyBoard, BigID, Kustomer, Rappi, Flutterwave, Hippo, PayPal, Lending Club, Dropbox, and many more.

Program Associate

The Program Associate supports both the corporate partners as well as the startups accepted into the acceleration program to make sure they are getting the most out of a Plug and Play program. This includes but not limited to; planning events for networking, facilitating workshops for startups to learn how to be able to work with our corporate partners, preparing monthly newsletters for the community. It is also important to be up to date with industry trends to help support the innovation community thrive.

Duties and Responsibilities

Startup Facing

Create meaningful and positive relationships with the startups in your office.
Introduce new members to corporate partners when there is a potential match or opportunity.
Arrange casual dinners, group lunches or other fun activities in an effort to form a sense of community amongst the startup batches.
Host bi-weekly sync calls, while remaining the contact for all startup facing questions.

Corporate Facing

Funneling all individual interest of our corporate partners into the outline of the program and timeline (e.g. Workshops, Innovation Days, etc.). This is executed together with the partner success and ventures team.

Community Facing

Build and maintain an ecosystem of relevant stakeholders around innovation, venture capital and startups (incl. clusters, government representatives, mentors, coaches, keynote speakers, etc.)

Marketing

Prepare documents for major events such as: Selection Day, New Start up Orientation Day, flyers for Meetups, Deepdives, Deal Flows, and so forth (Documents must be approved by Marketing before submitting).
Coordinate a monthly newsletter with your team to keep entire network up to date on events.
Work with our Marketing team to post relevant news and updates to social media.

Event Planning

Customize and prepare respective materials as they pertain to different events.
Update Orientation packets for each new batch of startups.
Collaborate with Mentors and plan group, one on one, or individual sessions; organize catering and inform startups of the mentor session.
Schedule monthly team meetups.
Confirm attending startups for the EXPO event; gather all information for the EXPO brochure regarding startups from our office; record attendees; prepare corporate nametags, SWAG bags and other essentials.

Administrative

Update documents as changes occur, including Hubspot, Dropbox, and Google Drive.
Order necessary materials and equipment from vendor and prepare purchase orders for accounting.
Manage all calendar invites for events. Track startup success and create case studies.

Qualifications

Bachelors or equivalent (Lehre + CAS or similar qualifications)
1-3 years of Project Management, Event Management, Business Operation, Executive Assistance or similar
English required, German preferred
Must have strong verbal and written communication skills
Exceptional organizational and multitasking skills
Strong Office Suites (G Suite) and other technical skills
Passion for organising and running events of all sorts
Strong interest and understanding for startups and entrepreneurial communities
Ability to maneuver corporate networks, engage with business units and innovation teams.
Detail-oriented, highly organized, and comfortable working in a fast-paced environment.
Team player that is able to work with multiple business functions to complete a project
Self-motivated with the ability to work in an autonomous environment.
All applications must be submitted in English.