Catalyst Associate

Job description

Marvelous is a pre-seed and seed fund backing Europe’s most ambitious industrial DeepTech founders. We invest in scientific breakthroughs across three interconnected verticals: Food, Agriculture & Land Use; Heavy Industry; and the Built Environment. We follow a focused thesis that the physical economy is undergoing a once-in-a-generation transformation, and the best deep tech companies are being built right now. Our vision is a future-fit economy thriving within planetary boundaries to the benefit of all. What sets us apart is the Marvelous Catalyst. The Catalyst is our industry collaboration and value creation engine. We maintain a growing network of relevant industrial companies who act as strategic partners. They provide technical diligence, manufacturing access, real-world pilots, and offtake relationships to our portfolio from day one. For a DeepTech founder, this brings credibility, speed, and a path to commercial scale that most funds cannot offer, and represents our unfair advantage. We are a small, high-performance, low-ego team. Every member carries real responsibility. There is no hierarchy to hide behind and no large analyst pool to delegate to. The core Values at Marvelous are: • Radical honesty - you say what you think, including when it’s uncomfortable • Depth over breadth - you’d rather know one thing exceptionally well than everything superficially • Impact over ego - you care about the outcome, not the credit • Mission matters - you’re motivated by backing companies that change how the physical world works • No passengers - you bring initiative, not just execution Tasks Portfolio Value Creation • Drive structured growth initiatives across the portfolio: opening customer introductions, facilitating Proofs of Concepts, managing competing priorities • Lead onboarding of new portfolio companies into the Catalyst ecosystem and coordinate ongoing support alongside the partner in charge • Monitor portfolio health and deliver actionable insights for GP-level decision making Industry Challenges & Corporate Partnerships • Design and execute Industry Challenges that match corporate innovation needs with tailored DeepTech solutions from our portfolio and network • Build and manage a pipeline of corporate industry partners across all three verticals, from first touch to signed collaboration documents • Own partner relationships end-to-end: scope the engagement, design the challenge, run execution, and drive follow-through • Coordinate expert reviews and technical validation with Catalyst industrial partners Ecosystem Building & Events • Organise and host flagship events like Deep Tech Runway, Industry Challenges, and bespoke formats • Build Marvelous’s presence in the Berlin and European DeepTech ecosystem through events, community engagement, and strategic partnerships • Represent Marvelous externally with the credibility to engage both a CTO and a CEO • Cultivate relationships with research spinout networks, accelerator programmes, and co-investors to strengthen the Catalyst ecosystem GP Support & Catalyst Operations • Serve as Founders Associate to a General Partner: manage strategic priorities, prepare briefings, and ensure follow-through on key initiatives • Produce executive-quality deliverables: partnership proposals, pitch materials, portfolio reports, and stakeholder communications • Support deal flow activities where needed: screen startups, map markets, and contribute to due diligence • Handle outreachs and sales activities for the fund Requirements We are looking for someone exceptional. Someone who is genuinely outstanding and who will raise the bar for the whole team. • You bring 2–3 years of professional experience, ideally including time at an MBB or top-tier strategy consultancy where you learned to structure ambiguity and deliver under pressure • You have built open innovation programmes, corporate-startup collaborations, or ecosystems, and you understand how to create value at the interface of big industry and early-stage ventures • You have worked at a CVC fund or venture clienting organisation • You organise relentlessly: yourself, projects, people, and events. You do not drop balls, even when you juggle ten workstreams at once • You thrive on context switching: you move between founder coaching, corporate partner calls, event logistics, and portfolio analysis without missing a beat • You communicate with precision and clarity in English; German is a strong plus • You act proactively and independently: you spot opportunities before anyone asks, build your own conviction, and deliver without close management • You are based in Berlin or genuinely ready to relocate; you hold the right to work in the EU without requiring visa sponsorship Strong differentiators: • You hold an engineering or natural science degree in materials science, mechanical engineering, chemistry, physics, biology, or adjacent fields • You have published research or completed a research stint at a leading institution (Fraunhofer, ETH, Helmholtz, Max Planck, ...) • You have founded, built, or operationally supported an early-stage startup • You have automated processes or optimised workflows using AI-driven tools • Affinity for sales Benefits A foundational role in the Catalyst team of an emerging fund with a marvelous GP team ;) Direct C-level and founder exposure: you interact with corporate executives, fund LPs, and exceptional founders every week Real ownership: you build and shape the Catalyst function with significant autonomy and clear potential for rapid growth A front-row seat to European DeepTech venture: from first cheque to portfolio scale-up A steep learning curve in a lean, senior team with decades of combined VC and tech-transfer experience Access to a pan-European network of researchers, corporates, VCs, and founders Work from a great office in the heart of Kreuzberg - where the Berlin DeepTech scene happens The chance to help build an investment platform. Marvelous’s ambition spans direct investing, Fund-of-Funds, growth vehicles, and beyond In place of a cover letter, please include a short note answering these questions: 1. What draws you to DeepTech value creation and ecosystem building, and what would you bring to the Marvelous Catalyst that no one else would? 2. Describe a time you organised a complex, multi-stakeholder project under ambiguity. What did you do when things went sideways? 3. Our Catalyst model integrates industrial partners into portfolio value creation from day one. What do you see as the biggest challenge in making that model work, and how would you approach it? This is not a test with a right answer. We want to see how you think. We review applications on a rolling basis and move quickly for the right candidate.