Principal VC & Startup Ecosystem Lead

👋 Hi, I’m Kat , Head of Partnerships at Ashby. I joined the team in 2024 to develop and lead our Partnership ecosystem. From the start, I was responsible for setting strategy and executing; the 0 to 1 work that a serial startup marketer like me loves. The through-line in my career is ‘doing things that have never been done before’, which is what drew me to Ashby. The work here looks different than at most companies. We have strong buy-in for partnerships within the organization. This has allowed me to focus on building key programs like Ashby Experts, our integration directory, community partnerships that provide air cover to our sales teams, and partner activations like the SF Giant’s game for Ashby One . As the business scales, it’s time for me to give away my legos . One of the projects I’ve fully owned since the beginning is our VC Partnerships. The startup ecosystem is an anchor of Ashby’s growth. Our goal is to make Ashby the default ATS for venture-backed startups by embedding deeply into the VC talent ecosystem, driving trust, preference, and repeatable startup pipeline. It’s led me to forming deep relationships with VC Talent at firms like Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia, Craft, and hosting our inaugural VC Talent Summit . Now it’s time to think bigger. The Principal, VC & Startup Ecosystem Lead role is an opportunity for someone to come in and own partnerships across three key pillars: VC Talent, Startups, and Accelerators. I’m looking for someone who’s excited about being the face of this community and building programming that serves founders and VC Talent. Taking what I’ve started and 10x’ing it to increase the impact. You’ll immediately own our startup partnerships, making sure we’re connected with the right firms, running campaigns with Demand Gen to target portfolio companies, building relationships with accelerators to develop programming for founders, and running an event strategy to co-host meetups with top VC firms.