Forward Partners are an early stage VC, investing from ideas stage. One of our newest exciting portfolio companies are looking to hire a talented Head of Product. This is an opportunity to build the ground breaking offering from scratch and be part of the founding team.
About the company:
The company is a new influencer-based sport and entertainment property targeted at young audiences. By bringing together global influencers/creators to compete in a series of entertaining competitions and challenges in spectacular destinations, they will create a powerful platform for the participating influencers to do what they do best: create and distribute the content that truly engages their audience.
Here are a few things they believe in:
- We believe in our audience. We are focused on giving them what they want, not what we think they want
- We believe in the democratisation of content, not the protection of exclusivity. The more content is created and the more widely it’s distributed, the better
- We believe in creative freedom. We trust people to create content that will resonate with their audience – and it’s in everyone’s interest for that to be the case
- We believe in “challenges”. The most fun things in life have uncertain outcomes
- We believe in level playing fields. We give everyone the same platform
- We believe that “participation” always beats “viewing”. We will always find new ways for our audience to play an active role in the company.
- We believe that the best way to collaborate is face-to-face. Physical connections still matter
Job Overview
This is a unique opportunity to be one of the first team members in an incredibly ambitious and well -funded Sport/Entertainment/Media startup. Together with the rest of the founding team, you will be helping to shape the strategy and drive the implementation of this exciting Startup.
The Chief Product Officer will ultimately be responsible for leading their journey towards a world-class live-streaming and social content platform – driving the vision, strategy, design, technology infrastructure, product management and multi-year project roadmap.
At every stage of the product development roadmap, from the MVP onwards, you will manage the process to ensure that delivers a product that works, looks great, delivers an innovative and seamless user experience and allows us to deliver our commercial strategy – all within the constraints of the defined budget.
- Build, grow, lead and manage their Product team
- Oversee the build of high quality, secure websites and apps to aggregate, deliver and stream a wide range of content formats, including live content, on all devices to our audience
- Create a clear vision and roadmap for the platform, using their events as key milestones for the launch of new features and capabilities
- Manage the project and the team (including agencies, contractors and suppliers) to deliver all agreed elements of the platform on time and on budget
- Work closely with media companies, social media platforms and online content distributors to maximise the distribution of their content
- Design and implement marketing activities to promote the content and the platform to attract new users
- Conduct ongoing analysis of the performance of the content on the platform to identify trends that could drive improved performance and upward growth in the user base
- Drive key decisions about design, UX, functionality, backend infrastructure, technical partners and suppliers, ensuring a robust, scalable and efficient platform
- Take full control of the product budget and deliver all iterations of the platform on time and within the agreed budget
- Stay at the leading edge of trends in live streaming and social content space so that we can identify and deliver innovative new product and content opportunities
Character, Capabilities and Experience
- A natural and charismatic leader and motivator who still enjoys getting their hands dirty. You feel equally comfortable at a strategic and operational level
- An entrepreneurial mindset: A strong desire to create something new and a willingness to operate in an environment with less certainty. You get things done and make things happen
- A strong leader: you get others to buy into your vision and you create and maintain a culture that can achieve it
- A seasoned professional with product management experience across multiple platforms, you have experience in leading the development and delivery of digital products
- A ‘digital native’, you will be an early adopter and advocate of all things digital and will have significant experience creating digital products that reach and appeal to a B2C audience
- An excellent understanding of content – especially live content, social content and influencer content – and what is required to maximise the performance of the content
- An excellent negotiator, with an emphasis on positive commercial outcomes
- A creative and innovative thinker, you consistently come up with new ideas for how to do things better
- Organised, thorough and disciplined. You’ve got everything under control and nothing slips through the cracks. You maintain that same level of discipline across your team
- You are proactive, enthusiastic, dynamic, and self-motivated. You are also calm under pressure and able to meet strict deadlines
- You have set and managed development budgets and have a track record of sticking to them
- A proven network of relevant agencies, freelancers and suppliers. You know how to pull together the right resources to deliver the output most efficiently
- Excellent communicator and relationship manager: You will be able to build and maintain strong relationships with all the people you work with because you are clear, transparent, honest, straight-talking and open-minded