Acumen's team is hiring a

Web3 Summer Associate, Insights & Strategy

Acumen is looking for a full-time Summer Associate (8 - 10 week paid internship), who is interested in international development to support the work of our New York Insights & Strategy team. This role reports into the Head of Insights. Acumen currently works in a hybrid model and people are in the NYC office Tuesday - Thursday.

About Acumen

Acumen is changing the way the world tackles poverty by investing in companies, leaders, and ideas. We invest patient capital in businesses whose products and services help people living in poverty to transform their lives. To date, Acumen has positively impacted nearly 400 million lives by investing $132M in 136 innovative, early-stage companies in Africa, Latin America, South Asia, and the United States. But investment isn’t just about capital, we’ve been investing in relationships for years, connecting with emerging leaders in their own countries and engaging them in extended collective dialogue, moral inquiry, and skill building.

About Insights & Strategy

We are a small team who function as a wheel: we help teams draw out the lessons from the work they have done, then leverage that knowledge to increase our impact through improved strategy and influence. We engage with Acumen staff around the world, as well as external stakeholders. We dig beneath the surface, discover patterns, and deliver clear, actionable insights from our work.

About the Role

The Insights & Strategy Summer Associate will be responsible for supporting the Insights team on a primary and a secondary project, as well as a few ad hoc assignments. The Summer Associate will bring curiosity, strong analytical skills, an ability to manage competing priorities, and a commitment to delivering results within timelines.

The primary project:

• Conduct an in depth analysis into cryptocurrency and blockchain. Research their potential and existing applications to problems of poverty, with a focus on the markets in which Acumen invests.
• This research will culminate in a brief that summarizes the ways in which these technologies are being used, investable business models and their barriers to scale (including but not limited to capital), as well as any opportunities for strategic partnerships to drive impact.
• This brief will go through multiple rounds of review. It will require a deep dive into relevant literature, conversations with Acumen’s investment teams, and consultations with outside subject matter experts.

The secondary project:

• Acumen is seeking to become a go-to resource for people looking to learn about market-based solutions to poverty. This will require understanding the landscape of knowledge that exists, including websites of influential funders and investors, consulting firms, publishers, and aggregators.
• After identifying a subset of those platforms, the project will be to review the form and content of information available to see what people are sharing, why they are sharing it, and what gaps exist that Acumen is well-placed to occupy.

In addition the Summer Associate may be expected to pitch in and help review or gather data as part of other projects, as well as contributing their analysis to team discussions and decisions.

Skills & Qualifications:

• Ability to learn new skills, procedures, and systems quickly without being afraid to ask questions
• Excellent qualitative and quantitative analytical skills.
• Demonstrated ability to write clearly and concisely for decision makers (opportunities, pros, cons, risks).
• Conscientious approach with good attention to detail.
• Ability to work efficiently to meet deadlines.
• Ability to deal with confidential information sensitively and appropriately.
• Preferred: background or current studies in development economics, social entrepreneurship, and/or blockchain.
• In pursuit of a graduate (preferred) or undergraduate degree
• Self reflective and aligned with Acumen values
• Permanently authorized to work in the US

Deadline:

Apply as early as possible as applications will be reviewed and interviews scheduled on a rolling basis.

Apply Now: