Director of Investments and Finance

About the role

As the Director of Investments and Finance, you will lead the business building process from market scanning to validation, through to growth and scaling. You will play a critical role in formulating the portfolio strategy of the company, while championing excellent financial operations and processes and nurturing the same mindset in all of WAY’s companies.

Supporting our portfolio Companies: You will help establish financial infrastructures and facilitate financial reporting and investor relations. 

Supporting WAY: You will support the company’s financial operation from forecasting to cashflow management and reporting. 

What you’ll do

• Financial Analysis: Creating strong financial narratives for investment. You are able to conduct due diligence and create financial models to evaluate opportunities.

• Investment Theory: Setting a standard, optimized criteria for WAY’s investments. You are able to think systemically, and create a well-evidenced portfolio theory to guide WAY’s investment methodology.

• Market Research: Identifying high value business cases in global markets. You are able to distinguish high potential business models and evaluate them against the Japanese market for market fit and customer resonance.

• Growth Strategy Optimization: Researching key growth metrics and KPI’s from successful competitors and industry benchmarks. You are able to create a high value set of guidelines and resources to enable best practices from proven models across WAY’s Companies.

• Financial Management: Monitoring WAY Companies’ performance and financial health. Together with WAY’s partnerships with leading financial services firms, you can evaluate the performance of each Company, ensure timely and accurate financial reporting, and contextualize Company performance in WAY’s broader financial narrative.

• Strategic Advisory: Supporting Company business strategy and planning. You have excellent business acumen, and ideally a strong grasp of software businesses, to lend to Companies and can facilitate their development of short to long-term business goals.

• Financial Operations: Facilitating Companies’ financial management. You’re able to support Companies’ financial capacity and build their infrastructure.

• Investor Relations: Supporting the CEO with analysis and documentation for investors. You are able to produce excellent pitch decks and financial analysis to facilitate dialogues with, locally and internationally, leading investors across WAY’s network ranging from family offices to investment banks and funds.

Who you are

• You have at least 7 years of work experience, with at least 2-3 years in one of the following areas:

  1. Venture capital or private equity

1. A CFO role in a growth-stage startup or high-growth digital business

2. Professional services, ie management consulting or investment banking

• You have a finely tuned consulting skill set, including: active listening, constructive questioning, thoughtful advisory

• You are happy working in a high-autonomy, growth environment, where you are empowered to move fast and build on the go

• You are confident in communicating your opinions, but sincere in accepting feedback to grow

• You have an entrepreneurial spirit and are able to understand the needs and nuances of business building

• You are comfortable articulating your ideas in English; bonus if you are bilingual JP/EN

About WAY Equity Partners

WAY is a company builder that enables ambitious leaders to build tech businesses that deliver lasting impact for Japan.

We build businesses that seek to have a lasting impact on Japanese society. We build companies to go the distance, with an unwavering focus on future value creation, not short term IPOs.

We’re searching for people who are ready to take this leap, bringing your relentless ambition to a team that believes anything is possible.

Let’s build the future, together.

Our Values

• Relentless optimism. You take setbacks in stride and keep pushing through the challenges of building from scratch.

• Energy and execution. You outwork and out-deliver, contributing to a culture of excellence.

• Collaboration and respect. You are a team player who works hard for the collective, respects the unique strengths and lived experiences of others, and celebrates victories as shared wins.

• Being a team player. You work hard so that everyone wins.

• Growth mindset. You are ready to embrace the unknown rather than be overwhelmed by it. You proactively seek problems and are engineered to build solutions.

• Grit. You have a deep capacity for focused effort and know how to channel it in the right places.

• Future focused. You understand where the world is today and want to build businesses that will continue to be relevant in a world 100 years from now.