We’re looking for a Founder’s Associate

We’re looking for an ambitious, multi-talented associate to work closely with our founder and CEO, Cat Jones, at the centre of our fast-moving startup, solving problems with seriously high levels of accountability.

The ideal candidate is a future entrepreneur willing to work hard and do a wide variety of tasks, glamorous and non-glamorous, with the simple goal of saving Cat time. Can you write a report? Build a dashboard? Design a presentation? Prototype a product? Great, as long as you’re also happy to manage inboxes and calendars. Essentially you should be overqualified to be an assistant, but not have a problem doing assistant-like tasks. In exchange, you'll get access to all areas of the business, a great learning experience, and the chance to move on to many other things (at Byway or elsewhere) with strong endorsement.

We help people explore the world by travelling through it, not flying over it

We’re taking on climate change by building the first platform for flight-free holidays. Founded in March 2020, we’ve raised £1.2M with backing from Innovate UK and incredible investors. Revenues are surging thanks to organic traction in social and press, from Positive News to the Guardian, helping us to spread the joy of journeying by train and boat, experiencing the lesser-known parts of the world instead of flying over them. We’re certified as a Pending B Corporation, which means we’re committed to building a business that’s a force for good. Help us blaze a trail in sustainable, authentic and conscious travel!

Responsibilities

• Manage business priorities, working closely with the founder to ruthlessly prioritise and execute relentlessly on agreed to-dos

• Spearhead special projects and drive forward new initiatives as we scale

• Improve current processes and work with the senior team to improve our daily operations, including admin, data and reporting 

• Support with team growth/hiring, onboarding and development

• Serve as a subject matter expert across much of the business, handling enquiries and developing action plans

• Prepare communications from pitches and proposals to Impact Reports

• Scope, evaluate and quantify new opportunities, including partnerships

• Support with scheduling and inbox management, handling many requests yourself and prioritising others for the founder

What we’re looking for

• Manage business priorities, working closely with our founder to prioritise then execute relentlessly on agreed to-dos

• Improve current processes and work with the senior team to improve our daily operations, including admin, data and reporting 

• Spearhead special projects and drive forward new initiatives as we scale and serve as a subject matter expert across much of the business

• Support with team growth/hiring, onboarding and development

• Prepare communications from pitches and proposals to Impact Reports and shareholder updates

• Scope, evaluate and quantify new opportunities, including partnerships

• Support with inbox management, handling many requests yourself and prioritising others for our founder

What we’re looking for

• Ownership mentality and entrepreneurial spirit 

• High data literacy, a logical approach and excellent Excel/Sheets skills

• Extraordinarily good communication skills and flawless written English

• An eye for design and top notch attention to detail

• Strong understanding of brand, product, and business

• Evidence of extraordinary delivery/achievements in the past

• High levels of emotional intelligence

What would be great (but isn’t required)

• Experience running your own small company or startup, or working in a high growth startup or scaleup environment 

• Experience with product, partnerships, content, and community building

• Previous experience (even if short) as a Founder’s Associate or Chief of Staff

What we offer

• £25,000 - £32,000 p.a. (depending on experience) plus stock options

• Remote-first and flexible working, with full time office access and the whole team together two days a month

• Exposure to all parts of the business and countless opportunities for growth and development

• The opportunity to be part of the founding team of an early-stage startup

Join a travel startup in 2021! Are you crazy?

Covid lockdowns saw a total shutdown of air travel, and opened people’s eyes to the environmental bounce-back possible. At the same time, we’ve all had to slow down and reconnect with our local areas as never before. Emerging from lockdown, airport experiences, quarantines and long flights with strangers are prompting many to look to travel closer to home. 2021 is the year of the staycation and holidays away from the crowds, and our bookings are surging despite having spent nothing on marketing this year. This trend in flight-free travel is only growing year on year, as more people choose to value sustainability when planning their trips. 

Interested?

We’re committed to building a diverse team and are eager to receive applications from all backgrounds. All applicants will receive consideration without discrimination.

Please apply with your CV and a covering letter. We’re more interested in the cover letter than your CV - please tell us why this is the role and company for you (we particularly want to hear examples of your problem-solving skills).