Senior Associate (Private Equity)

Company Overview
Rundle Partners is an entrepreneurial investment firm based in Toronto. We acquire growth-oriented small and mid-sized Canadian businesses, and apply a value-creation playbook over a long-term hold. Rundle is led by an experienced operator and investor, Ian Black, who has built and overseen business units – at Uber and Shopify – that delivered billions in shareholder value.

Position Overview
As a Senior Associate at Rundle, you will be responsible for creating, evaluating and executing lower mid-market buyout investments. You will be the second employee of Rundle Partners and will work closely with the firm’s Managing Partner, providing for a unique opportunity to grow into a leader within the firm as it develops over time.

Who should Apply
This role is suited to a highly talented, motivated and high-judgment professional who aspires to invest in and build Canadian companies. The successful candidate will have been a strong performer in a top-tier organization, where they excelled in foundational skills of analyzing and understanding businesses. At the same time, their personality is well suited to work in a smaller firm environment and building trusting relationships with owners of lower mid-market businesses. Applicants should consistently demonstrate initiative, ownership and excellence in their work.

We are looking for someone who is capable of doing hard things they haven’t done before, and the right candidate will want to be in an environment where they maximize their learning, development, accomplishments, and long-term financial success.

Responsibilities

1) Deal execution
– Building and maintaining investment theses and financial models
– Providing recommendations on valuation of target companies and deal structuring
– Preparing offers and supporting the Managing Partner in deal negotiations
– Coordinating the overall diligence and closing process, incl. managing service providers (accounting, legal, etc)
– Leading internal diligence workstreams to assess potential acquisition targets
– Providing updates and collecting input from investors and advisors
– Preparing and presenting investment cases to the Investment Committee
– Supporting the creation of post-acquisition plans

2) Sourcing investment opportunities
– Conducting industry and market research
– Building and maintaining relationships with deal professionals
– Identifying and evaluating potential investment opportunities
– Maintaining Rundle’s CRM and engaging past contacts

3) Supporting investee companies
– Scoping & supporting value creation initiatives
– Maintaining target lists for follow-on acquisitions
– Monitoring of investee companies, and deep dive analysis

4) Supporting Rundle’s partners in the running of the firm

Skills Required

– Financial Acumen – Adept at using financial models and frameworks to analyze companies. Comfortable expressing a company’s performance and future prospects through error free numerical analysis.
– Relationship Building & Management- Comfortable building and maintaining relationships with a wide network of people and professionals to drive Rundle’s business objectives. Effective use of a CRM is a crucial component of this skill.
– Business Judgment – Skilled at clearly recognizing attractive, and unattractive, investment opportunities, and prioritizing work accordingly
– Primary & Secondary Research – Persistent and resourceful in finding industry and company information from secondary research. Able to confidently organize and conduct interviews with executives and experts to develop and test investment theses.
– Data Analysis & Interpretation – Can translate voluminous data into valuable insights.
– Communication – Skilled at synthesizing complex ideas and communicating them verbally, in writing and in slides.
– Priority Setting & Multi-Tasking – Able to work in a fast-paced environment with multiple competing work streams and divergent demands.
– Organized & Detail oriented – A focus on details, as well as good habits on organizing information, are important for success

Personal Characteristics
In order to thrive in this role, we are seeking candidates who:

– Initiative & Ownership – Proactively identifies what needs doing & gets it done without direction
– Relate to entrepreneurs and small business owners – a genuine respect for entrepreneurs and ability to build trusting relationships with business owners
– Passion for Investing & Business Building – A passion for learning how to be a world-class investor and builder of companies
– Teamwork in a high-performance setting – An aptitude and track-record of collaborating with colleagues and clients, and bringing out the best in other people.
– Long-term orientation – private equity investing can be highly lucrative, but requires patience to realize outsized rewards

Experience Required
– 4 – 8+ years experience in investment banking, private equity, accounting, strategy consulting, or a related field
– Relevant accreditations, especially CPA and/or CFA, are highly valued

Compensation
The total compensation will reflect the candidate’s experience. Emphasis will be placed on long-term compensation tied to investment performance.

Additional Information
The Associate will be expected to work primarily from Rundle’s office in downtown Toronto, Canada. The target start date for this role is in Q1 2025.