Haské Ventures recruits 01 Senior Venture Architect

Join Haskè Ventures, the Venture Studio building the next generation of West African Entrepreneurs. We are looking for an experienced and ambitious Senior Venture Architect to join our headquarters team in Dakar.

As a Senior Venture Architect, you will take on a content leadership role in our Venture teams. You’ll be responsible for developing critical elements of a business vision and strategy for our ventures, like building the complete business model, developing the marketing and pricing approach, and designing an operational model for the new company. You will collaborate with team members from multiple disciplines to create exciting value propositions that are attractive in the market. You’ll work across disciplines to determine the fastest path to test, learn, and succeed. Your analytic strength will be vital in developing data-based insights and building the venture’s first go-to-market and commercialization plans.

As a Senior Venture Architect, you will have the opportunity to expand your leadership skills by taking an entrepreneurial leadership role for our cross-functional venture teams and ventures, from the very first idea all the way to going live in the market. You’ll also be drawing together the team’s insights and progress into pitches for future investors. Finally, if you find yourself leading a venture that is perfect for you, you may even transition to running one of these ventures in the market.

Objectives of this role

• Lead the exploration and testing of new business ideas and opportunities
• Lead the design and execution of the ventures by defining the operational and commercial structures and strategies of the ventures
• Guide the development of the venture with the team and partners (corporates, academia, development partners, etc.) and communicate with different stakeholders
• Mentor Venture Architects by inspiring, coaching, and supporting our team of Venture Architects

Daily and monthly responsibilities

• Manage a cross-functional team to build and launch new ventures
• Help team to find agile ways of eliminating waste of time and resources
• Scan for novel business insights and turn them into attractive business concepts
• Define & concretize the field of opportunity (together with Venture Insights)
• Develop the core value proposition of the new business (together with Venture Insights)
• Translate the discovery concept into a commercial and operational blueprint of a new business (target operating model)
• Contribute to the building of a comprehensive business perspective
• Collect and prioritize critical business and risk assumptions
• Develop an early feedback loop for continuous feedback, learning, and iteration for ventures, balancing value creation with the quality of products and services
• Create a go-to-market strategy (with Growth Marketing)
• Manage relationships with critical commercial stakeholders – outlining investment path to product market fit
• Explore investment, business, and collaboration opportunities 2
• Pitch new ventures to future investors, technical and commercial partners
• Find, train, and grow a local team to strengthen the venture-building team
• Assist in the management of operational aspects of new ventures under Haskè Ventures

Skills and qualifications

• Highly entrepreneurial mindset
• Master’s degree (postgraduate, M.B.A.)
• 5 – 10 years of experience with strategy development, business planning, projections, economic modeling, design or product development expertise, product prototyping, and testing
• Good leadership and communication skills
• Experience in a high-pressure start-up environment with exposure to multidisciplinary teams and/or involvement with a top-tier consulting firm
• Previous experience with high exposure to entrepreneurship such as start-up, venture capital, or start-up accelerator roles. Personal experience as a founder and entrepreneur is a Plus.
• Proven ability to implement successful solutions or products in an early-stage start-up environment.
• Experience launching and managing large projects and businesses in corporate environments. Relevant experience in corporate structure, governance, and the legal side of building a business
• Knowledge of Design Thinking, Lean Start-up, and Agile Development principles.
• Familiarity with the following fields is welcome since cross-functional communication is key to our success: Service Design, Software Development, Interaction Design, Performance Marketing, Change Management, and Product Management.
• Experience with tools like M.S. Teams, Figma, Miro, Notion, and other tools that tackle service, product, business, or experience-driven innovation quests
• Fluent in writing and speaking English and French is a plus

How to apply

Please submit your CV and cover letter to Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted about the following steps of the recruitment procedure.

What Haskè Ventures offers

Francophone Africa is ripe with high-potential business opportunities. We aim to create and support entrepreneurs in this region by bridging the gap between ideas and growth-stage ventures. If you join us, you’ll have the opportunity to transform the start-up landscape in Francophone Africa and many people’s lives. You’ll be joining a team of an intelligent and diverse group of talented people that are deeply motivated by the purpose of making a difference. Haskè Ventures is determined to be a workplace that offers an unparalleled space for learning entrepreneurial skills. Whether it is solving complex challenges, being inspired by collaboration on a venture, or mentoring from the community of talents, we want to be the best place for your personal growth. Haskè Ventures supports start-ups with seed capital and venture building, including strategy, talent, and operational support.