Founding Partner

Becoming a Founding Partner at WAY,
you could have the following experiences:

1. Founding Partner [Tech]

Role Summary:

You are a master of your craft, creating products people love is your bread and butter. As a Founding Partner [Tech] at WAY you would build the product from its first iteration and guide it through its 100th, and beyond. You know that you build great product, not only for its technical excellence, but because you know how to build something people want.

The skills we look for in Founding Partners [Tech] include:

• User Empathy: Translating user feedback into tangible, responsive changes in the product. You are obsessed with your customers and have a keen understanding of what they want. You are able to deconstruct their feedback into product iterations, moving ever closer to the product users need.

• Agility & Speed: Understanding, deeply, the requisite fidelity of a product at each stage of its development. You are keenly attuned to the importance of gathering user feedback en masse in a product’s early stages, and able to continually iterate and ship MVP versions to gather critical user data.

• Technical Craft: Designing the technical architecture of the product. You can build a product from scratch and own it through every phase of development and feedback. You know how to make it work well and look good.

• Product Strategy: Coordinating product development with business. You have deep understanding of how product interacts with businesses goals, and are able to create a long term vision and roadmap that marries the two.

• Collaboration Management: Managing interdisciplinary teams to execute well. You understand the complexities of how front-end design interacts with back-end development, and can effectively manage the relationship between teams of designers and developers.

Who We’re Looking For:

• Seasoned product managers, full stack developers, previous startup founders, technical leads in early stage startups

• Built product, guided its strategy, and grown it to scale and serve a wide audience

• Decisive and agile; you have strong ideas, but you’re not too proud to change the product based on evidence and feedback

2. Founding Partner [Business Development]

Role Summary:

You are an experienced operator, a lover of hard work and a proprietor of excellence. You have an intimate understanding of the ingredients required to build a successful and lasting business. As a Founding Partner [Business Development] at WAY, you will win customers and create a robust operation that is primed to scale.

The skills we look for in Founding Partners [Business Development] include:

• Customer Obsession: Obsessing over customer voice. You are able to build powerful rapport with customers and distill key insights from their dialogues. You know how to hear what customers are really saying and build a business that meets their needs.

• Dedicated Excellence: Investing every moment forward for the business. You operate at high speed and are perpetually inclined towards action, excited by tackling the list of evolving needs and challenges prevalent in the journey of business building.

• Sales Mastery: Converting businesses into excited and loyal customers. You are a resilient and clever salesperson, able to weather rejection en route to conversion through a targeted and well designed strategy. You are tireless and know how to speak the language that customers need to hear.

• Business & Financial Strategy: Managing cash flow and making smart investments. You have a discerning eye for ROI, and have a deep understanding of the needs of the business. You are able to analyze and maintain the financial health of the business, whilst building towards a long term vision of success.

• Effective Communication: Communicating clearly with multiple stakeholders. You are an empathetic listener and a decisive communicator, able to manage relationships with all stakeholders of the business. From customers to team members to potential investors, you can read your audience to make them feel heard whilst ensuring you are conveying key information.

Who We’re Looking For:

• Seasoned consultants, venture capitalists, investment bankers, PE professionals, entrepreneurs, country managers, intrapreneurs, or drivers in early stage startups

• Overseen a product, vertical, or country operation to grow and sustain scale and profit

• Founded a company or been an early hire in one, contributing to its earliest establishment and growth

• Effective Communication in Japanese (Speaking, reading and writing) and business level English

Description of background and behaviors to become a Founding Partner at WAY:

WAY Founding Partners do not come from a single origin, but will share these key characteristics.

WAY Founding Partner Profile:

• You have always been building, waiting for your shot at building something new.

• A keen entrepreneurial mindset and excellent business acumen, paired with an intimate understanding of digital business models.

• Everything is possible. You have determined and infectious optimism that can weather the storms and inspire a team to keep going.

• Energy and execution. You move with determination and speed, sparking the momentum that propels you and your team ever forward.

• Empathetic leader, with high standards. You don’t believe in dictatorships. Instead, you see winning cultures as drivers of sustainable and scalable success.

• Growth mindset. You have a voracious appetite for knowledge and you’re unafraid to admit what you don’t know and embrace every opportunity to learn.

• A long view on success. You don’t look for overnight wins and believe that the success that matters most is the kind that lasts.

• Grit. You enjoy being the hardest working person in the room because you know how to work hard and smart, always working towards a clarified purpose or goal.

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