Investment & Strategy Associate

Location: Remote with some travel/onsite Compensation : Up to $130/hr About UP.Labs & This Project UP.Labs is a venture studio that builds and launches vertical AI-enabled B2B SaaS companies across transportation, mobility, industrial, and adjacent sectors. We operate at the intersection of rigorous analysis and entrepreneurial speed. UP.Labs is running an innovation sprint for a major industrial player. The sprint culminates in two investment-ready business plans with POC designs. We need someone who can build the analytical backbone that makes those plans credible. The Role You are the quantitative and structural anchor of this project. Think of yourself as an MBB Associate embedded in a venture studio sprint: you bring structured problem-solving, financial modeling rigor, and the ability to convert ambiguous market data into clear, defensible analysis. You'll work directly with the project lead and Investment Committee to ensure every gate decision is grounded in evidence. This role spans the full sprint: from building the initial market sizing and stakeholder maps in Phase 1, through financial stress-testing of solution concepts in Phase 3, to building the 3-year P&Ls and POC financial models that close IC#3. What You'll Do Build and maintain the project's analytical infrastructure: market sizing models (TAM/SAM/SOM), competitive landscapes, and unit economics frameworks calibrated to project specifics Develop the financial logic for 5–8 opportunity areas at IC#1 — market size, illustrative business model economics, and key value-creation hypotheses Build unit economics models for shortlisted solution concepts in Phase 3: revenue, COGS, gross margin, and sensitivity analyses across various assumptions Construct two full 3-year P&L, cash flow, and capital requirement models for IC#3 — base case and downside scenarios, with documented assumptions Size the POC financial requirements for each solution: capital cap, cost structure, and funding-to-milestone logic Conduct competitive intelligence: map existing players in the project's space, identify whitespace, and assess defensibility of proposed models Support IC presentation development: build exhibit-quality slides that translate complex analysis into crisp decision-ready framing Maintain the killer assumptions log: tracking which financial and market assumptions, if wrong, would invalidate a business model Conduct independent QA review of financial model assumptions and calculations before IC#3 What We're Looking For 4–6 years of experience in management consulting (BCG, McKinsey, Bain, or equivalent tier), investment banking, or private equity - with demonstrable financial modeling depth Track record of building financial models for early-stage or venture-backed businesses, not just established companies with historical data Strong market sizing and competitive analysis skills - you know how to build a bottoms-up market model from operator volume data and buyer capacity, not just apply top-down multiples Ability to synthesize ambiguous qualitative inputs (from ethnographic research) into quantifiable assumptions and sensitivity ranges Structured communicator: you write and present with precision, and your exhibits speak without narration Comfortable with high velocity and time-boxed deliverables — you can build a credible model fast and flag where you've made assumptions versus where you have data Experience in energy, industrials, infrastructure, water, or adjacent sectors is a strong plus Familiarity with venture or innovation sprint environments — you know when 'good enough to decide' is the right standard What Success Looks Like IC#1 opportunity area analysis is rigorous enough to make a credible funding allocation decision across 5–8 options Unit economics models for shortlisted solutions survive stress-testing by IC members and external investors Two IC#3 financial models that pass independent QA and are ready for investor circulation POC financial scoping that is specific enough to include in a funding ask — not a range, a defensible number