Chief Operating Officer
Description
Chief Operating Officer
Full time, remote
Prenda is on a mission to empower learners. We help people run microschools, where small groups of kids meet, often in a home, and own their education. The model is helping light a fire for kids like Mo (https://youtu.be/g4nLjauGM3U), and we want to empower many more. Imagine a world where kids grow up as empowered learners - they choose to learn, develop their gifts, and apply their passion and grit to solve the world’s big problems!
Our company is obsessed with the mission of empowering learners, we live our core values and we embrace servant leadership.
Responsibilities:
>Partner with the CEO. The paradigm here is to be partners in running the business, with a division of roles that lines up as visionary-integrator from the Geno Wickman books Traction and Rocket Fuel. In the visionary/CEO role, Kelly will hold responsibility for the mission and values of the company and “see the future” to chart the company’s course through this unique moment in American education. Kelly will tell the story, both externally and internally, including political involvement, development of high-level partners and allies, driving a movement around Prenda’s core concepts of empowering learners and microschools, and fundraising. While big ideas are important to Prenda’s success, they are not enough, and Kelly needs a partner to work with him to make it real and actionable. The Integrator/COO will be that partner. While they each bring individual strengths and primary areas of ownership, the core decisions of the company will be owned together, requiring a high degree of collaboration and alignment.
Responsibilities include:
- Help communicate vision and strategy to the company
- Drive implementation of the strategy through the day-to-day operations of the business
- Help understand and operationalize core values
- Collaborate with Kelly on company building, investor management, and other major issues
>Own the Company Operating System. Our current system includes company and team OKRs, with weekly progress reporting of numbers (asynch) and monthly updates with context in the AH. The COO will take the reins of this system, ensure that it is running successfully - employees have the clarity and stability they need to get work done, and we achieve our goals as an org. This includes ultimate responsibility for design choices, as well as implementation and communication.
Responsibilities include:
- Run Leadership Team meetings
- Own execution of strategy and company goals
- Track progress toward company OKRs
- Track progress toward team/group OKRs
- Support leaders in achieving OKRs
- Communicate progress toward company OKRs
>Drive for Product-Market Fit. The most important thing the company can accomplish in 2023 is to demonstrate product-market fit (PMF). After disappointing results in summer 2022, we have spent the last six months looking hard at our product, diagnosing the core problems, identifying our hypothesis for improving PMF, and setting up the company to be enable implementation. We are already seeing early signs of PMF, and we need to keep the company very focused on the iterative learning process that will ultimately lead to strong PMF and future growth. Kelly will be a partner on this, and we have leaders in place that are capable of moving this work forward with the proper support. We need leadership to inject energy, keep focus, and push us forward.
Responsibilities include:
- Participate in the Product Steering Committee
- Collaborate with leaders directly tied to PMF
- Coordinate with other leaders to ensure PMF is top priority
- Work with Kelly to ensure the company is best equipped to achieve PMF
Requirements:
- Proven experience as Chief Operating Office or relevant role
- Understanding of business functions such as Product, Technology, HR, Finance, marketing etc.
- Demonstrable competency in strategic planning and business development
- Experience in fundraising will be a plus
- Working knowledge of data analysis and performance/operation metrics
- Working knowledge of IT/Business infrastructure and MS Office
- Outstanding organizational and leadership abilities
- Excellent interpersonal and public speaking skills
- Aptitude in decision-making and problem-solving
Benefits:
- Competitive salary combined with equity
- Health insurance
- Home office set up stipend
- Entirely remote team
- Empowered, humble, passionate, and exciting culture
Prenda is an equal opportunity employer that is committed to diversity in its workforce. We post our open positions on multiple job boards, in an effort to attract candidates who represent different backgrounds, experiences, identities, and perspectives and yet are often underrepresented in certain industries.
We believe this well rounded approach positions Prenda to make employment-related decisions based exclusively on job-related qualifications, without disregarding applicants because of their race, color, national origin, religion, gender, age, marital status, disability, veteran status, citizenship status, sexual orientation, gender identity, pregnancy, genetic information, mental health or any other status protected by law.