Catalyst Associate

Marvelous is a pre-seed and seed fund backing Europes most ambitious industrial DeepTech founders. We invest in scientific breakthroughs across three interconnected verticals: Food Agriculture & Land Use; Heavy Industry; and the Built Environment. We follow a focused thesis that the physical economy is undergoing a once-in-a-generation transformation and the best deep tech companies are being built right now. Our vision is a future-fit economy thriving within planetary boundaries to the benefit of all.

What sets us apart is the Marvelous Catalyst. The Catalyst is our industry collaboration and value creation engine. We maintain a growing network of relevant industrial companies who act as strategic partners. They provide technical diligence manufacturing access real-world pilots and offtake relationships to our portfolio from day one. For a DeepTech founder this brings credibility speed and a path to commercial scale that most funds cannot offer and represents our unfair advantage.

We are a small high-performance low-ego team. Every member carries real responsibility. There is no hierarchy to hide behind and no large analyst pool to delegate to.

The core Values at Marvelous are:

Radical honesty - you say what you think including when its uncomfortable

Depth over breadth - youd rather know one thing exceptionally well than everything

superficially

Impact over ego - you care about the outcome not the credit

Mission matters - youre motivated by backing companies that change how the physical world

works

No passengers - you bring initiative not just execution

Tasks

Portfolio Value Creation

Drive structured growth initiatives across the portfolio: opening customer introductions facilitating Proofs of Concepts managing competing priorities

Lead onboarding of new portfolio companies into the Catalyst ecosystem and coordinate ongoing support alongside the partner in charge

Monitor portfolio health and deliver actionable insights for GP-level decision making

Industry Challenges & Corporate Partnerships

Design and execute Industry Challenges that match corporate innovation needs with tailored DeepTech solutions from our portfolio and network

Build and manage a pipeline of corporate industry partners across all three verticals from first touch to signed collaboration documents

Own partner relationships end-to-end: scope the engagement design the challenge run execution and drive follow-through

Coordinate expert reviews and technical validation with Catalyst industrial partners

Ecosystem Building & Events

Organise and host flagship events like Deep Tech Runway Industry Challenges and

bespoke formats

Build Marvelouss presence in the Berlin and European DeepTech ecosystem through events community engagement and strategic partnerships

Represent Marvelous externally with the credibility to engage both a CTO and a CEO

Cultivate relationships with research spinout networks accelerator programmes and co-investors to strengthen the Catalyst ecosystem

GP Support & Catalyst Operations

Serve as Founders Associate to a General Partner: manage strategic priorities prepare briefings and ensure follow-through on key initiatives

Produce executive-quality deliverables: partnership proposals pitch materials portfolio reports and stakeholder communications

Support deal flow activities where needed: screen startups map markets and contribute to due diligence

Handle outreachs and sales activities for the fund

Requirements

We are looking for someone exceptional. Someone who is genuinely outstanding and who will raise the bar for the whole team.

You bring 23 years of professional experience ideally including time at an MBB or top-tier strategy consultancy where you learned to structure ambiguity and deliver under pressure

You have built open innovation programmes corporate-startup collaborations or ecosystems and you understand how to create value at the interface of big industry and early-stage ventures

You organise relentlessly: yourself projects people and events. You do not drop balls even when you juggle ten workstreams at once

You thrive on context switching: you move between founder coaching corporate partner calls event logistics and portfolio analysis without missing a beat

You communicate with precision and clarity in English; German is a strong plus

You act proactively and independently: you spot opportunities before anyone asks build your own conviction and deliver without close management

You are based in Berlin or genuinely ready to relocate; you hold the right to work in the EU without requiring visa sponsorship

Strong differentiators:

You hold an engineering or natural science degree in materials science mechanical

engineering chemistry physics biology or adjacent fields

You have published research or completed a research stint at a leading institution (Fraunhofer ETH Helmholtz Max Planck ...)

You have founded built or operationally supported an early-stage startup

You have automated processes or optimised workflows using AI-driven tools

Affinity for sales

Benefits

• A foundational role in the Catalyst team of an emerging fund with a marvelous GP team ;)
• Direct C-level and founder exposure: you interact with corporate executives fund LPs and exceptional founders every week
• Real ownership: you build and shape the Catalyst function with significant autonomy and clear potential for rapid growth
• A front-row seat to European DeepTech venture: from first cheque to portfolio scale-up
• A steep learning curve in a lean senior team with decades of combined VC and tech-transfer experience
• Access to a pan-European network of researchers corporates VCs and founders
• Work from a great office in the heart of Kreuzberg - where the Berlin DeepTech scene happens
• The chance to help build an investment platform. Marvelouss ambition spans direct investing Fund-of-Funds growth vehicles and beyond

In place of a cover letter please include a short note answering these questions:

1. What draws you to DeepTech value creation and ecosystem building and what would you bring to the Marvelous Catalyst that no one else would

2. Describe a time you organised a complex multi-stakeholder project under ambiguity. What did you do when things went sideways

3. Our Catalyst model integrates industrial partners into portfolio value creation from day one. What do you see as the biggest challenge in making that model work and how would you approach it

This is not a test with a right answer. We want to see how you think. We review applications on a rolling basis and move quickly for the right candidate.