Strategy & Corporate Development Senior Associate / Manager
Tender Food
Somerville, MA, USA
Posted on Oct 5, 2024
Tender Overview
Tender Food is a food technology company based in Somerville, MA. Our mission is to become the manufacturing standard for the alternative protein industry, radically accelerate its adoption, and replace animal agriculture – a critical step to meet global climate action and food security goals. Global protein demand is forecasted to increase dramatically, but with a finite and rapidly decreasing supply of arable land, and meat production being one of the most land intensive and destructive industries on our planet (contributing 15- 20% of global CO2 emissions – not to mention methane, land and water use, biodiversity loss, antibiotic resistance, and pandemic risk), we need a better solution. Replacing meat with plant-based alternatives has the highest CO2e savings / dollar of invested capital of any sector, but early plant-based meats are struggling with consumer adoption. Enter Tender.
Tender has developed breakthrough fiber manufacturing platforms that create hyper-realistic muscle fiber texture directly from plant proteins. Simply put, they resemble high-performance cotton-candy machines that take simple, low-cost plant proteins and transform them into 'muscle' fibers, allowing us to build any meat cut from the fiber up. While revolutionary texture is the obvious benefit and differentiator of these platforms, our platform also solves the other core pain points of plant-based meat, namely (1) Taste & Texture, (2) Product Variety, (3) Price, and (4) Nutrition. Solving each of these issues is critical to meaningful adoption.
We’ve just raised our $11M Series A, which will support us as we shift focus from R&D to scale up and rapid commercialization. We are currently selling our early products (pulled pork, chicken breast, beef short rib) in local Boston food service, while also engaging with major Food Manufacturers / CPGs to partner to launch products and establish our technology as the manufacturing standard for this industry.
We have 23 full-time employees, 20 of which are engineers and scientists focused on R&D and scale-up. They come from diverse backgrounds, but all are deeply passionate about food and/or sustainability. We have a fun, dynamic, highly motivated team. Definitely a good time!
Strategy & Corporate Development Senior Associate / Manager
We're looking to beef up our commercial team with a Strategy & Corporate Development Senior Associate / Manager. There’s literally too much interesting work to do (and we've jammed it all into one mouthful of a title)!
Your Responsibilities:
You will wear many hats reporting to the Head of Strategy & Corporate Development in both long-term planning and near-term execution, while identifying and leading your own initiatives along the way. This is an awesome chance to join a fast-growing climate tech startup with fresh funding and grow with it as it shifts from R&D to commercialization. In this role, you will:
You have (Preferred Qualifications):
Why work with us?
At Tender Food, we are deeply committed to diversity, equality, and inclusion. Our goal is to create an environment and company culture where people from all walks of life can come together in an inclusive manner and be an amazing force for good!
Tender Food is a food technology company based in Somerville, MA. Our mission is to become the manufacturing standard for the alternative protein industry, radically accelerate its adoption, and replace animal agriculture – a critical step to meet global climate action and food security goals. Global protein demand is forecasted to increase dramatically, but with a finite and rapidly decreasing supply of arable land, and meat production being one of the most land intensive and destructive industries on our planet (contributing 15- 20% of global CO2 emissions – not to mention methane, land and water use, biodiversity loss, antibiotic resistance, and pandemic risk), we need a better solution. Replacing meat with plant-based alternatives has the highest CO2e savings / dollar of invested capital of any sector, but early plant-based meats are struggling with consumer adoption. Enter Tender.
Tender has developed breakthrough fiber manufacturing platforms that create hyper-realistic muscle fiber texture directly from plant proteins. Simply put, they resemble high-performance cotton-candy machines that take simple, low-cost plant proteins and transform them into 'muscle' fibers, allowing us to build any meat cut from the fiber up. While revolutionary texture is the obvious benefit and differentiator of these platforms, our platform also solves the other core pain points of plant-based meat, namely (1) Taste & Texture, (2) Product Variety, (3) Price, and (4) Nutrition. Solving each of these issues is critical to meaningful adoption.
We’ve just raised our $11M Series A, which will support us as we shift focus from R&D to scale up and rapid commercialization. We are currently selling our early products (pulled pork, chicken breast, beef short rib) in local Boston food service, while also engaging with major Food Manufacturers / CPGs to partner to launch products and establish our technology as the manufacturing standard for this industry.
We have 23 full-time employees, 20 of which are engineers and scientists focused on R&D and scale-up. They come from diverse backgrounds, but all are deeply passionate about food and/or sustainability. We have a fun, dynamic, highly motivated team. Definitely a good time!
Strategy & Corporate Development Senior Associate / Manager
We're looking to beef up our commercial team with a Strategy & Corporate Development Senior Associate / Manager. There’s literally too much interesting work to do (and we've jammed it all into one mouthful of a title)!
Your Responsibilities:
You will wear many hats reporting to the Head of Strategy & Corporate Development in both long-term planning and near-term execution, while identifying and leading your own initiatives along the way. This is an awesome chance to join a fast-growing climate tech startup with fresh funding and grow with it as it shifts from R&D to commercialization. In this role, you will:
- Support critical strategic planning efforts, including annual planning, product roadmap, budgeting, and organizational planning
- Support business development activities with Fortune 100 customer and strategic partner prospects, including target identification, developing pitch materials, outreach, project management of existing relationships
- Support Tender’s financing efforts and finance function, including building strategy, preparations, and data room materials for future fundraising, evaluating and sourcing alternative funding sources, and building out the finance function.
- Provide strategic and analytical support for our foodservice GTM efforts, including refining and implementing our sales strategy, building the function and supporting sales operations capabilities, demand forecasting, and pricing
- Identify, implement, and lead other strategic initiatives
- Provide analytical and project management support to other cross-functional initiatives
You have (Preferred Qualifications):
- 3+ years experience in management consulting, finance, or comparable strategic / analytical role
- Financial modeling experience (ideally three statement models, etc.). You live for spreadsheets.
- Strong bias towards autonomy, proactivity getting stuff done, and pivoting quickly as priorities shift
- Solution orientation and comfort in ambiguity - you dive in and quickly bring structure to complex problems
- Experience working cross-functionally, a preference for working in a team. Maybe you've said 'Teamwork makes the dream work" out loud before.
- Extreme organizational skills. Maybe to the point that your previous co-workers were a little concerned.
- You are a strong verbal communicator, and are able to facilitate discussions with and present to senior stakeholders
- Strong written communication and presentation building skills. You also live for PowerPoint.
- Experience working in a high-growth startup setting
- Experience in food, hard technology, or related field
Why work with us?
At Tender Food, we are deeply committed to diversity, equality, and inclusion. Our goal is to create an environment and company culture where people from all walks of life can come together in an inclusive manner and be an amazing force for good!
- You’ll get to join us in our mission to radically transform the meat industry – one of the most polluting industries on our planet.
- You’ll join a young startup that is experiencing very rapid growth, with all the opportunities that come along with it.
- You’ll get to work with a diverse group of people that cares deeply about what we are trying to solve.
- You’ll join an organization that values transparency and honesty.
- You’ll have ownership over what you do and how you do it.
- You’ll join a really fun, interesting, and dynamic place to work.
- Competitive Salary
- Employee Incentive Stock Option Plan
- 401k Matching
- Paid Parental, Family & Medical Leave
- Unlimited PTO
- Health & Wellness Stipend
- Generous Medical, Dental & Vision Benefits Package