Venture Development Intern

Venture Development Intern (m/f/d) – FastLeap Partners Internship, 3–6 months · Full-time About FastLeap Partners FastLeap Partners is a company builder and investment firm headquartered in Zug, Switzerland, with portfolio companies mainly operating in Germany. It is backed by a small group of entrepreneurs and family offices from Germany and Switzerland with successful entrepreneurial track records. The firm has launched several ventures in sectors including HR, FinTech and EdTech – all cash-flow-driven and built with AI as their core foundation from day one. About the internship FastLeap Partners launches and scales several companies in parallel, from the first validation of a business model to an operating company with its own team. As a Venture Development Intern, you work at both ends of this process: you assess which new business models FastLeap Partners should pursue and launch next, and you help our portfolio companies tackle critical operational bottlenecks that constrain their growth. You work as the right hand of the founder of FastLeap Partners and collaborate closely with the founders and teams of our portfolio companies. From day one, you are given a high degree of responsibility. You will take ownership of projects with a direct impact on the business success of FastLeap Partners and its portfolio companies. Your responsibilities Evaluating new business models • Validate business models through market research and customer development, including conversations with potential customers and partners. • Develop business cases and translate your findings into a clear recommendation: pursue, adapt or discontinue. • Build the talent pipeline: help assemble founding teams for new ventures and identify and engage early employees for the portfolio. Supporting our portfolio companies • Take on critical operational projects across the ventures – from coordinating sales campaigns and product launches to sourcing and evaluating potential partners and drafting customer contracts. • Keep track of open items across the ventures and follow up with the teams until they are resolved. • Design and implement AI-driven tools and workflows that automate recurring processes and allow the ventures to scale without adding complexity. Who you are • A clear communicator. You write and speak clearly and precisely, and you present your results convincingly to founders and the leadership team. • Structured. You maintain an overview of several topics at once and reliably drive open items to resolution. • Focused on execution. You recognize what matters most at any given time and see it through to completion. • Curious and grounded. You ask the right questions, learn quickly and seek to understand a business before forming an opinion. • AI-native. You use AI tools as an integral part of your daily work and continuously look for ways to work more effectively with them. Qualifications • Currently enrolled in a Bachelor's or Master's program in business, economics, engineering, computer science or a related field, ideally in an advanced semester. • First experience in fast-paced environments close to the center of an ambitious organization, for example through internships in startups, venture capital, consulting, banking or private equity, or through a project you founded yourself. What you have done matters much more to us than any single logo or pedigree. • Ideally, you have already contributed early at a startup or high-growth company, with results you can point to. • High-agency: you take initiative instead of waiting for instructions, take ownership of problems that nobody has been assigned to yet, and find a way forward when there is no established playbook. • Strong analytical skills and confident in working with spreadsheets