Accelerator Partnerships Lead

About Us

Rho is the modern banking platform built for startups. Open accounts in minutes, issue cards, manage expenses, pay bills, and close the books – all in one connected platform backed by real human support.

About The Role

This is not a general accelerator partnerships role. You will own Rho's relationships with the programs that define startup culture in your market—whether that's the most selective, high-signal programs in the world or the community-driven ecosystem that produces the next generation of high-growth founders. Your job is to make Rho the default financial platform they adopt from day one. These markets are relationship-dense. You will succeed not by running a standard partnerships playbook, but by becoming a trusted operator in your ecosystem—someone who shows up before there is an ask.

What You'll Own

• Own the primary relationship with Managing Directors, Group Partners, and program leads at the highest-signal accelerators in your market—you are the first call they make when thinking about a financial platform for their founders.
• Build trusted relationships at the staff level (partners, associates, community teams) so Rho has visibility into cohort dynamics and emerging needs.
• Develop deep relationships across the broader VC community in your geography—including family offices, sector-specific funds, and university programs that feed the accelerator pipeline.
• Represent Rho at the events, demo days, partner dinners, and community gatherings that define startup culture in your market. You will be a known, credible presence in these rooms.
• Drive Rho adoption within each cohort from first conversation through activation, with clear conversion targets and a structured follow-up cadence.
• Build and run founder-facing programming—office hours, workshops, fireside chats, roundtables—that delivers genuine value, not marketing disguised as content.
• Partner with Sales on warm handoffs for high-ACV opportunities that emerge from the accelerator ecosystem.
• Collaborate with Marketing to create scalable pipelines that move founders from a first impression to a fully activated client and referral partner.
• Playbook & Strategy: Build and own the accelerator partnerships playbook for your market—from first contact through multi-cohort expansion and renewal—with clear KPIs: cohort penetration rate, activation velocity, and GP/ACV influenced.
• Map and prioritize the accelerator landscape in your market; quality of cohort and alignment with Rho's ICP matter more than volume. Evaluate new programs for inclusion and manage the portfolio with intentionality, not opportunism.
• Feed founder insights from your cohorts back to Product and Marketing to inform roadmap decisions and targeted campaigns.
• Cross-Functional: Leverage Partner with the VC Partnerships team to align accelerator strategy with LP and GP relationship development across your market. Collaborate with Marketing on co-branded activations, founder panels, field events, and founder-facing content tied to program timelines. Contribute to CRM hygiene and pipeline tracking so accelerator-sourced deals are visible, attributable, and reported with precision.

About You

• You are embedded in the startup ecosystem in your target market—you know the accelerators, the programs, the operators, and the MDs, and they know you.
• You have direct, existing relationships inside the top programs in your geo; not peripheral familiarity, but real credibility with the people who run them.
• You have 2–4 years of experience in VC partnerships, channel partnerships, or founder-facing GTM roles at a high-growth startup or venture-backed company—or you are a founder yourself.
• Founders trust you. You add value before asking for anything, and you know the difference between being a vendor and being a resource.
• You have built or operated programs, events, workshops, or office hours that founders actually wanted to attend.
• You balance long-term relationship depth with short-term pipeline accountability. You can manage a 12-month partner relationship arc and a quarterly acquisition target simultaneously.
• You are fluent in early-stage startup finance, fundraising dynamics, and the operational realities of early-stage companies—founders don't have to explain their world to you.
• You are hungry to own a market category, not manage a program, and you are motivated by outsized, compounding impact.

Pay

Our target compensation range for this role is $145,000 - $184,000 in on-target-earnings with variation based on relevant experience, skills, and business needs. In addition to base pay, Rho offers equity, comprehensive healthcare benefits, and paid time off.