Job Title: CEO — Portfolio Companies (Ethos Software)
About the Role
Ethos Software is a boutique venture capital firm that acquires and grows software and digital media businesses. We’re not a passive investor — we’re operators, and we want to back operators. Our portfolio companies are intentionally small (most are under $10M in revenue), which means the people who run them have real authority, real accountability, and real upside.
We recruit GMs and CEOs on a rolling basis. Sometimes the need is immediate; sometimes we’re building the bench for what’s next. Either way, if this role has you nodding your head, we want to meet you.
For this particular role, we're looking for someone with a solid background and, most importantly, a genuine passion for sales strategy. We're not necessarily looking for seasoned C-suite professionals, but rather an enthusiastic leader who can reinvigorate our brand.
Key Responsibilities
- Run the business end-to-end — P&L ownership, team leadership, product direction, sales, and customer relationships. You’re the CEO; the wins and the hard calls are yours.
- Scale what’s already working. Our companies have product-market fit; your job is to build on that foundation with a lean team and a sharp instinct for where to focus.
- Own marketing, sales, product, and customer success. Roll up your sleeves and dig into functional challenges — there’s no one else to hand it off to.
- Manage a demanding stakeholder set — board members, investors, customers, and your team — with clarity, candor, and composure.
- Drive revenue. Whether through direct selling, channel development, or pricing strategy, you know how to move the number.
Qualifications
- Direct selling experience; not just managing a sales team, but successful, personal track record of deal-closing
- Hands-on operating experience in software, digital media, B2B, or data businesses — not familiarity with the space, but actual scar tissue from building and running one.
- Enough technical fluency to be credible with your engineering team and dangerous enough to ask the right questions. You don’t need to write the code; you need to understand it.
- A demonstrably entrepreneurial track record: you’ve started something, run a high-growth business unit, or otherwise operated without a safety net and come out ahead.
- P&L fluency. Budgets, unit economics, and forecasts don’t make your eyes glaze over — they’re how you think.
- The ability to sell — full stop. To customers, to partners, to stakeholders who have high expectations and limited patience.
Preferred Qualifications
- Prior experience in a PE- or VC-backed environment, with an understanding of investor dynamics and reporting expectations.
- Experience leading a company through an acquisition, integration, or transition — you know what it’s like to inherit a business and make it your own.
- A network in the software or digital media space that you can activate for partnerships, talent, or customer introductions.
Schedule
Full-time, Monday through Friday, 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM. As a CEO, you’ll know when the job needs more — but we’re not a grind culture, and sustainable pace is something we take seriously across the portfolio.
Work Environment
- Small, lean teams. You’ll wear a lot of hats and move fast — that’s a feature, not a bug.
- Resource-constrained by design. We believe great operators find creative solutions within a budget, not despite it.
- Backed by a firm that knows the space. Ethos isn’t a silent investor — we’re a collaborative partner with pattern recognition across our portfolio.
Compensation
- $150,000-$200,000 base salary with the potential for performance-based bonus tied to company results, plus comprehensive benefits.
Why This Role Stands Out
- Real ownership, early. You don’t need to be a decade into your career to earn the keys — if you’re ready, we’re ready.
- The hard part is done. Product-market fit is established. Your job is to pour fuel on the fire, not search for the spark.
- A firm that gets it. Ethos has pattern recognition across software and digital media businesses. We’re not learning on your dime.
- Reach out and tell us your story. We’re not looking for a perfect résumé — we’re looking for the right person. What have you built? What broke? What did you figure out? That’s the conversation we want to have.