What the role involves
About Keye
Keye (YC F24) is building the world’s smartest private equity analyst. We’re not just accelerating due diligence—we’re helping investors generate alpha. Unlike typical ChatGPT-enhanced tools, Keye is designed specifically for the hard problems in PE diligence.
When firms analyze deals through Keye, they tap into a deep library of diligence knowledge and best practices, built from over a decade of real investor experience. Our proprietary analysis engine helps teams quickly identify high-potential deals and move faster on the ones that matter.
We’re a team of investors and engineers with backgrounds at Vista Equity Partners, Permira, Goldman Sachs, McKinsey, Tesla and multiple startups. Our founding team has over 20 years of M&A investing experience, has founded companies before, and has been part of four successful acquisitions as early employees.
Keye is revenue-generating and has grown 600% in the last six months (some press about our growth here). We’re backed by top-tier investors including Y Combinator, General Catalyst, Sorenson Capital, and Plug and Play.
Launched just four months ago, Keye is already working with 40% of the top 25 PE firms, representing over $1.7 trillion in AUM. Simply put we are a rocket ship.
The Role
We’re hiring a Founding Strategist – Private Equity to lead the full lifecycle of client engagement—from initial demo to platform activation and expansion. Your goal is to drive product fit with each of our ICP clients. This is a technical role that requires prior experience as an investor in private equity. The position is in-person in New York (relocation support available).
You’ll work closely with our CEO, COO, sales, and product teams to lead platform adoption, drive activation, and turn user feedback into meaningful product improvements. You will be the face of Keye to our clients—working with them daily on real data, live deals, and high-stakes diligence.
This is a client-first, product-critical, and founder-level role. You’ll own core relationships, build new processes, and help shape the team from the ground up.
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What You’ll Do
Drive customer activation—ensuring firms not only onboard, but fully adopt the platform
Own relationships with clients from demo to rollout, often working directly with them on live deal data
Run tailored POCs that showcase platform value using real, quantitative diligence processes
Build and maintain deep, trusted relationships with senior PE professionals—across business and informal settings
Collaborate with product and engineering to prioritize, spec, and ship features that drive usage
Turn PE workflows and client feedback into actionable roadmap decisions
Help define the future structure of the platform strategy org—spanning engagement, success, and support
What We’re Looking For
2–6 years in Private Equity (investing role).
Deep experience with analyses carried out during due diligence (beyond just commercial DD)
Confident presenter with experience engaging senior stakeholders
Entrepreneurial, process-driven, with strong product sense and ability to work across teams
Works with urgency, clarity, and a strong sense of ownership
Socially confident—comfortable leading client sessions, dinners, and events
Based in NYC or open to relocating
Comfortable in high-pressure, fast-paced environments with tight deadlines and demanding clients
Why Now
Lead and define a core function at a breakout AI startup
Work closely with the founding team to shape strategy and product
Build and lead a future team of platform strategists, engagement managers, and sales engineers
Own relationships with top-tier PE firms at the forefront of digital transformation
Be part of a generational shift in how PE firms use technology
You’ll be joining a passionate, high-energy team that’s relentless about building something industry-defining. If you’re looking to leave investi
About Keye
Keye is an AI software that lets private equity firms do due diligence for acquisitions faster and more accurately. Our customers can evaluate 10x more deals and fund better companies which leads directly to better returns/more alpha. -- Our system is the first of its kind to instantly generate complex, comprehensive data packs from raw data in any format, directly from the data room. This enables investors to gain an 80% understanding of a potential deal within moments, empowering them to say No to a deal earlier in the process and focus on high-potential opportunities. Traditionally, creating these detailed data packs—like cohort or retention analyses and customer roll-forwards—takes weeks, during which critical details may be overlooked, potentially costing funds millions in missed insights and poor decisions. -- Keye combines cutting-edge AI with deep private equity expertise to deliver powerful, multi-layered insights that go far beyond the simple summarizers and search functions offered by other tools. Our platform dives deep into both quantitative and qualitative due diligence data, offering high-impact analytics crafted specifically for private equity workflows. This isn’t just automation—it’s a purpose-built solution that uncovers actionable insights, fueling smarter decisions and driving true alpha.
Full Keye profile