Marketing Manager - Brighter Investment

Are you an ambitious business savvy graduate with online and offline marketing experience? And are you interested in a high responsibility/impactful role at the Accra office of a Canadian for-profit with a mission to improve the lives of millions? Let’s talk...

Opportunity - Help us invest in the education of the most talented students in developing countries. The value of a university degree is many times higher in developing countries than in the developed world. With their degrees, our graduates increase their income 5X, are 6X less likely to be unemployed, develop their economy and are more likely to educate their children. Despite this large return, many talented students in developing countries are unable to pay for a degree and realize this potential value.

A rapidly increasing demand for higher education in Africa and growing demand for impact investment opportunities in Europe and North America mean that the market is prime to disrupt the failing education finance model. Educating the next generation in developing countries does not only greatly benefit the students involved, but also unlocks an enormous economic potential. It is this value creating opportunity we invest in at Brighter Investment. A recent successful fundraising round means that we are ready to further expand into this $600bln blue ocean market. 

The business - Our fund directly invests in the university education of talented students in developing countries. In return, students repay a fixed percentage of their income back to our investors providing them with an attractive return. For a share in the created value, Brighter Investment is the link between students and the investors financing their education.

Current stage - We’ve been investing in students since 2015, the first 100 graduated students have increased their income 5X, are 6X less likely to be unemployed, and the resulting first investor distributions are 6.4% better than projected. The technology to reliably recruit and assess students online, to admin the mentorship program and to collect repayments is in place. Partnerships with the government and a large NGO will further facilitate our expansion. It is based on this solid foundation that we’re ready for growth and we need your help for that.

Your role - We are expanding our program to new regions and schools and ambition significant growth within existing markets. Your job will be to promote our offering through online and offline advertising, as well as liaison with SRC’s, university staff and other organizations to spread our message to their students. You’ll also take responsibility for our objective of recruiting more female students and students of disadvantaged backgrounds.

You’ll work directly with the management team of the company to plan and achieve the ambitioned growth. This involves market research and marketing execution. As Brighter Investment is a start-up, your job, like everybody elses in the organization, also involves the less glamorous work of following up with applicants and teachers during the summer months leading up to the new academic year. If you feel you are too good for that, don’t apply.

Your performance will directly determine how fast Brighter Investment grows and how many students get to go to school. This is not an easy 9 to 5 job, but in exchange we offer you ownership, opportunity, flexibility and responsibility.

You are - The person we hire for this job is analytical and confident in meetings and public speaking. You don’t need to have a lot of experience, but you will have to be able to shows us potential and at least one marketing campaign you ran successfully. If you have no experience, or only sales experience, this role isn’t for you. To be successful at this job you should:

• Be an influencer: Be excited about our mission and be able to spread that excitement to others in writing, in day-to-day conversations, online and on a stage. You should be able to share a successful marketing campaign you ran (preferably online and offline).

• Be an executor: Be able to hustle and have a proven record of creating opportunities, closing deals and generating growth. You should be able to share a deal you negotiated and closed.

• Be flexible: Be okay with a startup environment where circumstances and responsibilities change rapidly. If you’re attached to having different people in various departments for different jobs, this job is not for you.

• Be creative: Be able to do more with less and figure out how to do things you nor any of your colleagues have ever done before. We look forward to hearing examples of your creativity on the job.

• Be analytical: Be able to use qualitative and quantitative methods to measure and report marketing performance and direct marketing strategy. Data drives our decisions and you should be okay with that.