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. Success is not measured by activity. It is measured by whether founders in these programs choose Rho before Demo Day. We are hiring one person for this role in New York City and one in San Francisco. WHAT YOU'LL OWN PROGRAM RELATIONSHIPS - 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. FOUNDER ACQUISITION & ACTIVATION - 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 ask