Chief Operations Officer

Dreamfish seeks an Operations Leader

Dreamfish is a member-operated work cooperative of independents and entrepreneurs, who work together, and learn together for a happier world. A young social enterprise, our mission is sustainable work for all. Creating an work ecosystem that can help millions of micro-entrepreneurs to make a living and make a life is our dream. To do this, we provide a distributed collaborative work network for hiring, peer learning groups, online tools for project-based work, and Agile project management practices. We also support a culture of value creation that accounts for personal development, social and environmental impact.

Realizing a really big dream, Dreamfish is unique as a work community. We get excited about figuring out how what we build helps to reduce global poverty and increase inclusiveness! Everyone is highly self-directed, smart, professional, and we work together extremely well as a team. We are looking for an opoerations leader to join us. For a better understanding of the principles we put into action, please read the Dreamfish Humanifesto and our Diversity Statement.

Dreamfish as a network will be owned and operated in large part by its members. Members are distributed on four continents. We have 3,000+ people waiting for launch and a partner network of organizations and communities, including Stanford GSB and Engineering, Craigslist Foundation, PopTech!, Organization Development Network, Planetwork, Social Capital Market community, international systems sciences community, sustainability networks, and Linux community.

Dreamish is designed to be a sustainable organization. The mission of Dreamfish, Inc is to facilitate the self-organization of the network and enable the network of members to be successful. This person will lead a process in which the network legally becomes a work cooperative, to enable members to own the network.

Job Description

We are looking for a mission-focused, strategic, execution-oriented and network-minded leader to join our startup team. You will be a leader who is able to help Dreamfish Service teams and projects manifest measurable, cost-effective results that make the vision a reality.

You would appreciate the core values of Dreamfish and be driven to deliver the mission. You should demonstrate an understanding of how an ecosystem operates, and passion for breaking new ground to develop a new empowering world of work for all. You will have experience in a work community that is open, transparent and grassroots (such as communities of Open Source, Wiki, Action Research, community organizing, community and organization development or Process arts)
Beyond that, you will be a person who is courageous, can commit and move quickly, can scale an organization, and shows a demonstrated ability to both lead and build the capabilities of a creative, diverse team.

Responsibilities

Reporting to the Founder and CEO of Dreamfish, the COO will lead more inward-facing operations and will have the following responsibilities:

  • Working in partnership with the Founder, create the strategic five-year plan and implement new processes and approaches to achieve it.
  • Serve as the internal leader of the organization:
    • Coordinate the annual operations plan and budget.
    • Lead the performance management process that measures and evaluates progress against goals for the organization.
    • Provide for staff a strong day-to-day leadership presence; bridge distributed operations and support an open transparent policy among all staff.
  • Fund Raising—function reports to CEO; dotted-line reporting to COO on:
    • Budgeting
    • Development and implementation of systems for reporting, measurement and supporting local revenue generation
    • Administrative aspects including proposal preparation and granting writing
    • Present to the board and community at quarterly meetings

Lead and coach

You would have the following responsibilities. As more members, staff and volunteers are onboarded, you would be coaching and managing a network of volunteers doing project-based work.

  • Develop processes and practices to support Dreamfish Service members to succeed
    • Help develop curriculum, tools, and training that deliver on our social, environmental, and financial value, and meet cost guidelines
  • Finance
    • Develop a model which accounts for non-monetary value created by gifting members
    • Produce and implement metrics throughout the organization to reflect social, environmental and financial value created
  • Technology
    • Assist with visioning software that supports the creation of monetary and non-monetary value by members
    • Analyze the current technology infrastructure for financial systems and scope out the next level of information technology that support the growth of the network and value created overall
  • Human Resources
    • Recruiting of volunteers and staff
  • Legal projects, including an empowering legal structure for the network, and relationship to Dreamfish, Inc.
  • Cultivate the values of Dreamfish within the organization
  • Instill a human development, project management and “coaching” culture within Dreamfish; upgrade human resources functions including: volunteer training, development, compensation and benefits, performance evaluation and recruiting
  • Develop an accounting system that provides the organization with quick access to financial information and enables strategic budgeting

Key Qualifications

You will most likely have had both management experience with a for-profit organization, as well as experience in a cooperative or a nonprofit. As noted, this is an organization driven by the values of its people, so experience in managing a “values-driven” organization will be highly prized. Additional requirements are:

  • Have startup experience or experience with small businesses. Dreamfish is a startup and our network operations support the startup activity of micro-enterprises.
  • Results—proven track record of exceeding goals and a bottom-line orientation; evidence of the ability to consistently make good decisions through a combination of analysis, wisdom, experience, and judgment; high level of business acumen, including successful P&L management and the ability to balance the delivery of programs against the realities of a budget; problem solving, project management, and creative resourcefulness
  • Strategic Vision and Agility— ability to think strategically, anticipate future consequences and trends, and incorporate them into the organizational plan
  • Capacity Building—ability to effectively build organization and staff capacity, developing a top-notch workforce and the processes that ensure the organization runs smoothly
  • Leadership and Organization—exceptional capacity for managing and leading people; a team builder who has experience in scaling up organizations; ability to connect staff both on an individual level and in large groups; capacity to enforce accountability, develop and empower top-notch leaders from the bottom up, lead from the top down, cultivate entrepreneurship, and learn the strengths and weaknesses of the team so as to put people in a position to succeed
  • Action Oriented—enjoys working hard and looks for challenges; able to act and react as necessary, even if limited information is available; not afraid to take charge of a situation; can overcome resistance to leadership and take unpopular stands when necessary
  • General Management—thorough understanding of finance, systems, and HR; broad experience with the full range of business functions and systems, including strategic development and planning, budgeting, business analysis, finance, information systems, human resources, and marketing
  • Solid educational background—undergraduate degree required; MBA or similar advanced degree highly desired

Compensation

This is an outstanding opportunity for a social entrepreneur. We are seeking an individual of outstanding quality with a respected track record. This opportunity is for someone who wants to invest their effort and or capital in Dreamfish with the reward of a meaningful social and financial return on that investment. You would receive equity or alternative compensation until our next funding event. As there are excellent unique kinds of value in the network,  CEO and the COO would collaboratively develop a compensation plan and benefits.

To apply for this position, please send a letter of inquiry and a resume to jobs@dreamfish.com