Executive Assistant

About DroneSeed/Silvaseed: 

Our mission is simple: Make reforestation scalable to mitigate the worst effects of climate change. Trees are highly effective at carbon removal, but scaling reforestation has significant obstacles--and that gets our team fired up about how we can build solutions using technology. We’ve built DroneSeed and acquired and combined it with 130-year-old Silvaseed to be a one-stop-shop for reforestation and remove obstacles at each of four steps: 

- Seed. Natural regeneration after wildfire is in decline due to climate change resulting in larger fires of higher severity. These factors eliminate seed stored in the soil for regeneration. This creates challenges for seed supply. To respond we’ve expanded Silvaseed to become the largest private seed bank in the west and the first call for land managers affected by fire.  

- Grow space. There’s not enough nursery greenhouse capacity to grow seedlings (link). We’re currently growing millions of seedlings per year at Silvaseed and, while we’re doubling that output, we’re creating a replicable method to scale further.  

- Better tools for labor. We need better tools to accomplish more reforestation faster. DroneSeed is utilizing heavy lift drone swarms to deliver seed vessels after wildfire and boost seed establishment in combination with seedlings that are interplanted later. 

- Finance. For the last 20 years, carbon offsets haven’t provided capital for the high-up front costs of reforestation. Repayment periods were 25 years or more and reforestation projects were exceedingly rare. That changed two years ago when third party certifier Climate Action Reserve (CAR) announced the Climate Forward protocol to conservatively forecast the carbon tonne removals as reforested trees grow. DroneSeed is developing one of the first projects using this protocol. This and future projects following the protocol will be protected by legal easements on replanted and re-seeded land, monitored by state-accredited land trusts, and have insurance buffer pools in place in case fire occurs again. Under the CAR protocol, DroneSeed is generating the most transparent, highest-quality forestry-based carbon offsets on the market from reforestation projects. 

We need to overcome these four reforestation challenges to build back--even a fraction of--the forests we lose from wildfires every year. That's why we set out to build a model to make reforestation scaleable, which requires expanding the supply chain systems and financial flywheels behind them. That is the mission: make reforestation scalable to mitigate the worst effects of climate change.

Highlights:

Silvaseed HQ: Roy, WA

DroneSeed HQ: Ballard Brewery District, Seattle, WA  

Team Size: ~100

Leadership Team: Grant Canary (CEO), Ben Reilly (CTO), John Hall (VP Ops), Cassie Meigs (Director Account Management), Matthew Aghai (Senior Director of Bio R&D), Arnoud de Villegas (Senior Director of Business Development), Katherine Wong-Velasco (Director of Talent Acquisition) and Mary Caroline Pruitt (Senior Director of Marketing & Communications) 

Funding: $36M Series A from Social Capital, Seven Seven Six, DBL, Spero VC, Techstars, TechCrunch.

Notable Investors: Marc Tarpenning co-founder Tesla, Tobi Lutke CEO Shopify, Alexis Ohanian co-founder Reddit, Marc Benioff, Court Lorenzini 1st CEO DocuSign 

Market: $277B Carbon Offset Market (Refinitiv Analysis, Bloomberg NEF)

Revenue: Data will be shared with qualified candidates

Clients: 3 of 5 largest timber companies, Non-profits such as The Nature Conservancy, Tribal Nations, state and federal agencies

Media: CNN, Mark Rober, National Geographic,  Today Show, Bloomberg

About you:  

You are a professional Executive Assistant with experience working in fast-paced startup environments. You bring a passion for helping senior leadership maximize their time to focus on growing the business. You are highly organized, build trust, and can manage interactions at all levels, particularly senior leadership and customers. You are authoritative and make the trains run on time, but win trust and respect and are incredibly kind while doing so.

What you'll be doing:

• Report to Grant Canary (CEO)
• Management of complex calendar for Grant and team meetings
• Collecting and organizing key performance indicators into reports for weekly discussion
• Management of specific high value projects
• Assisting in prioritization
• Space planning activities within the organization to help us grow!

A plus if you have:

• At least 4 years of experience providing direct EA support including calendar management, meeting coordination, travel coordination, event planning, etc.
• Ability to travel and work in the Seattle (Ballard) office 3 days per week.
• Strong analytical skills and demonstrated ability to improve processes.
• Demonstrated ability to organize, multi-task, and problem solve issues while managing competing priorities and commitments to deadlines.
• Start-up or equivalent experience in high-growth and/or fast-paced environments. 
• Proven track record demonstrating ability to work effectively with minimal supervision.
• Ability to quickly learn organizational structure and the objectives of the team.
• High levels of integrity and discretion.
• A terrific work ethic accompanied by an ever-positive, get-it-done attitude.

Benefits of working at DroneSeed: We’re focused on our mission and making a positive impact on the environment. Leadership & Board: 7 of 8 leadership identify as either non-male, LGBTQ+, person of color, minority, immigrant, or veteran. Three of seven board members identify as female or a person of color.  These aspects (and our hiring process) are what have led us to have an awesome office culture and highly collaborative team. In addition, we believe taking care of your health comes first. We cover 75% of your medical, dental, and vision premiums. Life outside of work matters. DroneSeed has a flexible vacation policy, so take the time off you need.

Other Information: Candidates must be eligible to work at DroneSeed HQ in the Ballard Brewery District of Seattle, WA. This position will require travel domestically (US) and abroad, therefore requiring the candidate to have a US driver’s license as well as a passport and status conducive to international travel. In any application cover letter, please highlight what motivated you to reach out to DroneSeed versus other opportunities. DroneSeed is an equal-opportunity employer and we are committed to building a diverse team. If you’re deeply committed to our mission and capable of supporting a busy executive team focused on growing a thriving startup, we’d love to speak with you.