Chief Executive Officer – Portfolio Companies Full Time NEW

Job Title: CEO — Portfolio Companies (Ethos Software)

About the Role

Ethos Software is a boutique private equity firm that acquires and grows software and digital media businesses. We’re not a passive investor — we’re operators, and we want to back operators. Our portfolio companies are intentionally small (most are under $10M in revenue), which means the people who run them have real authority, real accountability, and real upside.

We recruit GMs and CEOs on a rolling basis. Sometimes the need is immediate; sometimes we’re building the bench for what’s next. Either way, if this role has you nodding your head, we want to meet you.

Key Responsibilities

• Run the business end-to-end — P&L ownership, team leadership, product direction, sales, and customer relationships. You’re the CEO; the wins and the hard calls are yours.
• Scale what’s already working. Our companies have product-market fit; your job is to build on that foundation with a lean team and a sharp instinct for where to focus.
• Own marketing, sales, product, and customer success. Roll up your sleeves and dig into functional challenges — there’s no one else to hand it off to.
• Manage a demanding stakeholder set — board members, investors, customers, and your team — with clarity, candor, and composure.
• Drive revenue. Whether through direct selling, channel development, or pricing strategy, you know how to move the number.

Qualifications

• Hands-on operating experience in software, digital media, B2B, or data businesses — not familiarity with the space, but actual scar tissue from building and running one.
• Enough technical fluency to be credible with your engineering team and dangerous enough to ask the right questions. You don’t need to write the code; you need to understand it.
• A demonstrably entrepreneurial track record: you’ve started something, run a high-growth business unit, or otherwise operated without a safety net and come out ahead.
• P&L fluency. Budgets, unit economics, and forecasts don’t make your eyes glaze over — they’re how you think.
• The ability to sell — full stop. To customers, to partners, to stakeholders who have high expectations and limited patience.

Preferred Qualifications

• Prior experience in a PE- or VC-backed environment, with an understanding of investor dynamics and reporting expectations.
• Experience leading a company through an acquisition, integration, or transition — you know what it’s like to inherit a business and make it your own.
• A network in the software or digital media space that you can activate for partnerships, talent, or customer introductions.

Schedule

Full-time, Monday through Friday, 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM. As a CEO, you’ll know when the job needs more — but we’re not a grind culture, and sustainable pace is something we take seriously across the portfolio.

Work Environment

• Small, lean teams. You’ll wear a lot of hats and move fast — that’s a feature, not a bug.
• Resource-constrained by design. We believe great operators find creative solutions within a budget, not despite it.
• Backed by a firm that knows the space. Ethos isn’t a silent investor — we’re a collaborative partner with pattern recognition across our portfolio.

Compensation

• Competitive base salary commensurate with experience and company size.
• Performance-based bonus tied to company results.
• Equity participation. We want our GMs to think and act like owners — because they are.

Why This Role Stands Out

• Real ownership, early. You don’t need to be a decade into your career to earn the keys — if you’re ready, we’re ready.
• The hard part is done. Product-market fit is established. Your job is to pour fuel on the fire, not search for the spark.
• A firm that gets it. Ethos has pattern recognition across software and digital media businesses. We’re not learning on your dime.
• Reach out and tell us your story. We’re not looking for a perfect résumé — we’re looking for the right person. What have you built? What broke? What did you figure out? That’s the conversation we want to have.