What the work actually involves

This is deck work, judged as deck work. You will be asked to write reference presentations from a prompt — an IC memo deck for a mid-market carve-out, a quarterly portfolio review for a struggling asset, a 100-day plan for a newly closed platform — and then to evaluate what the model produces against the same brief. Evaluation is the larger share of the time. You read a model-generated slide and say precisely what is wrong with it: the title is a label rather than an assertion, the returns bridge doesn't reconcile to the LBO output, the LP page discloses something an LP page shouldn't, the storyline buries the risk section where an IC would want it first. Written rationales are the deliverable, not a score alone.

Tasks arrive in batches and span the full lifecycle: sourcing and screening materials, IC decks and pre-IC memos, financing and lender presentations, value creation and 100-day plans, portfolio company board materials, LP quarterly and annual reporting, and sell-side prep. Expect to work in PowerPoint or a structured equivalent, and expect follow-up review — your reasoning may be read by other reviewers and by the lab's researchers.

What the platform screens for

Ethos runs an AI voice screen before any task access. It probes whether your PE experience is deal-facing and recent, whether you can articulate the unwritten conventions of IC material without reaching for a template, and whether you can critique a weak slide with specific, actionable diagnosis rather than a vague aesthetic complaint. Candidates who describe their role in generic finance terms, or who cannot explain why a particular page exists in a particular deck, tend not to advance.

Logistics

  • Fully remote and asynchronous; no fixed hours or standing calls
  • Flexible 5–20 hours per week, with more available if you want it
  • $100/hour is the rate observed on this listing, not a guarantee — banding can vary with task type and calibration outcomes
  • Compatible with a full-time role in most cases, subject to your own employer's policies and confidentiality obligations