Business Development Lead - for Startups
1 мес. назад
126k–181.7k USD / yearUSALeadRemote
aibusiness developmentsalesforce
Lead business development targeting top AI-native startups with cross-functional coordination at .
Требования
- 8+ years of experience in business development, partnerships, startup ecosystem development, venture capital, corporate venture, GTM, cloud technology, AI/ML, or a related field.
- Proven experience supporting high-growth startups at different stages of growth, with preference for candidates who have startup operating experience or have worked closely with founders.
- Strong understanding of the AI technology stack, AI startup ecosystem, venture funding trends, cloud and data platform adoption patterns, and key product trends shaping AI-native companies.
- Established network across startup founders, venture capital firms, accelerator ecosystems, enterprise technology leaders, and partner organizations.
- Ability to translate capabilities into startup-relevant value propositions, including product adoption, customer access, GTM support, and workload growth.
- Strong executive presence, communication, presentation, and interpersonal skills, with the ability to engage founders, venture partners, senior executives, sales teams, and technical stakeholders.
- Founder empathy and strong judgment in balancing startup needs with business priorities, customer expectations, and internal capacity.
- Comfort with ambiguity and willingness to operate strategically and tactically in a fast-paced, evolving environment.
- Data-oriented operating style, including the ability to define metrics, track outcomes, identify patterns, and communicate progress clearly.
Другое
- At , we are powering the era of the agentic enterprise. To usher in this new era, we seek AI-native thinkers across every function who are energized by the opportunity to reinvent how they work. You don’t just use tools; you possess an innate curiosity, treating AI as a high-trust collaborator that is core to how you solve problems and accelerate your impact. We look for low-ego individuals who thrive in dynamic and fast-moving environments and move with an experimental mindset — who rapidly test emerging capabilities to discover simpler, more powerful ways to deliver results. At , your role isn't just to execute a function, but to help redefine the future of how work gets done.
- The Startup Business Development Lead will be a pivotal member of a small, agile, and global team. This role acts as a coordination overlay across Sales, Marketing, Product, AI Partnerships, Ventures, and Solutions Engineering teams, with the primary goal of targeting and winning workloads from top AI-native startups.
- The successful candidate will be a strategic thinker with a passion for the AI/ML ecosystem, dedicated to identifying and nurturing high-potential startups and ensuring their growth with . This is a business role that requires intimate understanding of evolving AI technologies. Keys to success include proactive founder engagement, disciplined prioritization, cross-functional execution, and a commitment to measurable business outcomes.
- Leverage existing networks and cultivate new relationships to secure introductions to founders of high-potential AI-native startups.
- Engage founders through direct outreach, partner referrals, industry events, conferences, and targeted networking opportunities.
- Create meaningful founder engagement by connecting startup needs with relevant product, go-to-market, and customer opportunities.
- Leverage technical knowledge of AI to win trust and build collaboration hypotheses.
- Develop and maintain a categorized list of high-priority startups, including Tier 1 and Tier 2 companies, based on strategic importance, growth potential, funding, technology trends and alignment with .
- Continuously monitor venture funding activity, startup formation, product trends, and AI/ML ecosystem shifts to refine prioritization.
- Partner with Sales, Marketing, Product, AI Partnerships, Venture, and Solutions Engineering to maintain a unified approach to startup outreach and engagement.
- Allocate time strategically, with approximately 80% of efforts focused on Tier 1 startups and 20% focused on other high-potential opportunities.
- Facilitate introductions between Tier 1 startup founders and Executive Leadership Team members, meaning senior leaders who can help deepen strategic relationships.
- Provide go-to-market support by helping startups understand how enterprise customers may evaluate, adopt, and expand startup solutions.
- Support Product-Led Growth, meaning self-serve product adoption and expansion, by promoting Cortex AI products to startups not currently built on and creating a path for them to move additional data and workloads onto .
- Collaborate with Sales and Solutions Engineering teams to help them sell Cortex AI products effectively and understand the consumption patterns, buying motions, and adoption needs of startups.
- Identify and recommend high-leverage events, sponsorships, and ecosystem programs that enhance visibility and generate quality startup leads.
- Contribute to workshops, founder programming, PR initiatives, and other content that helps AI startups understand offerings and adoption paths.
- Design or support scaled events that create meaningful engagement among startups, venture firms, customers, and internal stakeholders.
- Use measurement insights to refine startup prioritization, engagement strategy, and cross-functional operating cadence.
- Track, and report progress against objectives including priority startup acquisitions, commitment contracts, startup influenced consumption via connected apps on etc.
- Provide regular reports to management on startup engagement progress, outcomes, successes, challenges, and areas for improvement.
- Work with Finance and Sales Operations to ensure accurate tracking of startup adoption, usage, commitments, and engagement metrics.
- Built credible, responsive relationships with top venture capital firms and ecosystem partners who help connect with high-priority AI-native startups.
- Created meaningful engagements with top-tier AI startup founders and established repeatable paths for moving priority startups toward adoption and growth.
- Led or supported scaled events and ecosystem programs that drive quality customer engagements, founder participation, and actionable follow-up.
- Demonstrated innovative ideas for creating campaigns, events or business development programs that address evolving technology trends or unmet startup needs.
- Created a trusted operating rhythm with Sales, Marketing, Product, AI Partnerships, Venture, Solutions Engineering, Finance, and Sales Operations.
- Head, Startups
- Additional Details: Hybrid Role: In office 3x per week in Menlo Park, CA
- Every employee is expected to follow the company’s confidentiality and security standards for handling sensitive data. employees must abide by the company’s data security plan as an essential part of their duties. It is every employee's duty to keep customer information secure and confidential.
- is growing fast, and we’re scaling our team to help enable and accelerate our growth. We are looking for people who share our values, challenge ordinary thinking, and push the pace of innovation while building a future for themselves and .
- How do you want to make your impact?
- For jobs located in the United States, please visit the job posting on the Careers Site for salary and benefits information: careers..com