Business Development Representative

Listenlabs
San Francisco, US
Career-pivot friendly

Who this role is best for

Geared toward extroverted, resilient candidates comfortable with cold outreach and travel who thrive in early-stage startup environments.

Best fit for

  • Entrepreneurial sales professionals who build relationships beyond cold calls.
    — “developing real relationships, and helping shape how Listen Labs is viewed by the market
  • Self-starters who proactively identify and pursue leads without micromanagement.
    — “You don’t wait to be told what list to call or who to email
  • Early-career candidates seeking rapid advancement into account executive roles.
    — “Top performers will have a clear path to an Emerging AE role

Things to consider

  • Frequent travel required for conferences and industry events.
    — “Willingness to travel for conferences and events
  • High-visibility role with rejection tolerance expected.
    — “You’re okay with rejection, long days at events, and doing what it takes

How to stand out

  • Demonstrate creative lead generation methods beyond standard outreach.
    — “Proactively source leads via outbound email, LinkedIn, cold calls, referrals, and creative channels
  • Highlight experience turning field insights into process improvements.
    — “Share learnings from the field: objections, patterns, ICP insights, and competitive intel
  • Showcase conference attendance and networking outcomes quantitatively.
    — “Network aggressively - spark conversations, build relationships, and follow up to turn interest into pipeline
Pace · Fast PacedCollaboration · MediumAutonomy · MediumDecision Impact · IndividualLevel · Mid Level

Derived from job-description analysis by Serendipath's career intelligence engine.

What success looks like

  • build lead lists
  • network aggressively
  • run initial discovery calls
Typical background
business developmentsales

Skills & requirements

Required

Lead GenerationProspectingCold CallingRelationship BuildingEvent Representation

Preferred

Ai-powered Research PlatformProduct-led Growth

Stack & domain

CommunicationNetworkingSalesBusiness Development

About the role

Original posting from Listenlabs via Ashby

TL;DR: Our Business Development team is growing to help fuel Listen Labs’ next phase of growth. This is not a traditional “dial-for-dollars” BD role. You’ll be building your own lead lists, showing up at conferences and events, developing real relationships, and helping shape how Listen Labs is viewed by the market.

If you’re hungry, extroverted, resilient, and excited to grind in a highly visible role at an early-stage startup- this is for you. Top performers will have a clear path to an Emerging AE role.

Background

Listen Labs is an AI-powered research platform that helps teams uncover insights from customer interviews in hours — not months. We help customers analyze conversations, surface themes, and make faster, smarter product decisions.

Company highlights — entirely product-led:

  • World-Class Team: Founded by serial entrepreneurs (previous AI exit), former co-founders, and talent from Jane Street, Twitter, Stripe, Affirm, Bain, Goldman Sachs, and many more Sequoia-backed startups (plus IOI/ICPC backgrounds).
  • Hypergrowth: We’re a 40-person team backed by Sequoia, growing from $0 to a $14M run-rate in under a year. We move fast, care deeply about craft, and love working with people who take ownership.
  • Traction: Rapid growth across segments with enterprise wins at Google, Microsoft, Nestlé, and P&G.
  • Performance: Industry-leading win rate driven by a highly differentiated product.
  • Market Validation: Consistently winning customers across all segments with over six-figure lands that lead to quick expansions.
  • Viral Product: Interviews are shared with tens of thousands of viewers, fueling PLG, organic expansion, and daily inbound from Fortune 500s.

What You’ll Do

Lead Generation & Prospecting

  • Build and own your own prospect lists - identifying target companies, personas, and buying signals
  • Proactively source leads via outbound email, LinkedIn, cold calls, referrals, and creative channels
  • Research accounts deeply to personalize outreach and create thoughtful first touches

Events, Conferences & Relationship Building

  • Attend conferences, industry events, dinners, and meetups to represent Listen Labs
  • Network aggressively - spark conversations, build relationships, and follow up to turn interest into pipeline
  • Act as a brand ambassador: be “on,” be curious, and make people excited to talk to Listen

Qualification & Early Sales Motion

  • Run initial discovery calls to qualify inbound and outbound leads
  • Clearly articulate Listen’s value and identify strong handoffs to AEs / leadership
  • Maintain clean notes and updates in the CRM to support downstream closing

Cross-Functional Collaboration

  • Work closely with AEs, Research, Marketing, and Product to refine messaging and targeting
  • Share learnings from the field: objections, patterns, ICP insights, and competitive intel
  • Help improve outbound messaging, event strategy, and overall GTM motion

Who You Are

  • Hungry & driven: You want to prove yourself, grow fast, and earn your next role
  • Extroverted & personable: You genuinely enjoy meeting new people and building rapport
  • Comfortable grinding: You’re okay with rejection, long days at events, and doing what it takes
  • Strong communicator: Clear, confident, and compelling - both written and verbal
  • Resourceful & proactive: You don’t wait to be told what list to call or who to email

Requirements

  • 1–3+ years of experience in business development, sales, consulting, or a similarly outbound-heavy role
  • Comfortable with cold outreach, networking, and live conversations
  • Willingness to travel for conferences and events
  • Strong organizational skills and follow-through

Life at Listen Labs

  • Competitive Compensation: We’re backed by world-class investors, including Sequoia Capital, Conviction, AI Grant, and Pear VC, and offer competitive compensation packages with meaningful equity ownership.
  • Over $30B in market cap has been created in adjacent industries (Medallia, AlphaSense, GLG, Ipsos, Kantar). Our Sequoia partner, Bryan Schreier https://www.sequoiacap.com/people/bryan-schreier/, was the first investor in Qualtrics—a $12B company tackling similar problems to ours.
  • Benefits that Support You: Comprehensive healthcare and dental coverage, flexible time off to recharge, and an environment that values balance and trust.
  • Room to Grow: As an early member of the team, you’ll have the opportunity to take on new responsibilities, shape processes from scratch, and grow alongside the company. We value people who want to stretch beyond their role and build something lasting.

Source: Listenlabs careers (Ashby)

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