Job description
Avela is building the first common application for PK-12 education and just raised $6.5 million to grow. We're looking for our first sales, marketing, and biz dev leader who will be responsible for our entire Go To Market efforts.
As the first member of our Business Development team, you’ll help crystalize our product-market fit and design and execute our sales and marketing process. You’ll be responsible for all stages of the customer acquisition lifecycle, including lead generation, marketing campaigns, sales presentations/demos, and closing deals.
You will be one of our first teammates and so will be involved in many areas of the business, including product management, operations, sales, marketing, customer service - you name it, you’ll help with it. This role is a good fit for a customer centric entrepreneur and business development guru who loves ambiguity and wants to solve problems in education.
We will eventually build an entire sales and marketing team, with Account Executives, SDRs, Marketing Specialists, and more. But for our first hire, we're looking for someone well rounded who can wear any GTM hat to help us grow. K12 district sales/partnership experience strongly preferred, but open to relevant B2B (enterprise) or B2G (government) sales/BD/partnerships experience.
This is a senior leadership role and at least 6 years of full time experience is required, but 10+ is preferred.
Similar Roles
You might have noticed, we have six related roles open - a lead and a specialist in each of the following: business development, sales, and marketing. The roles are very similar, and we are actively hiring for all three. We ask that you only apply to one - whichever is the best fit for your experience.
The sales role requires K12 sales experience and will focus on driving and closing new sales. The marketing role requires K12/edtech marketing experience and focuses on lead generation. The business development role (this one) is a bit of a hybrid and requires someone able to wear both hats - executing marketing campaigns by morning and closing 7-figure deals by night.
The LEAD roles are the senior leadership position, which require significant relevant experience and are for leaders with at least 8 years of full time professional experience. The individual contributor ("Manager" or "Specialist") roles require 2 years of relevant full time experience, though our target is more like 4-7 years of experience.
Responsibilities
- Marketing and Demand Generation - As we get started, you’ll also double as our lead marketer and will be responsible for driving leads through both inbound and outbound marketing techniques, including social media, content generation (SEO, blog posts, etc), webinars, virtual events, direct emails, cold calling, and more.
- Product Marketing - You’ll partner with our subject matter experts to develop specific marketing collateral that both attracts inbound leads and provides customers and prospects with helpful information.
- Outbound Marketing and Sales Development - You’ll pick up the phone and call potential prospects directly, as well as sending personalized cold emails. We don’t want to spam or spray-and-pray, so you’ll need to understand our prospects to precisely target those who we can help the most.
- Solution Engineering and Business Development - You’re ultimately responsible for identifying the best solution to the prospect’s problems and setting them up with the right software and services from our team.
- Sales Presentations - You’ll design and deliver our sales presentations to prospects,in partnership with the founders, enrollment consultants, and other subject matter experts on the team.
- Contracting, Negotiation, and Closing - Ultimately, your goal is to grow our business by closing deals and driving sales revenue. You’ll have aggressive quotas / targets
- Operations, Customer Success, and More - As a growing startup, we need help across the board, from HR to finance to operations. Everyone pitches in to “take out the trash,” and nothing is “outside your job description.” You’ll no doubt help with customer success and support, as well as potentially project management and service delivery.
- Advise Product Teams - Our product and engineering teams will need your expertise as they design and build our product suite.
Qualifications
- Experience selling to schools, districts, CMOs, or other education organizations
- Demonstrated history of closing $1 million in new business each year.
- Sales team leadership experience with 5+ sales reps a plus
- Excellent communicator, including written and oral
- Capable of producing compelling sales slide presentations
- Capable of negotiating contracts and getting into the weeds to push a deal across the finish line
- Passion for education, equity, or social impact
- Entrepreneurial spirit and drive, extraordinary comfort with ambiguity, enjoyment wearing many hats
- Among the best at what you do with a growth mindset and desire to constantly improve
- Living in the US with at least four years of full time professional experience in the USA.
Offer includes Significant Stock Options / Equity
Level: M2 - M6 (Senior Team Manager)
We give all candidates three package options, with different levels of cash compensation (salary) and stock options (equity). We try to pay competitive salaries and exceptionally strong equity packages, as we want everyone to share in the upside when Avela makes it big!
Of course, we are an early stage, education startup, and so cash salaries won’t quite be comparable to larger or better funded organizations. But what we lack in cash, we make up for in upside, impact, and fun! We also hope our financial discipline gives you confidence in our long-term potential and incredibly low likelihood of layoffs, like many of our less disciplined counterparts
Company
Avela is a Nobel Prize-winning edtech startup building the first universal application for PK-12 education, daycare, and enrichment programs, promoting equity and access to education.
For students and families, this simplifies the process of finding and applying to educational programming. For schools and districts, this streamlines operations and helps increase enrollment (and hence, revenue).
We sell our application and enrollment platform directly to school districts, charter networks, other educational providers, cities, and states. We work with school districts and charter networks across the country, including in Oakland, Seattle, Hartford, Tulsa, New Orleans, Newark, and Jersey City. We also work with a range of nonprofits and NGOs, including Teach for America and the Inter-American Development Bank, as well as the US Military.
Our platform has four parts to cover each stage of the application journey, from exploring options to applying and final selection and admission:
Avela Explore - Mobile-optimized school finder and opportunity navigator
Avela Apply - Streamlined application management system and tracking
Avela Match - Research-based admission and student assignment lottery system.
We also offer a range of consulting services to help districts implement enrollment reforms and advance equity in educational programs.
Learn more at avela.org.
Team
Avela was founded by a renowned team of visionaries, including Nobel Laureate Joshua Angrist, Clark Medalist Parag Pathak, and social entrepreneur Greg Bybee. We have a passionate team of entrepreneurs, engineers, economists, and data scientists - get to know us at https://avela.org/team.
Location
We are a flexible, fully remote company. We just ask that everyone work continental US hours to facilitate collaboration. #LI-Remote
Benefits
We love our team and care about their wellness. We strive to offer the best benefits of our peers, including:
- Significant equity
- Flexible work policies
- Unlimited vacation
- Home office stipend or WeWork membership
- 401(k) program
- Flexible Savings Account (FSA)
- Dependent Care Saving Plan (DCFSA)
- Commuter Benefits
- Life Insurance by Guardian (covered 100%)
- Platinum Medical Plan by UnitedHealthcare (Employees 100%, Dependents 40%)
- Platinum Dental Plan by Guardian Health (Employees 100%, Dependents 40%)
- Platinum Vision Plan by Guardian Health (Employees 100%, Dependents 40%)
Learn more at avela.org/careers.
Work Authorization
Although we are strongly supportive of immigrants and individuals of all backgrounds, unfortunately, as a small startup, we are not in a position to sponsor visas and are only able to consider candidates who are authorized to work in the United States without employer sponsorship. We apologize for the inconvenience.
We Encourage You To Apply
Avela is a safe, inclusive workplace for people of all backgrounds and walks of life. We strongly encourage you to apply if you are from a marginalized or underrepresented group, even if you don't meet all of the job requirements. If you believe this is a role that you’ll be excited to work in every day, want to be a part of a culture like ours, and will be relentless about pushing boundaries to succeed, please apply.
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