Business Development Manager - AVELA - Education's New Common App

We're looking for an entrepreneurial business development and marketing leader who can help us test product-market hypotheses, hone our message, generate leads, and reach thousands of decision makers around the world.

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 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 equity and education.

This is a mid-level role with 4-7 years of experience preferred.

Responsibilities

• 30% Sales and Business Development - You'll be our lead sales rep and account executive for the next few months (until we build out the AE team). Part of your role will be to experiment to develop a repeatable sales process, and then help hire our account executives. Until then, you'll be responsible for working with Greg and Sonali to close business and grow our client base.
• 30% Lead Generation - You’ll be our primary marketer and will be responsible for generating awareness and leads through both inbound and outbound marketing techniques, including social media, content generation (SEO, blog posts, etc), webinars, virtual events, conferences and events, and more. 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.
• 20% Product Marketing and Solution Engineering - 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. 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.
• 10% Outbound Sales / BDR / SDR - You'll be our primary outbound business development representative, responsible for developing target lists of prospects and driving cold outreach through email and phone. (You’ll pick up the phone and call potential prospects directly, as well as sending personalized cold emails and sending direct messages on social media.) 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. (We have a team in Asia who will help you collect contact information, but ultimately you'll be responsible for building out the target lists.)
• 10% 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.

Qualifications

• 4+ years of full time professional experience
• Startup experience strongly preferred
• B2B/enterprise or government/education sales/marketing experience strongly preferred
• Excellent communicator, including written and oral
• Capable of producing compelling sales slide presentations
• 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.

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.

Benefits

Significant equity, passionate team, flexible work policies, unlimited vacation, and full health benefits.

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.