🎯Founding Sales Rep
Sparkwise
Sales & Business Development
Posted on Tuesday, April 11, 2023
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tl;dr: A remote, full-time sales role (BDR + AE) at a seed-stage edtech startup (>18-month runway) that’s building a multiplayer learning platform for teams.
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Description
⚡ About Sparkwise
We’re on a mission to spark brilliance in everyone.
As the workplace becomes distributed, more and more learning must happen online.
But for decades, virtual learning has failed to deliver impact at scale. Solve for scale, and you’re left with click-click software people dread. Solve for impact, and you need a people-heavy model that is expensive to scale.
Our multiplayer platform fully guides active learning in groups. Learners master skills by solving collaborative challenges and having meaningful conversations. Leaders in any organization can flexibly pick and deploy live training, on demand.
Our vision is a world in which every organization and their people can access the best learning & development to unlock their full potential.
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Since launching about a year ago, we’ve grown rapidly to dozens of corporate customers. We see 80% completion (vs. <15% of traditional eLearning), and 90%+ learners say Sparkwise is both highly engaging and applicable to their day-to-day.
We’re a remote company with teammates based in different parts of the Americas.
We are proven operators who bring experiences from McKinsey, Minerva, Google, Teach for America, and more. We’re well-funded, having just raised funding from top VCs and angels.
👋 Where you come in
We’ve found early customer love through founder-led sales. We now want to build a scalable growth engine and accelerate with a strong sales discipline.
We’re looking for someone who wants to cut their teeth as the first sales hire in a small, scrappy team.
You should be excited about stepping into an all-around role where you'll need to take on existing processes (both BDR + AE work), refine them into a more efficient end-to-end sales motion, and execute at a high pace.
You'll report directly to the founders and be a key member of Sparkwise’s early success — with the equity and "skin in the game" to make it worthwhile.
Could that be you? 😎
💥 What you’ll do
Source and qualify new leads, structured as systematic outbound experiments
Shepherd deals from first touch to close, with increasing ownership over the closing process as you get ramped up (the founders will help close post-trial accounts in the early days)
Deepen our understanding of ICP and refine sales strategies and collateral accordingly
Continuously refine the sales process to improve conversion, close rate, and scalability
Work across product, engineering, and marketing (and provide valuable feedback)
Develop a deep understanding of the industry, competitive landscape, and customer needs to effectively communicate the value proposition of our product
🌟 Who you are
✔️ Your experiences:
You have 3-5 years of sales / account management experience at B2B SaaS startups that have high-velocity sales orgs
You have experience both as an SDR/BDR and AE, with experience sourcing your own leads
✔️ Your skills:
You can drive the entire end-to-end sales process from lead list building to sales close
You can build a strong sales execution culture
You have excellent communication skills and can build trusted relationships with corporate leaders
You can translate insights from your own selling experiences into systematic improvements for the company
You have up-to-date knowledge of sales best practices and trends
You have extensive experience working with sales software like Amplemarket, LinkedIn Sales Navigator, and Pipedrive
(Nice to have) Experience selling to business executives (VPs, SVPs, C-Suite)
(Nice to have) Experience working in product-led sales
✔️ Your mindset:
Ownership: You are self-directed, and don’t feel intimidated by big responsibilities and goals
Fast-moving: You’re excited to drive a high pace of execution in a disciplined way
Grit: You can persevere through obstacles and rejections to close deals and hit targets
Adaptable: You like processes and want to help build it, but you're also OK with the "organized chaos" of a small team
Collaborative: You are transparent, proactively seek feedback, and are eager to incorporate new ideas or business needs into sales process
Growth: You care about professional development, and are excited by the idea that the company’s direction and your responsibilities will continuously evolve
Passion: You are motivated by our mission to make impactful learning accessible to all
💖 Why you might be excited
✨ Catapult your career:
You get to be a core member of a team that brings deep domain expertise and connections to top investors and operators.
The more ownership you show and the more impact you drive, the more opportunities you’ll get to grow as a leader within the company.
✨ Make an impact:
We have an opportunity to transform the work lives of millions of people.
You'll be given a lot of autonomy, and infinite room for growth. Determining the right growth motion is our top priority, and you can shape what it looks like.
You’ll shape the trajectory and culture of our company as a core team member.
✨ Work with a caring team:
We’re eager to help you grow as a whole person. The 3 founders are proven and caring people leaders of diverse and distributed teams (references available!).
🎨 Equal opportunity
Sparkwise is an equal opportunity employer. All aspects of employment including the decision to hire, promote, discipline, or discharge, are based on merit, competence, performance, and business needs. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, marital status, age, ancestry, national origin, physical or mental disability, medical condition, pregnancy, genetic information, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or military and veteran status.
We do require that you have authorization to work in the country in which you intend to live.
We are committed to providing an inclusive environment of mutual respect where differences are celebrated and supported!
🍀 Meet the Team
The 3 founders bring deep expertise and passion in learning, people, and venture building:
Romain (COO) was a former People function leader at McKinsey who ran global ops, built top training programs, and coached 100s of consultants. MIT, CentraleSupélec alum.
Vince (CEO) helped launch several startups at Polymath Ventures and ran multi-million dollar Future of Work transformations for F500 with McKinsey. Princeton, Harvard alum.
🚂 Our interview process (we’ll make it fun!)
Initial call (with Vince) — chat about what we're both looking for
Problem solving + behavioral interview (with Romain) - talk about Sparkwise’s current sales motion where you can showcase your sales expertise and intuition; assess fit
Behavioral interview (with Ari) - assess fit
Reference check — 2-3 references (supervisors + peers) who can share their experience working with you
Work together — let’s co-design a contract to test out how we work together
🎉 Ready to apply?
Please include a (1) short intro (including why you’re excited about Sparkwise), (2) resume (or your LinkedIn, if it’s up to date and showcases your skills and accomplishments).
We can't wait to hear from you!
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