Business Development Lead

Job description

TL;DR: Our Business Development team is growing quickly, and we’re hiring a BDR Leader to help build the pipeline engine that fuels Listen Labs’ next phase of growth. Reporting to the VP of Revenue, you’ll be responsible for coaching a team of highly driven BDRs across outbound, warm signal follow-up, conference motions, and relationship-driven pipeline creation. You’ll work directly with founders, Growth, AEs, and Product Marketing to turn what’s working today into repeatable plays, operating rhythms, and a high-performance team culture. BACKGROUND Listen Labs is the world's fastest AI research platform, built so every company can understand what their customers want, why, and what to do about it. Our AI conducts in-depth interviews, analyzes conversations, and delivers executive-ready insights in hours, not weeks. Born out of a Harvard research project, Listen is trusted by teams at leading brands like Google, Microsoft, Anthropic, Perplexity, Sweetgreen, Replit, and Nestlé to bring real customer voices into their biggest product, marketing, and growth decisions. COMPANY HIGHLIGHTS: - World-Class Team: Founded by serial entrepreneurs — Alfred (Bemlo, YC W22) and Florian (IOI medalist, ICPC World Finalist) — and built with talent from Google, Meta, Tesla, Amazon, Jane Street, and X, alongside Bain, Goldman Sachs, McKinsey, and Sequoia-backed startups like Applied Intuition, Scale AI, and Rippling. Over 30% of our team are former founders, and multiple are competitive programming medalists. - Hypergrowth: Since launching, Listen has grown annualized revenue 15x and completed over 2 million interviews — backed by $100M in total funding led by Ribbit Capital, with Sequoia, Conviction, and Pear VC participating. - Traction: Already serving 15% of Fortune 100s. Enterprise wins and expansions across Anthropic, Microsoft, Nestlé, Perplexity, Sweetgreen, and more — with teams telling us research that used to take six to eight weeks now happens in days. WHAT YOU’LL DO TEAM LEADERSHIP & COACHING - Manage and develop a team of BDRs across outbound, warm signal follow-up, conference motions, and early qualification - Run weekly team cadences around account prioritization, pipeline reviews, messaging refinement, and conversion performance - Coach reps on cold calling, personalization, objection handling, multi-threading, and live event networking - Build a high-accountability culture centered on speed, craft, experimentation, and consistent execution PLAYBOOKS, SYSTEMS & PROCESS - Build and operationalize repeatable outbound plays across a variety of channels - Create clear workflows for pre-event prep, post-event follow-up, call blocks, and account queue ownership - Partner with Growth and Product Marketing to turn campaigns, content, and market moments into BDR-ready plays - Improve tooling, routing, dashboards, and prioritization systems that help the team focus on the highest-leverage accounts PIPELINE PERFORMANCE & CROSS-FUNCTIONAL COLLABORATION - Own team performance across meetings sourced, qualified pipeline, conversion rates, and play-level effectiveness - Work closely with AEs on account coverage, multi-threading, and strategic account penetration - Partner with founders, Growth, PMM, and Product to bring field learnings back into messaging and GTM strategy - Help shape how Listen shows up in the market through conferences, dinners, executive outreach, and creative outbound WHO YOU ARE - Player-coach mentality: You love developing reps, but you’re still close enough to the work to improve messaging, jump into deal strategy, and refine account plays - Systems-oriented: You know how to turn ambiguity into process, dashboards, and repeatable team habits - Creative and resourceful: You don’t default to generic BDR sequences. You think in plays, signals, and real reasons to reach out - High standards: You care deeply about rep development, message quality, and pipeline outcomes - Fast-moving: You thrive in ambiguous startup environments where the motion is evolving in real time - Cross-functional: You work well with founders, Growth, PMM, and Sales leadership to align on priorities and raise the team’s ceiling REQUIREMENTS - 2+ years of experience in BDR/SDR leadership, outbound team management, or pipeline generation - Experience building outbound processes, coaching frameworks, and operating cadences from scratch - Comfortable working across cold outbound, warm signal follow-up, and event-driven pipeline motions - Strong analytical skills and comfort using CRM + outbound tooling to manage performance - SF/NYC based and available to be in office as we are 5-days a week LIFE AT LISTEN LABS - Health, covered: Full medical, dental, and vision. FSA/HSA and life insurance are available too. - Competitive compensation: Backed by world-class investors including Sequoia, Ribbit Capital, Conviction, and Pear VC — we hire the best and treat them accordingly, with meaningful equity ownership. - Annual Learning Stipend: Books, courses, conferences, coaching, language lessons — almost anything that makes you sharper. - Annual Wellness Stipend for your health and headspace: Gym memberships, race fees, massages, ergonomic gear, and more. - Monthly Stipend for AI tools: A dedicated budget for the software and GPU credits that make you faster. - Fed, daily: A private chef serves lunch and dinner in our SF office; NYC and London teams get daily meal credit. - Flexible time off: A take-what-you-need vacation policy. - We celebrate together: Company offsites (Hawaii this Summer!) and events like our annual holiday party — every win is a team win. - Room to grow: As an early member of the team, you'll own end-to-end processes from scratch and grow alongside the company.