Account Director, Central US
Designer Fund is a venture capital firm that invests in early-stage tech companies using design to improve health, sustainability, or prosperity for people. It backs founding teams, particularly those with design backgrounds, across sectors like fintech, healthcare, climate tech, and developer tools.
About Designer Fund
Designer Fund is an early-stage venture capital firm that invests in tech companies leveraging design to drive positive outcomes in health, sustainability, and financial prosperity. Its portfolio spans a wide range of sectors including financial infrastructure (Stripe), preventative health (Omada), collaborative tools (Notion), developer tools (Netlify), product management (Linear), payroll and benefits (Gusto), design tools (Framer), and healthcare infrastructure (Commure), among dozens of other companies across fintech, climate tech, healthcare, EdTech, and AI. The firm also runs 'Designer Founders,' a community and platform highlighting designers who have gone on to found and lead companies, reflecting its focus on backing design-driven founders and design-centric startups from early stages through growth and acquisition.
Skills
About the Role
You'll be the face and voice of Via for our partners, both internally and externally. In this dynamic role, you'll build genuine and durable customer relationships while converting those relationships into opportunities for long-term revenue growth. You will serve as your partners' trusted advisor, providing strategic guidance on operational, go-to-market, and product-related issues. At the same time, you'll be an internal advocate for partners, championing new products and capabilities to help expand each partner's service size and scope. This is a quota carrying, remote-first role based in the US Central region, ideally suited for candidates in Chicago or the broader Midwest, though other locations including Texas are welcome.
Requirements
- 10+ years of client facing experience in Sales, Business Development, Consulting, or similar space, with preference for public sector experience
- Relationship builder who remains calm under pressure
- Intuitive and persuasive communicator
- Quantitatively-inclined and data savvy
- Strong commercial intuition and judgment in negotiations
- Reliable, motivated self-starter
- Excellent team player and mentor
- Expertise in renewals, up-selling, and developing relationships with senior level officials and executives
- Willing to travel 25-50% as needed
Responsibilities
- Develop a vision and strategy for partners by assessing their strengths and weaknesses to help them set and achieve ambitious goals
- Build deep and trusting long-term relationships with partners by identifying pain points and providing solutions
- Analyze daily, weekly, and long-term service performance data to provide actionable recommendations
- Negotiate and sign contract renewals and service expansions to increase year-on-year revenue
- Research and navigate your market's unique landscape to build data-driven business cases
- Educate and consult with clients to develop regional transit plans and find funding mechanisms