Director, Strategic Partnerships
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 take a hands-on approach toward building an inclusive, sustainable, and tech-enabled framework for mobility, leading regional sales efforts across both public and private sectors. You'll be creative and entrepreneurial to identify opportunities, generate new business, and manage all aspects of the sales cycle, from initial contact to closing and upsell. This is a quota carrying role.
Requirements
- Minimum of 10+ years of client facing experience with a record of achievement in Sales, Business Development, Consulting, or similar space, with preference for candidates who have worked with the public sector
- Consultative sales experience and ability to use data to build a compelling narrative
- Intuitive communication skills across customer conversations, product presentations, and written proposals
- Superb commercial intuition and exceptional judgment
- Reliable, motivated self-starter with a passionate growth mentality
- Excellent team player and mentor
- Expertise in prospecting, cross-selling, and developing relationships with senior level officials and executives
- Willingness to travel 25-50% as needed
Responsibilities
- Identify prospective partners and build meaningful and durable revenue-generating relationships with a diverse group of prospective clients, from elected officials to private-sector business leaders
- Lead execution and strategy for full-cycle sales efforts across your territory
- Strategically navigate your market's unique buying landscape using research and strong analytical skills to build compelling, data-driven business cases
- Demonstrate the value proposition across a range of verticals
- Be a thought partner to prospective clients by educating and consulting with them to develop regional transit plans and find funding mechanisms
- Champion the mission and technology as the face of Via by leading local marketing campaigns, speaking at conferences, and providing consistent thought leadership