Business Development Executive, Startup Consulting

Business Development Executive, Startup Consulting

Remote, South Africa
Part-time, 20 hours per week
Aligned with UK and European working hours
Salary: Negotiable depending on experience

About the Company

Our client is a growing, multi-divisional consulting and advisory firm working within the European startup and capital ecosystem.

The company supports early-stage startups, founders, operators, venture capital funds and startup ecosystem partners through consulting, advisory, research and education-led services.

Its consulting work helps early-stage founders prepare for fundraising, strengthen their go-to-market approach and build stronger commercial, operational and technological foundations.

The business works with ambitious startup teams that are moving from early traction into growth. These are often fast-moving, founder-led companies that need support to become more commercially ready, investor-ready and operationally structured.

About the Role

We are hiring a part-time Business Development Executive to help build and manage the commercial pipeline across the company’s consulting and advisory services.

This is not a basic appointment-setting role.

It is also not a senior sales leadership role.

This role sits in the middle. It requires someone who is hands-on enough to generate leads, manage outreach and book calls, but commercially confident enough to run discovery conversations, qualify prospects, understand business needs and support proposal-stage conversations.

The successful candidate will help build the sales process while actively working inside it. This means prospecting, testing outreach, qualifying leads, booking meetings, progressing opportunities and helping create structure as the sales function develops.

This is a startup environment, so the right person must be comfortable working where processes are still being built. You must be able to take ownership, use initiative, test what works, accept feedback and improve quickly.

The Role Focus

The primary focus will be building pipeline for consulting services aimed at founders, CEOs and COOs at pre-seed to Series A startups who may need support with fundraising preparation, go-to-market planning, commercial structure, operational maturity or growth readiness.

The secondary focus will be supporting early advisory opportunities with venture capital funds and startup ecosystem partners.

You will be working with a small, distributed team and will need to represent the company professionally in written outreach, discovery calls and early-stage sales conversations.

Key Responsibilities

• Build and manage outbound lead generation activity
• Use Apollo, LinkedIn and other tools to identify suitable prospects
• Build lead lists based on the ideal customer profile
• Identify trigger events such as funding rounds, hiring signals, growth activity, leadership changes or relevant market activity
• Conduct outbound outreach through email and LinkedIn
• Book discovery calls with suitable prospects
• Run or support discovery and qualification conversations
• Understand prospect needs, business stage and potential fit
• Communicate the value of consulting and advisory services
• Support proposal-stage conversations where required
• Maintain accurate CRM records and pipeline updates
• Follow up professionally and consistently with prospects
• Test messaging and contribute to improving outreach approaches
• Work with the team to refine ICP signals, sequences and sales process
• Use AI tools where appropriate for research, preparation and workflow efficiency
• Support the creation of repeatable sales structure in a developing commercial function

What We’re Looking For

We are looking for someone with strong B2B sales experience who can manage the full sales journey from lead generation through to discovery, qualification and proposal support.

You should be confident speaking with founders, business owners, executives or senior decision-makers. You must be able to listen well, ask intelligent questions and understand what a business is trying to achieve before positioning the service.

The right person will be commercially aware, proactive, organised and self-managed. You should enjoy working in a startup environment where not everything is fully built yet.

This role requires confidence, but not arrogance. You must be able to lead a sales conversation without overpowering it. You need to be coachable, adaptable and emotionally intelligent enough to work with different personalities, cultures and founder styles.

Essential Requirements

• Based in South Africa with full right to work
• Proven B2B sales experience
• Experience with outbound prospecting and lead generation
• Experience managing a sales process beyond basic appointment setting
• Experience booking and running discovery or qualification calls
• Ability to speak confidently with founders, executives or senior decision-makers
• Strong written communication skills
• Experience using CRM systems
• Comfortable using Apollo, LinkedIn or similar prospecting tools
• Strong Google Workspace skills
• Ability to sell services, solutions, outcomes or business value
• Strong attention to detail and pipeline discipline
• Proven experience working successfully from home
• Comfortable working in a small, fast-moving startup environment
• Able to take feedback, adapt quickly and improve approach over time
• Reliable power supply during load shedding
• Suitable laptop or computer for remote work

Advantageous Experience

Experience in any of the following would strengthen your application:

• Consulting, advisory or professional services sales
• B2B SaaS or software sales
• Startup or early-stage business experience
• Selling to founders, CEOs, COOs or business owners
• Fundraising, investor-readiness or startup growth environments
• Venture capital, accelerator or startup ecosystem exposure
• LinkedIn prospecting
• Apollo or Sales Navigator
• Brevo or similar outreach tools
• AI-supported prospect research or sales preparation
• Helping build sales processes, outreach templates or pipeline workflows

Who This Role Will Suit

This role will suit someone who enjoys hands-on business development, takes ownership of their pipeline and is comfortable building structure while delivering results.

It is a strong fit for someone who can combine practical sales activity with commercial maturity. You should be able to prospect consistently, write strong outreach, qualify properly and build relationships with potential clients.

You do not need to be an expert in European startup funding or venture capital. However, you must be curious, willing to learn and able to understand complex service offerings quickly.

Who This Role Will Not Suit

This role is unlikely to suit someone who prefers:

• Highly scripted sales roles
• Pure appointment setting
• Retail, storefront or consumer sales
• High-volume call centre sales
• A fully established sales department
• Waiting for detailed instructions before taking action
• Overpowering conversations rather than listening and adapting
• Transactional selling with quick, simple closes

Working Hours

This is a part-time role of 20 hours per week.

Working hours will be agreed during the recruitment process and must align with UK and European business hours.

The successful candidate must be able to maintain consistent availability during agreed working hours and deliver reliably in a remote environment.

Salary and Commission

This role offers a base salary, negotiable depending on experience, plus a commission structure linked to successful sales.

The commission structure will be discussed during the recruitment process and is designed to reward strong commercial performance, successful deal progression and closed business.

As this is a developing startup environment, targets and performance expectations will be clearly discussed