Business Development Representative

listenlabs.com; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health, dental & vision

Learning stipend

Wellness stipend

AI tools stipend

Private chef in SF office

Job summary

Listen Labs in San Francisco is seeking a Business Development professional to grow our pipeline at an early-stage startup. You’ll build lead lists, attend conferences, and develop real relationships to shape how Listen Labs is viewed by the market.

If you’re hungry, extroverted, and resilient, this high-visibility role offers growth toward an Emerging AE role. You’ll own outbound and inbound discovery, collaborate across teams, and help accelerate our GTM motion as we scale.

Qualifications

• 1–3+ years in business development, sales, consulting, or outbound-heavy roles.
• Comfortable with cold outreach, networking, and live conversations.
• Willingness to travel for conferences and events.
• Strong organizational skills and follow-through.

Responsibilities

• Build and own prospect lists, identify target companies, personas, and buying signals.
• Attend conferences, industry events, dinners, and meetups to represent Listen Labs and build pipeline.
• Run initial discovery calls to qualify inbound and outbound leads and hand off to AEs.
• Collaborate with AEs, Marketing, and Product to refine messaging and targeting; share learnings.

Skills

Lead generation

Networking

Excellent communicator

Resourceful & proactive

Tools

CRM

Job description

TL;DR: Our Business Development team is growing to help fuel Listen Labs’ next phase of growth. This is not a traditional “dial-for-dollars” BD role. You’ll be building your own lead lists, showing up at conferences and events, developing real relationships, and helping shape how Listen Labs is viewed by the market.

If you’re hungry, extroverted, resilient, and excited to grind in a highly visible role at an early-stage startup- this is for you. Top performers will have a clear path to an Emerging AE role.

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.
• Startup speed, Salesforce scale: Listen was acquired by Salesforce in 2026 and is being incubated within Salesforce AI Labs, with our founders still leading the company. Before the acquisition, we grew annualized revenue 15x, completed over 2 million interviews, and raised $100M 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

Lead Generation & Prospecting

• Build and own your own prospect lists - identifying target companies, personas, and buying signals
• Proactively source leads via outbound email, LinkedIn, cold calls, referrals, and creative channels
• Research accounts deeply to personalize outreach and create thoughtful first touches

Events, Conferences & Relationship Building

• Attend conferences, industry events, dinners, and meetups to represent Listen Labs
• Network aggressively - spark conversations, build relationships, and follow up to turn interest into pipeline
• Act as a brand ambassador: be “on,” be curious, and make people excited to talk to Listen

Qualification & Early Sales Motion

• Run initial discovery calls to qualify inbound and outbound leads
• Clearly articulate Listen’s value and identify strong handoffs to AEs / leadership
• Maintain clean notes and updates in the CRM to support downstream closing

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Work closely with AEs, Research, Marketing, and Product to refine messaging and targeting
• Share learnings from the field: objections, patterns, ICP insights, and competitive intel
• Help improve outbound messaging, event strategy, and overall GTM motion

Who You Are

• Hungry & driven: You want to prove yourself, grow fast, and earn your next role
• Extroverted & personable: You genuinely enjoy meeting new people and building rapport
• Comfortable grinding: You’re okay with rejection, long days at events, and doing what it takes
• Strong communicator: Clear, confident, and compelling - both written and verbal
• Resourceful & proactive: You don’t wait to be told what list to call or who to email

Requirements

• 1–3+ years of experience in business development, sales, consulting, or a similarly outbound-heavy role
• Comfortable with cold outreach, networking, and live conversations
• Willingness to travel for conferences and events
• Strong organizational skills and follow-through

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.