Founding Business Development Representative (AE track) - NYC or Tampa, FL

PolicyLift; Tampa (FL); On-site; USD 60,000 - 100,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Uncapped commission with accelerators

Equity ownership

Health, dental and vision coverage

Fast track to AE

Early-stage startup experience

Founding scope: ownership in building

Job summary

PolicyLift, an AI-native growth engine for independent P&C agencies, is hiring a founding member of the sales team in the US. You will prospect outbound to agency owners, book demos, and drive pipeline for long-term customers.

You’ll work with HubSpot, Aircall and Apollo to manage outreach and refine messaging. Expect up to 30% travel for conferences and events as you help scale the business.

Qualifications

• 6 months to 2 years in sales or another high-activity role.
• Hungry and gritty with persistent energy on calls.
• A clear, confident communicator on phone and in writing.
• Organized with reliable follow-up and a transparent pipeline.
• Coachable and proactive in applying feedback.
• Self-starter who takes initiative without oversight.
• Excited about AI and tech startups and building from the inside.
• Cold-calling or quota-carrying experience.
• Exposure to insurance, small business or SaaS; industry knowledge helpful.
• Experience with HubSpot, Aircall or Apollo is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Dial outbound to agency owners, overcome gatekeepers, and book demos.
• Handle replies from marketing campaigns and secure calendar slots.
• Qualify inbound requests quickly and route to the right next steps.
• Monitor market signals via email, LinkedIn, events, and referrals.
• Maintain a clean CRM with call outcomes and next steps.
• Provide feedback to sharpen scripts and lists every week.
• Attend industry events and conferences up to 30% travel.

Skills

Outbound prospecting

Cold-calling

Clear communicator

Self-starter

Coachable

Quota-carrying

Tech/AI startup Enthusiasm

Tools

HubSpot

Aircall

Apollo

Job description

You will be the founding member of our sales team: call independent insurance agency owners all day, earn their curiosity in under a minute, and book qualified demos that turn into long-term customers. This is an outbound role. It is not inbound, not full-cycle, and not account management.

Why agency owners pick up

There are 40,000+ independent P&C agencies in the US, and most still close every policy across a fragmented set of tools: manual data entry across five or more systems, disconnected intake, no pipeline visibility, and phones that hit a dead-end after 5PM. PolicyLift is the all-in-one AI growth engine for those agencies. We do four jobs for them:

• Grow. Website, SEO, AI search, and email marketing that bring in leads.
• Intake. AI agents, smart forms, and carrier data and documents, so every lead is captured and complete.
• Submit. One-click transfer to the systems that matter: AMS, CRM, raters and carriers
• Bind. Comparisons and proposals that get the policy bound.

What you'll do

• Dial. Most of your day is outbound calling to agency owners. You'll get past gatekeepers, run a short conversation, win their curiosity, and book a meeting.
• Work every reply. When our marketing campaigns get leads, you own them: answer the question, handle the objection, get the demo on the calendar.
• Triage inbound. Demo requests, website forms and conference leads come to you first. You'll qualify them fast and route them to the right next step.
• Watch the market. Email, LinkedIn, events and partner referrals for buying signals. Act on them the same day.
• Keep the CRM clean. Every call, outcome and next step goes into HubSpot, because the team plans its week from your data.
• Feed back what you hear. You'll hear more objections than anyone, so you'll help sharpen our scripts, lists and messaging every week.
• Conferences and industry events. Up to 30% travel is expected to attend industry events and book in person demos at conferences and events across the country.

Your first 90 days

• Weeks 1–2. Learn the market by calling agencies with short discovery questions: which AMS, which rater, which CRM. You'll learn the industry, the vocabulary and how to engage our ICP.
• Months 1–3. You're running full outbound sequences, booking demos, and filling our pipeline.
• Months 3–6. You're consistently hitting your weekly and monthly targets and starting to sit in on demos and run discovery yourself.
• Months 6–12. You're above target, running your first demos end to end, and interviewing for AE.

Who you are

• 6 months to 2 years in sales or another high-activity role.
• Hungry and gritty. You can take 50 no's before lunch and still bring energy to the 51st call.
• A clear, confident communicator on the phone and in writing.
• Organized and consistent. You follow up when you say you will, and your pipeline is never a mystery.
• Coachable. You ask for feedback, learn from it, and use it the same day.
• A self-starter. You know your responsibilities and take action when nobody is looking.
• Excited about AI and tech startups, and curious about how a company gets built from the inside.
• Cold-calling experience or a quota-carrying role.
• Exposure to insurance, small business or SaaS. Insurance knowledge is a plus, not a requirement; we'll teach you the industry.
• You've used HubSpot, Aircall, Apollo or a similar sales stack.
• Athlete, founder, competitor: anything that shows you outwork people.

What we offer

• Competitive base plus uncapped commission with accelerators above target.
• Meaningful equity and ownership in the company.
• Fully covered health, dental and vision.
• A real, fast path to AE, with direct coaching from the people who close our deals.
• A front-row seat at an early-stage AI company.
• Founding scope: ownership in building something real

About PolicyLift

PolicyLift is the AI-native growth engine for independent P&C agencies: one platform that drives growth, consolidates fragments of point solutions, so agencies can source and close premium faster. Our team brings experiences from top-tier technology companies like Google, Meta, and Insurtech leaders like Qualia.

PolicyLift is VC-backed, used by 1,000+ agents and actively services a book of over $1B in premium.

Summary

• New York City or Tampa
• $60-100K OTE
• Clear path to AE in 6–12 months if you beat your targets