Hybrid Founders Associate – Sales & Business Development

at finperks

• Job title: Founders Associate – Sales & Business Development
• Job type: Full Time
• Experience level: Junior, Mid level
• Salary: €60,000 - €80,000 per year
• Degree requirement: Bachelor's Degree
• Location requirements: Hybrid, Berlin, Germany

About the role

• Founders Associate in Sales & Business Development at Finperks, driving strategic partnerships in a fintech startup. Collaborate closely with the founder and manage high-impact enterprise partnerships.

Responsibilities

• As Founders Associate – Sales & Business Development, you will work directly with Founder Sebastian Seifert on building and scaling Finperks’ most important strategic partnerships.
• You will support and gradually take ownership of high-impact enterprise business development initiatives, help structure complex deals, and ensure execution across the full sales lifecycle.
• The role is project-based, highly hands-on, and offers close proximity to founder-level decision-making.
• It is designed as a development track into a fully owning Business Development Manager position with direct responsibility for strategic enterprise partnerships.
• Example tasks include: Supporting and gradually owning the end-to-end business development process — from market research and partner identification to outreach, demos, negotiations, and closing.
• Building and structuring a focused enterprise pipeline across Banks, Fintechs, Retailers, HR & Payroll providers, Crypto platforms, and consumer brands.
• Preparing tailored partnership proposals, commercial models, and industry-specific value propositions.
• Participating in and later leading partner meetings, product demos, and commercial discussions.
• Managing complex, multi-stakeholder B2B sales cycles with a long-term, strategic focus.
• Supporting deal structuring and commercial negotiations in close collaboration with the founder.
• Coordinating internal stakeholders (product, tech, operations) to ensure smooth execution and partner onboarding.
• Conducting strategic market analyses to identify high-potential partners capable of generating significant annual voucher turnover.
• Representing Finperks at industry events and selected on-site meetings across Europe.
• Taking ownership of clearly defined partnership projects with increasing commercial responsibility over time.

Requirements

• 2–5 years of professional experience in a fast-paced, high-performance environment (e.g. startup, scale-up, consulting, fintech, SaaS, banking, or B2B commercial roles)
• Proven ability to own and drive projects end-to-end, ideally with exposure to commercial, go-to-market, or partnership-related initiatives.
• Strong structured and disciplined working approach, with the ability to manage complex, multi-step processes over extended periods of time.
• High level of ambition, drive, and intrinsic motivation to build meaningful partnerships and close high-impact deals.
• Strong resilience and persistence, with the ability to handle rejection and long B2B sales cycles without losing momentum.
• Clear willingness to personally execute hands-on commercial work (research, outreach, follow-ups, preparation of materials, demos, coordination).
• Strong commercial thinking and analytical capabilities, with the ability to understand business models, pricing logic, and revenue mechanics.
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills in English, suitable for interaction with senior stakeholders and C-level contacts.
• Fluency in English plus at least one major European language (e.g. French, Spanish, or Italian). German is not required.
• High ownership mentality, self-organization, and comfort operating in an early-stage, high-ambiguity environment.
• Ability to work closely with founders, acting as a reliable execution partner and sparring counterpart in strategic and commercial discussions.
• Willingness and flexibility to travel within Europe approximately 2–3 times per month.

Benefits

• Competitive compensation with performance-based upside
• Work directly with the founder to build and scale Finperks’ most important strategic partnerships
• Own a small number of high-impact enterprise partnerships with significant strategic and revenue relevance
• Play a key role in shaping Finperks’ partnership and go-to-market strategy from an early stage
• Gain hands-on experience in complex B2B negotiations and long-cycle enterprise sales across Europe
• Help build processes and structures from the ground up in a fast-growing startup
• Experience fast personal and professional growth in a high-ownership, high-autonomy environment