Business Development Lead (Snowflake for Startups)

Responsibilities

The Business Development Lead for Snowflake for Startups will be a pivotal member of a small, agile, and global team. This role acts as a coordination overlay across Sales, Marketing, and Solutions Engineering (SE) teams, with the primary goal of targeting and winning workloads from top AI startups

Network and Personal Introductions: Leverage existing networks and cultivate new relationships to secure introductions to founders of AI-native startups

Events and Networking: Actively participate in industry events, conferences, and networking opportunities to identify and engage with promising startups

Event Sponsorship: Identify and recommend key events for sponsorship to enhance Snowflake’s visibility and generate leads within the AI startup community

Content Production: Contribute to the creation and dissemination of valuable content, such as workshops and PR initiatives, to attract and inform AI startups about Snowflake’s offerings

Tiered Prioritization: Develop and maintain a meticulously categorized list of high-priority startups, classifying them into Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3 based on strategic importance, growth potential, and alignment with Snowflake’s objectives

Market Intelligence: Continuously monitor the venture funding landscape and key product trends within the AI startup ecosystem to inform and refine startup prioritization

Cross-functional Alignment: Collaborate with internal teams (Sales, Marketing, Product, AI Partnerships, Venture) to ensure a unified approach to outreach and engagement with prioritized startups

Focused Engagement: Allocate time strategically, dedicating approximately 60% of efforts to Tier 1 startups, 20% to Tier 2 startups, and 20% to other high-potential opportunities

Executive Leadership Introductions: Facilitate introductions between Tier 1 startup founders and Snowflake’s Executive Leadership Team (ELT) to foster deeper relationships and demonstrate Snowflake’s commitment

GTM Support: Provide comprehensive go-to-market (GTM) support, leveraging Snowflake’s enterprise customer base to create a prize target for AI startups’ GTM efforts

Product-Led Growth (PLG) Motion: Support the PLG motion by promoting Cortex REST APIs to attract “off Snowflake” startups and create a path for them to move additional data and workloads onto Snowflake

Partnership Development: Work to transform relationships with Foundation Model (FM) providers from transactional sales channels into genuine product partnerships, ensuring that FM partners recognize the value of AI startups consuming tokens via Cortex

Field Enablement: Collaborate with sales and solutions engineering teams to ensure they are trained on how to effectively sell FM access and token capacity, addressing unique sales cycles and consumption models preferred by startups

Objectives and Key Results (OKRs): Define, track, and report on critical metrics to measure the effectiveness of engagement with Tier 1 and Tier 2 partners. These OKRs will include:

New Startups’ spending on Snowflake (over $5K ARR)

Capacity commits

Growth in fundraising

Percentage of newly funded, Tier 0/Tier 1 backed startups on Snowflake

Percentage of startups in a specific venture fund or accelerator cohort on Snowflake

Regular Reporting: Provide regular and insightful reports to management on the progress and impact of startup engagements, highlighting successes, challenges, and areas for improvement

Cross-functional Collaboration: Work with Finance and Sales Operations to ensure accurate tracking of inference deals and to align on commission structures for expanded Snowflake services

Benefits

Comprehensive health insurance plans

Health savings accounts

Robust retirement plans

Life and disability insurance

Weekly online lunch and learns

Virtual workout classes

Ergonomic work-from-home equipment

On-demand mental health and wellness programs

Fertility benefits and family planning resources

Generous time‑off and various leave plans

Onsite and Remote Work

Employee discounts and pre‑tax selections

New hire equity + Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP)

Quarterly bonus or commission program

Qualifications
The successful candidate will be a strategic thinker with a passion for the AI/ML ecosystem, dedicated to identifying and nurturing high‑potential AI‑native startups and ensuring their growth with Snowflake. This role requires a proactive approach to engagement, a keen ability to prioritize, and a commitment to measurable results.

Excellent communication, presentation, and interpersonal skills

Demonstrated ability to drive measurable results and influence cross‑functional teams

Strong network within the startup and venture capital communities

Ability to work strategically and tactically in a fast‑paced, evolving environment

Proven experience in business development, partnerships, or a similar role within the AI/ML or cloud technology sector, with a focus on startups

Deep understanding of the AI startup ecosystem, venture funding trends, and key product trends

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