Business Development Representative

Our vision

Modern mobility companies – like those operating rideshare, freight, drones and AVs – use digital tools for routing, scheduling, and even basic operations. Cities – which still use paper, signs and people to manage our roadways – have long struggled to keep up. This digital divide has created a quality-of-life crisis for cities and inconsistent, inefficient rules for mobility operators. Long standing challenges like congestion, pollution, and inequities in access and safety are poised to get even worse.

Lacuna is the first company to bridge the gap between modern mobility companies and cities, building digital tools in open source that make it possible to create and enforce transportation policies digitally. We are a leading provider of digital tools that allow cities to create, communicate, and enforce dynamic transportation policies. Our equity-enhancing and privacy-preserving solutions give cities a full and reliable picture of how their roads and airways are leveraged so that they can create evidence-based policies to address congestion, pollution, access, safety and more. Lacuna paves the way for commercial operators to integrate their modern technologies into cities in a way that works for everyone long-term. 

The Role

As a Business Development Representative, you will be responsible for understanding and starting conversations with cities and departments in our core markets. You will research and develop outreach strategies for cities, regions, and airports based on their current policy priorities and alignment with Lacuna’s product offerings. You will own introducing Lacuna, qualifying their needs, and setting the stage for further conversations. You will also work as a bridge between the Marketing team and the Sales team, coordinating around events and our regular cadence of outreach to turn Marketing Qualified Leads into Sales Qualified Leads. This exciting role is one of the first in our new and growing sales team, and will have direct input on strategy and execution as we grow our reach. You will interact directly with decision makers at cities, agencies, and airports, and work closely with Lacuna’s VP of Sales, Madeline Zhu. 

Lacuna is headquartered in Palo Alto, but we are open to remote candidates anywhere in the United States.

This is a heavily self-directed role that combines research/analytical skills with strong communication and proactive outreach abilities. This exciting role is one of the first in our new and growing sales team, and will have direct input on strategy and execution as we grow our reach. You will be responsible for:

• Reviewing cities and airports’ websites and policy documents to understand and document their upcoming transportation priorities in the areas of micromobility, for-hire vehicles, curb management, and more.
• Identifying the right contacts and organizations based on our business strategies.
• Developing and proposing account-specific strategies and messaging to connect their goals with Lacuna’s offerings, and to nurture them over time. 
• Introducing Lacuna through a combination of tactful emails, phone calls and LinkedIn outreach.
• Ensuring that the process by which you are conducting your outreach aligns with both the Sales and Marketing teams’ objectives.
• Sourcing data on accounts and maintaining, updating and organizing our records to ensure we are always contacting the individuals.
• Identifying potential partnership areas and collaborations based on the ecosystem in particular cities. 
• Some US travel for training purposes and conferences (as COVID-19 permits)

About You 

Our ideal BDR hire should have at least 1 year experience working in the transportation/civic space, and experience reaching out to stakeholders and communicating professionally, and excel at:

• Communication and interpersonal interaction, particularly speaking and writing professionally to senior levels of decision makers over the phone, in person, and via email.  
• Learning a new space quickly: while we don’t expect all candidates to be transportation experts, you will need to learn how to knowledgeably engage with transportation staff through guided and self-directed learning.
• Interacting with individuals of diverse racial, ethnic and economic backgrounds.
• Conducting independent research to anticipate city needs and understand their initiatives before having discussions with agencies.
• Communicating internally with different teams and a variety of personalities.
• Synthesizing complicated issues/situations/products and explaining technical topics simply.
• Learning from failures - seeing opportunities for learning when cities do not respond to emails or request no further solicitations.

Beyond the Skills:

We are looking for candidates who are passionate about mobility, sustainability, or mission-oriented projects that have a significant real-world impact.