Portfolio Business Development

About the Role

We are hiring a founder-caliber operator to own and scale the Portfolio Engine for Martell Ventures, leading all business development, deal flow, and founder talent pipeline. You will source and close world-class founders for Partnerships and Incubation, drive top-tier deal flow through brand leverage and the Media team, and ensure only ventures with clear ICP, problem definition, offer design, and monetization paths enter the studio.

You will also match validated product ideas to the co-founders you advance through the pipeline, ensuring each founder enters with a studio-approved and strategically vetted product focus taken from our prioritized idea list or from a new opportunity endorsed by the Martell Ventures leadership team.

Your mandate is to drive high-quality pipeline growth and ensure every founder handed to the Portfolio Growth Leader has a clear, validated, and strategically aligned product direction that increases the likelihood of PMF and enterprise value creation.  

You will run the deal pipeline end-to-end, translate founder ambitions into clear early operating plans and milestones, and maintain a cross-portfolio view of momentum, risk, and resource needs before handing initiatives to the Portfolio Growth Leader for activation and growth.

This is a high-velocity, high-judgment role that combines sourcing, evaluation, systems thinking, operating systems thinking, and founder leadership. You are a founder-level operator who can sell, evaluate, coach, and close at a very high bar.

Location: Kelowna, BC (In-Office Only)

What You'll Do
1. Deal Flow and Founder Qualification

• Source, qualify, and close world-class founders and venture opportunities across Partnerships, Incubation, and Studio-owned product categories.
• Build the founder pipeline through outbound sourcing, brand leverage, media distribution, SaaS Academy, influencer networks, industry ecosystems, and targeted hunts.
• Operate from a thesis-driven market map that guides sourcing lanes, segment founders by archetype, and tailor qualification accordingly.
• Apply rigorous founder and product qualification standards including execution proof, ICP clarity, traction signals, alignment to the Ventures filter, PMF likelihood, and structured founder capability scoring for grit, speed, and coachability.
• Drive opportunities through top of the funnel to Contracting with speed, precision, and discipline while maintaining high cultural alignment.
• Use the Martell Ventures framework to evaluate strategic fit, assumptions, risks, expected venture economics, and provide light coaching to test adaptability.

2. Early Product Validation and Offer Clarity

• Partner with founders to clarify ICP, problem definition, offer design, pricing, and early GTM sequencing before handoff to the Portfolio Growth Leader.
• Run early validation cycles that confirm traction signals, monetization potential, customer development quality, and evidence needed for incubation readiness.
• Translate founder ambitions into early operating plans: targets, constraints, sequencing, and milestone maps.
• Assess venture viability against stage, capital, runway, and strategic priorities to ensure a high-probability path to PMF and revenue.
• Ensure all new opportunities meet investment criteria with clear evidence, assumptions, risks, and monetization potential.
• Use evaluation conversations to coach founders in real time to test clarity, adaptability, resilience, and execution readiness.

3. Strategic Partnerships and Portfolio Growth

• Drive business development outcomes that increase enterprise value and expand the overall opportunity frontier.
• Build and maintain a high-leverage ecosystem of founders, operators, partners, and domain experts aligned with the Ventures thesis.
• Identify cross-portfolio leverage opportunities: shared talent, distribution channels, customer learnings, product patterns, and partnership angles.
• Identify and assess high-calibre operators, builders, and repeat founders for future incubation or partnership.
• Create a repeatable BD engine that scales deal flow, increases opportunity quality, and compounds long-term strategic advantage.
• Set the cultural bar from the first interaction to ensure every founder entering the pipeline aligns with our standards and raises overall opportunity quality.

What You Bring

• A former B2B SaaS founder, ideally exited, with shipped outcomes, real customer proof, and a track record of elite execution.
• Deep experience sourcing, qualifying, and closing high-caliber founders, products, and venture opportunities.
• Sharp pattern recognition across markets, problems, traction signals, founder capability, and early PMF indicators.
• Ability to coach founders on ICP clarity, pitch, GTM fundamentals, customer development, and early offer design.
• Exceptional communication, judgment, speed, and founder-level ownership.
• Clear wins navigating ambiguity, closing complex deals, and aligning multiple stakeholders toward a unified strategic outcome.

Success Looks Like (First 90 Days)

You establish a high-velocity business development engine that increases opportunity quality, strengthens founder sourcing, and ensures only high-probability ventures enter the studio.

• A strong, predictable founder and deal pipeline progressing through the funnel to  Contracting with speed and rigor.
• Higher-caliber founders and opportunities are entering the studio with clear ICP, strong early traction signals, and product offer clarity as per targets.
• Close a top-tier partner who exceeds our filters, moving them to Contracted quickly and raising the portfolio quality bar.
• Increase in sourcing velocity, deal quality, and qualification discipline across outbound and brand-driven channels.
• Early validation cycles that improve offer clarity, GTM direction, and PMF likelihood before handoff.
• A clean BD operating system with weekly reporting, clear opportunity maps, and visibility tied to enterprise value targets.

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