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Senior Sales and Business Development Manager

United States

Helaina is a VC-backed biotech startup creating a new category of functional food products.

Our vision is to bring the functional properties of human proteins to food. Helaina will be the first company to put human milk proteins into food, defining a new category of consumer nutrition products focused on supporting immunity. We see a range of opportunities to use our breast milk proteins to enhance other types of functional foods for all segments of the population.

Helaina is backed by top VCs in the industry including Spark Capital, Siam Capital, Primary Venture Partners, and Plum Alley. We are a team of change-makers looking for our next team member who is intensely passionate about advancing synthetic biology for food and beverage products and redefining the future of nutrition.

Do you want to get in on the ground floor of a startup shaking the dietary and functional food ingredient market? As a Senior Sales and Business Development Manager at Helaina you will be a paramount contributor launching our innovative product, effera™ Human Lactoferrin. You’ll play a part in helping our company fine tune our strategy, go-to- market, messaging, tech tools, sales hires and most importantly, driving new business into the company. This is a tall order but a very exciting opportunity for the right person.

Are you still here? Great…

Who is Helaina? We are a passionate startup disrupting the dietary and functional food ingredient market. Our scientists, engineers and business professionals have collaborated to achieve what has never been done before - replicating functional
milk proteins found in human colostrum and maternal milk. Our first ingredient, effera™ is equivalent to Human Lactoferrin, a powerful bioactive compound with benefits for active nutrition, women’s health, and healthy aging.  The launch of effera™ marks the beginning of the human bioactive category poised to advance nutrition. As per Laura Katz, the founder and CEO of Helaina, “there are really special properties of proteins in breast milk, with how they help to support the immune system…”

Our Vision...
To bring the benefits of the maternal milk, the first smart food, to babies and adults at every stage of life. We hope our story has you excited and incredibly interested in becoming part of the team.

The Position and What You’ll Do:

  • Identify and drive sale opportunities in the adult nutrition space by identifying new prospects and calling on your existing industry contacts. Go to market segments include dietary supplements and functional foods in the active nutrition, healthy aging and women health verticals
  • Strategically network, prospect and negotiate agreements to close sales
  • Schedule discovery calls and uncover pain points and business opportunities from your prospects
  • Understand customer needs and translate that into solutions
  • Communicate through meetings how you can meet/exceed customers’ goals
  • Bring opportunities through the sales funnel and bring them to close
  • Develop and present PowerPoint decks using existing material and creating new tools along with internal teams
  • Collaborate with marketing and provide input for successful marketing campaigns
  • Attend industry-related trade shows, including but not limited to, IFT, Natural Products Expo West, Supplyside West, etc
  • Recommend effective sales tools to help drive sales and marketing efforts
  • Present yourself as an expert and thought leader ultimately building out an industry leading sales team
  • Using CRM, prepare reporting forecasts and report weekly/ monthly channel revenue and profit forecasts vs. budget objectives
  • Understand the market via competitive intelligence
  • Have a pulse on market conditions such as supply, demand and indicative pricing for specific products
  • Evaluate, monitor, and prepare competitor/competitive information
  • Follow trade literature and attend conferences to best capitalize on market opportunities with the products and technology of the strategic business units
  • Leverage data to evaluate channel product portfolio to provide a recommendation on how to optimize sales strategy
  • Collaborate with the C-Suite Executives and advisors to build a scalable sales function

Skills and Qualifications:

  • 7+ years of relevant experience with a proven track record of exceeding sales in the functional food and/or dietary supplement ingredient industry.
  • Experience selling high value ingredients B2B to functional foods, beverages, and supplements is a must
  • Thrive in a start-up entrepreneurial environment and can go with the flow, understanding the company is evolving daily
  • Knowledge of the nutraceutical ingredients, supplements and food ingredient verticals with an ability to run narratives that drive nutritional value
  • Expertise in consultative, question-based sales methods
  • Critical thinker and problem solver. You can work independently and have a high aptitude of using resources to get things done
  • Patience to work through customer challenges and troubleshoot specific customer problems and demands
  • Successful negotiator, deal closer and sales performer
  • Proficient in reporting using CRM (such as Hubspot) to report on activity and the sales opportunity pipeline

Additional Attributes:

  • You have a relentless drive to secure deals and build long-term client relationships
  • You are an ingredient aficionado with a deep understanding of the functional food industry landscape and a passion for nutrition
  • You have a startup spirit, thrive in a dynamic environment, and love the challenge of building something from the ground up
  • You are a closing architect, crafting compelling proposals that win over clients, leaving them confident they've made the right decision and eager to close the deal quickly
  • You have excellent interpersonal skills
  • You are detail and process-oriented
  • You have contacts in the functional foods and supplements industries
  • You are proficient on Hubspot or similar platform
  • You are able to travel for client meetings as needed
  • You are passionate about Helaina’s philosophy and mission
  • You have experience, either through education or exposure, to the nutrition space

This is a role as an individual contributor that could become a leadership role in the future

 

Compensation is market-competitive with a yearly cash base of $90k - $125k, plus a performance bonus based on sales targets, plus equity.

We use a disciplined approach to compensation.  We believe this is the only way to create a consistent, strategic, and equitable compensation structure that in turn unlocks healthy growth for our organization.  We build our range with benchmarking data for the particular role from Pave.com.  Because Pave hooks into HRIS, they have the most accurate data for early-stage companies.  We decide any given hire's offer based on three factors:

  1. first among them, expected performance in the role (based on performance in the interview process and proximity of experience);
  2. s well as seniority (amount of relevant experience);
  3. and location (different cost of living).

Benefits:

Helaina was founded on the belief that families should have freedom of choice.  We are committed to providing an inclusive workplace that does just that, supporting our team's health, wellbeing and professional development at every stage and milestone.  We are proud to offer comprehensive health care, generous parental leave and childcare reimbursement, equity packages and more.  A few highlights include:

  • Full medical, vision and dental coverage
  • Short and long term disability insurance coverage
  • 401k match (up to 3%)
  • Unlimited vacation days, including an all-company holiday between Christmas and New Year
  • Paid Parental Leave for both parents + flexible return to work program
  • Childcare reimbursement program
  • Commuter Benefits
  • Leadership Development coaching through BetterUp

 

Visit us at https://www.myhelaina.com/news to learn more about Helaina.

 

Helaina is an Equal Opportunity Employer.  

Don’t meet every single requirement? Studies have shown that women and people of color are less likely to apply to jobs unless they meet every single qualification. At Helaina we are dedicated to building a diverse, inclusive and authentic workplace, so if you’re excited about this role but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyway.  You may just be the strongest candidate for this or other roles.  For more information, please contact careers@myhelaina.com.  

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