Founders' Associate / Chief of Staff
About the Role
A fast-growing AI-powered energy intelligence startup in the DACH market is looking for a Founders' Associate / Chief of Staff to work directly alongside the founding team. This is a high-ownership, hybrid GTM and operations role — ideal for someone who thrives at the intersection of outbound sales, strategic projects, and operational execution in an early-stage environment.
The company provides an AI-driven platform for holistic energy cost optimisation for industrial enterprises, helping them make smarter procurement decisions and manage energy consumption more efficiently. The business is well-funded at the pre-seed stage and is actively scaling its commercial and engineering teams across the DACH region.
No visa sponsorship is available for this role.
What You'll Do
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Build and maintain a strong enterprise sales pipeline across DACH in close partnership with the founders.
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Run outbound execution including cold calls, emails, and LinkedIn outreach with tailored, persona-specific messaging.
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Refine ICP, targeting strategy, and value propositions using real market and prospect feedback.
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Produce high-quality sales materials — decks, one-pagers, follow-ups, and business cases — to improve conversion rates.
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Join discovery calls to surface customer insights and translate them into sharper positioning and product messaging.
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Act as an extension of the founders on strategic and operational topics, including investor updates and reporting.
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Own and lead high-priority special projects end-to-end: market research, partnership development, and internal initiatives.
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Support marketing content and event preparation (newsletters, social posts, event messaging).
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Rapidly develop deep knowledge of energy markets and the product to drive improvements across sales and product roadmap.
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Operate autonomously in ambiguous, fast-changing environments and continuously iterate on team processes.
What We're Looking For
Must-haves (dealbreakers):
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3+ years of experience in enterprise sales or outbound demand generation, building and delivering top-of-funnel pipeline in the DACH region .
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Demonstrated experience leading cross-functional initiatives and acting as an operational right hand to founders in a startup environment, owning projects end-to-end.
Required skills and experience:
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Experience preparing investor updates and collaborating with founding teams on investor relations and strategic communications.
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Proven track record building and managing enterprise sales pipelines and outbound prospecting across DACH.
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Ability to create and deliver compelling sales enablement materials; proficiency with Notion, Google Workspace, HubSpot, and LinkedIn Sales Navigator .
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Knowledge of energy markets, or a demonstrated ability to rapidly learn and translate insights into sales and product improvements.
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Experience conducting or participating in discovery calls and extracting insights to refine positioning and messaging.
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Comfort driving cross-functional initiatives (market research, partnerships, internal projects) with limited structure.
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Strong startup mindset — gritty, resourceful, and ownership-driven.
Nice to have:
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Experience in energy sector partnerships or procurement contexts.
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Familiarity with MEDDICC or similar enterprise sales methodologies.
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Background at or adjacent to industrial corporates (e.g. manufacturing, energy, engineering sectors).
Location
This is a primarily on-site role based in Nuremberg or Munich, Bavaria, Germany . Candidates should be able to work on-site approximately 4 days per week. Remote-only candidates will not be considered.
Fluency in German is strongly preferred given the DACH-focused commercial scope.
Compensation & Benefits
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Salary range: $60,000 – $90,000 annually (or equivalent in EUR)
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Early-stage equity opportunity in a well-backed, fast-scaling startup
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Direct exposure to founders and meaningful impact on