Meili is hiring a

Founding Sales & Business Developer

Full-Time
Remote
About the company

Meilisearch is on a mission to help developers create great search experiences. We want to make it easy to find anything anywhere by providing a Rust-based search engine with a focus on usability and intuitive API design.

We are a fully open-source company: from our search engine, to our design specifications, to our official SDKs and libraries, everything we do is public, transparent, and made in collaboration with our vibrant community.

Founded in 2018, Meilisearch is headquartered in Paris. We completed a $15 million round of funding in September 2022, and are backed by leading international investors Felicis VenturesCRVLocalGlobe, Mango Capital, Seedcamp, and Vercel CEO Guillermo Rauch.



Our team is 23passionate people, and our project is growing fast. We have been developing our OSS search engine product since 2018, and have publicly monetized our Cloud offer for a year 🎂 We are seeking our first dedicated Sales role, to help us drive revenue growth, pursue our Go-to-Market efforts and engage with our customers. 

About the role and the team

We seek a versatile individual to play a pivotal role in driving our revenue and taking our product to market. As Founding Sales, you will sometimes wear the hats of Account Executive, SDR, and Business Developer.

You will be expected to close deals as much as build the overall sales activity, including process definition and implementation, as well as gain market knowledge and transform it into actionable insights.

You will drive our revenue growth and be responsible for navigating sales cycles with SMBs and mid-market tech businesses.

You will work with Quentin, our CEO and acting Head of Sales, on a daily basis and closely collaborate with the marketing and product departments as we keep rolling out our go-to-market strategy.

What you’ll be doing

☛ You will manage the entire sales process from lead generation to deal finalization, implementing strategic approaches to maximize sales opportunities and revenue growth.

☛ You will help to create our sales processes as you build them, experimenting with different messaging and outbound strategies.

☛ You will build and maintain close relationships with product, engineering, and marketing teams, gathering valuable feedback from prospective customers to shape our roadmap and enhance our offerings.

☛ You will actively contribute to the voice of market study and help refine the ideal customer profile, leveraging market insights and data to optimize targeting and improve customer acquisition strategies.

☛ You will engage with prospects and users within our extensive open-source community to comprehend their needs and demonstrate the value of Meilisearch Cloud in addressing their search-related challenges.

We are looking for someone who will embrace this cross-functional role and go beyond the typical sales position to actively support marketing, community engagement, and customer onboarding.

Our ideal profile - hard skills

  • You have 6-8 years of experience in a sales activity, with at least 3 years of experience working and selling to developers, preferably in open-source technology or developer tools companies.
  • You have experience using CRM tools, such as HubSpot, which you consistently maintain well organized.
  • You know how to build an effective sales process; you’ve implemented and iterated on them before.
  • You have been part of a company's growth journey, witnessing its successful scaling through various stages.
  • You have a proven track record of achieving sales targets and driving revenue growth.
  • You have experience building and managing pipelines, a solid understanding of CRM systems and sales cycle stages, and knowledge of various sales methodologies.

Our ideal profile - soft skills

  • Your fit with our team is as important to us as your technical background, if not more so. We are looking for someone with these important soft skills:
  • You are resilient and can take a step back and identify what you could have done better.
  • You are iterative; you can adapt to changing priorities, adjusting strategies and approaches as needed.
  • Working in a startup is one of your motivations: you possess a strong aptitude for building things from scratch.
  • You are very well organized, and experienced in working remotely; you are able to give the right level of visibility to your stakeholders.

Recruitment process

  • Please send us your resume and a quick note of why you might be a good fit for this job.
  • Screening interview (30min) : If your profile fits, we will contact you for a video call to get to know you a bit better (who you are, your background & ambitions, company culture & company ambition). If it doesn't fit you will get an email from us.
  • Hiring Manager interview (1h): you will meet Thomas, co-founder and COO, and Morgane, our Head of People.
  • Technical fit interview (1h): To assess your strategic thinking skills, sales abilities and knowledge of the market, you will meet with James, Sales Advisor for Meilisearch.
  • Team-fit interview (1h) You will meet with Maya, our Head of Marketing, and Quentin, co-founder and CEO. They will assess your ability to build efficient sales processes as well as to navigate the complexities of competitive markets.
  • Reference check. At the same time, we will conduct a reference check with two people of your choosing, who you are working with or have worked with.

💡 Interview tip: please make sure you prepare specific examples of past experiences, failures and successes alike. Taking a look at the STAR method may be helpful!

Why you'll enjoy working with us

- Permanent full-time contract,
- Stock options,
- We are open to fully remote applications, as long as you are between GMT-4 and GMT+5 time zones,
- 4 day work week & flexible working hours,
- If you’re working from home, we will provide either a stipend for you to equip yourself, or an access to Fleex (Europe). We also reimburse up to 500 EUR / month for your co working expenses,
- Access to a mental health platform (moka.care) + 6 sessions with a coach/trained therapist,
- We support physical health and provide either a membership or a stipend for your sports activities each month,
- 3 months paid parental leave,
- 6 weeks paid time off,
- Management training to freshly hired and newly appointed managers,
- We all get together at least once a year for a company offsite.

Not sure you meet all qualifications? Let us decide! Research shows that women and members of other under-represented groups tend not to apply to jobs when they think they may not meet every qualification, when, in fact, they often do! We strive to develop an inclusive work environment that reflects the diversity of our open-source community. We strongly encourage you to apply!



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