Business Development Partner

About the role

Paragon is a Chicago-based product design and engineering studio. We work with funded startups, agencies who need white-label help, and venture firms with portfolio companies that need brand, product, and engineering work. We're expanding and hiring a business development partner to build the front end of that pipeline. This is a pure business development role—you're not designing, writing code, or managing delivery. You open doors and bring in new client work; our team executes it.

Why this role is worth a look

• Recurring commission on every client you bring in—uncapped. Our work is retainer-based, so your commission recurs monthly for as long as the client stays. Your book compounds; every client you land raises your floor, and the next one stacks on top.
• Short sales cycle: no contracts, cancel anytime. This eliminates most of the procurement friction upfront.
• Flexible schedule—10–15 hrs/week to start, on your own hours.
• Ground floor opportunity: no inherited territory or script. You help shape both, and your income scales with what you build.

Responsibilities

• Build your target list: funded startups, agencies needing overflow capacity, VC portfolios.
• Run outbound via LinkedIn, email, and phone to founders, CTOs, CPOs, and heads of marketing.
• Hold credible discovery conversations about scope, timeline, and which of our capabilities fit.
• Own the cycle end to end: first touch → discovery → proposal → signed retainer or project.
• Hand off cleanly at kickoff and remain the relationship owner.
• Send a simple weekly update on activity and pipeline.

Requirements

• Background in business development, agency sales, or lead generation.
• Genuinely comfortable with cold outreach—this role lives or dies on it.
• Enough fluency in how digital products get built to hold a real conversation with a technical founder about scope and tradeoffs. You don’t need to be a designer or engineer, but you must be conversant.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Self-directed and organized; nobody will manage your calendar.

Prior agency, studio, or SaaS sales experience is a strong plus.