Private Equity Partnerships Lead

About the Role

We are hiring a Private Equity Partnerships Lead to build our PE channel from zero to one.

Private equity has become our strongest pull. PE-backed companies are over-represented in our customer base, and the same pattern keeps repeating: we deploy at one portfolio company, the operating partner hears about it, and they come to us asking how to roll Hyphenate out across the portfolio. So far that has happened organically, with the channel shared between our CRO, CEO and Chief of Staff. This role exists so that one person owns it and makes it happen on purpose.

This is a true business development role, not a closing role. You will own our relationships with PE firms, especially operating partners and portfolio value-creation teams, and turn them into a repeatable source of warm, qualified pipeline for our Account Executives. You are measured on closed ARR that you sourced.

You start as an individual contributor and the first hire on this channel. The mandate is to bring the relationships, build the playbook, and prove it works before we add a team around it. You report to the Chief Revenue Officer, who has launched and run partnerships at FloQast and Trovata, and you will work directly with our CEO, who has personally driven much of our PE traction to date.

What You'll Own

Build the PE channel from 0 to 1: the target firm list, the outreach motion, the partner value proposition, and the handoff into sales

Open and own relationships with operating partners, portfolio operations, value creation and finance leaders at the top 50 to 100 PE firms investing in our segments: B2B software, CPG, manufacturing, wholesale distribution, and multi-entity roll-ups

Turn firm relationships into pipeline: map each sponsor's portfolio, identify the companies with the finance complexity we solve, and source warm introductions to their CFOs and Controllers

Run the partner funnel and report on it weekly: firms engaged, portfolio companies introduced, meetings sourced, and closed ARR

Design and test an operating-partner motion: packaged multi-portco deployments that a sponsor can prioritize and roll out across its portfolio

Convert customer wins into sponsor relationships: work with our customer and solutions teams to turn a happy portfolio company into a portfolio-wide conversation

Be present in the PE ecosystem: operating partner forums, events, dinners, and the advisory and consulting firms that sit around PE

Partner with Account Executives on every sourced deal from intro through close, and with Marketing on PE-specific content, case studies and events

Bring the market back inside: which firms convert, what operating partners care about, and what the product needs for portfolio-wide deployment

What You Should Have Done Before

Worked in, sold to, or partnered with private equity. You know the PE landscape and have existing relationships with operating partners, portfolio operations or deal teams at mid-market and upper mid-market firms

Built a partnership or channel from scratch in B2B tech, ideally in fintech, accounting, finance or ERP-adjacent software

Have a playbook you can walk us through for operationalizing a partner funnel with PE firms: how you get in, who you talk to, how you source introductions, and how you track it

Carried a sourced pipeline or revenue number and hit it

Comfortable owning a channel end to end as an individual contributor, with CRO and founder support but no team under you yet

Based in New York City or willing to relocate; we work from our Manhattan office

High agency and high ownership. You run this every day without being asked

You'll Stand Out If

You have been an operating partner, worked in portfolio operations at a PE firm, or been a finance operator inside a PE-backed company

You hold a CPA or have accounting, audit or FP&A experience, and can talk credibly with a Controller about close, revenue recognition or cash

You have led PE or VC partnerships at a finance software company (ERP, close, FP&A, billing, spend management) and have relationships you can reactivate on day one

You have B2B fintech partnership exposure beyond PE: accounting advisory firms, ERPs, or systems integrators

You have built something from 0 to 1 at an early-stage startup

What Great Looks Like Here

You treat operating partners as customers in their own right. You know what they are measured on and can show them how finance automation moves portfolio EBITDA and exit readiness

You are a builder, not a relationship manager. Managing an existing book is not the job; creating one is

You are comfortable being measured on sourced ARR, and you like that the number is unambiguous

You have strong opinions about how AI will change finance in PE-backed companies, and you can hold your own with a CFO