Market Development Associate

Primary Venture Partners is hiring a full-time Market Development Associate to help accelerate growth across our portfolio companies. This role works side by side with startups as they build out core GTM tooling, customer relationships, and scale their sales pipeline. This is a unique opportunity for an early career professional to shape and execute early go-to-market strategies. You'll work directly with founders and investors to support company growth from the ground up.

About Primary

Primary is a leading early-stage venture capital firm dedicated to supporting transformational startups. We are based in New York City (near Madison Square Park) and are in office 3-4 days per week and remote 1-2 days per week. We invest across many categories including healthcare, supply chain, vertical AI, enterprise AI, GTM tech, infrastructure, and developer tools. Our portfolio includes exciting companies like Chief, Dandy, Inspiren, Etched, Lyric, and 1mind, among many others. We’re proud of the immense impact we create for our portfolio companies and our industry leading graduation rate from seed to Series A.

About the Role

As a Market Development Associate, you’ll work directly with founders and commercial leaders to shape early customer acquisition while also standing up the data, automation, and tooling that enable a repeatable GTM motion. You’ll have exposure to the bleeding edge of AI and automation and learn hands-on technical skills that are in high demand in today’s market.

Additionally, you’ll have the opportunity to contribute to other valuable growth initiatives, including research projects, marketing initiatives, or event execution.

You’ll join a team that operates with the urgency and creativity of a startup—backed by the resources and network of a venture firm.

The team is led by

• Jason Gelman, Primary’s GTM Operating Partner

• Charles Holley, our Market Development Team Lead

What You’ll Do

Outbound Prospecting (~50% of time spend):

• Define or refine Ideal Customer Profiles (ICPs) across different verticals and company stages and develop prospecting tactics for personas within them

• Scale pipeline and meeting generation programs to reach target customer personas

• Execute initial introductory meetings and discovery sessions to obtain market feedback and inform product and commercial roadmap

• Help identify and engage design partners and early adopters to validate product-market fit

GTM Engineering + Revenue Operations (~50% of time spend):

• Build and execute technical GTM workflows (Clay list-building, scrapers, enrichment, automated outbound)

• Set up and maintain sequencing tools (Lemlist, HeyReach) to support early outbound

• Implement and manage lightweight automations (HubSpot workflows, Zapier/n8n)

• Track funnel signals and surface insights to inform founder decision-making

• Support early sales motions with CRM hygiene, list building, and simple reporting

About You

• You have 1–4 years of professional experience in a fast-moving, customer-facing, or growth-oriented role (e.g., GTM, sales, Rev Ops, business development, consulting, or something adjacent)

• You’re located in the greater NYC area and are able to be present in our office (near Madison Square Park) 3-4 days per week.

What Sets You Apart

• Critical Thinking Skills: You're a problem solver who breaks down complex challenges, prioritizes effectively, and communicates ideas clearly.

• High-Agency: You take initiative, communicate proactively, drive to solutions, embrace coaching, and close loops.

• Deeply organized: You juggle multiple priorities without dropping details and keep things on track

• Passion: You’re enthusiastic and passionate about early stage startups

• Storyteller: You can quickly synthesize complex insights into a strong POV and communicate it clearly

• Prospecting Techniques + Tools: Experience with GTM tools (i.e., SalesNav, Clay) is a plus, but not required

• Technical Curiosity: You don’t need prior technical experience, but you enjoy experimenting with tools, learning by doing, and staying current on modern GTM and AI workflows.

Career Path Opportunities

This role could be a stepping stone to a variety of roles including:

• Other internal roles at Primary or another VC firm

• Chief Of Staff at an early stage startup

• First GTM or sales hire at an early stage startup

• GTM Engineer role at a fast growing startup

Even if you are not sure what your next role will be, being inside the talent network of a premier VC firm will greatly expand your network and visibility.

Compensation & Benefits

The base salary for this role is $80,000 annually, and this includes healthcare benefits and upside in Primary’s funds. In addition, Primary provides a dedicated career coach to each employee after their first performance review. This role also includes access to Primary events, industry events, and lots of exposure to the startup ecosystem.