Venture Sales & Growth Associate
HybridPurcellville, VA — flexible hybrid8–12 hours per week, semester-based, starting Fall 2026$15/hour plus generous performance-based commission
One unusually sharp college student, working directly with the founder on real prospects and real revenue across four early-stage companies. No previous sales experience required.
[ 01 ]The role
What this actually is
I'm a local entrepreneur in Purcellville building and operating several early-stage businesses across artificial intelligence, government contracting, business software, and enterprise procurement. I'm looking for one unusually sharp, motivated college student who wants to learn how businesses actually find customers, win business, and grow.
This is not a traditional internship. You will not spend the semester fetching coffee, making PowerPoints nobody reads, or sitting silently in meetings. You will work directly with me on real companies, real prospects, real sales opportunities, and real revenue.
The businesses you may work with include PropelAI (AI consulting and implementation for small and midsized businesses), ChamberBee (software for chambers of commerce), GovConCommand (software and services for government contractors), and SiteProcure (technology supporting procurement and management of exterior property services). You won't be expected to learn or sell everything at once — we'll focus on specific markets and campaigns, figure out what works, and expand from there.
Yes, this is a sales job. You will contact people who don't know us. Some won't respond. Some will say no. You'll follow up anyway. You'll learn how to start conversations with business owners and executives, understand what matters to them, communicate value, handle objections, and determine whether there is a legitimate business opportunity. If the idea of calling someone you've never met makes you deeply uncomfortable, this probably isn't the right role. If it makes you a little nervous but also sounds exciting, keep reading.
You'll work directly with the founder rather than being buried several layers inside an organization. We'll regularly review who we're targeting, what outreach we're trying, what prospects are saying, which opportunities look real, what's working, what's failing, and what we should try next. I expect you to eventually challenge my ideas, suggest better approaches, and notice things I'm missing. If you're good at this, you'll get increasing responsibility quickly.
I'm initially treating this as a part-time, semester-based position — but I'm building these companies for the long term. If we find someone exceptional, I would much rather keep giving that person more responsibility, more opportunity and more earning potential than constantly hire new interns. For the right person, this could grow from a college job into a substantial role within one or more of these businesses.
What you’ll do
- Research companies, organizations and potential customers
- Identify the right decision-makers inside those organizations
- Build highly targeted prospect lists
- Learn enough about each prospect to communicate intelligently with them
- Write personalized email and LinkedIn outreach
- Make outbound phone calls, and follow up
- Qualify potential opportunities and schedule discovery meetings
- Sit in on sales calls and customer meetings, and help prepare for them
- Keep the CRM and sales pipeline organized
- Track which messages, approaches and campaigns actually work
- Help us experiment with new ways to generate customers
What we’re looking for
- No previous sales experience — intelligence, drive, curiosity, communication and attitude matter far more
- Extremely dependable, organized, and able to work independently
- A strong writer, comfortable speaking with adults and business professionals
- Competitive, persistent and resourceful — not easily discouraged by rejection
- Comfortable learning new technology, and willing to ask questions
- Interested in business or entrepreneurship
- Currently enrolled in college, able to work in person in Purcellville some of the time
What you’ll learn
- Founder-led sales, B2B sales and enterprise sales
- Customer discovery, pricing and negotiation
- Go-to-market strategy and lead generation
- CRM and pipeline management
- Business writing and executive communication
- Product positioning and small-business operations
- Artificial intelligence, SaaS businesses and government contracting
- How messy, iterative and interesting building a real company actually is
Nice to have, not required
- Background or interest in business, economics, government, political campaigns, debate, journalism, mock trial, strategic intelligence, technology or entrepreneurship
- Your major matters much less than your ability — this is a list of things that tend to correlate, not a filter
[ 02 ]Apply
Apply for Venture Sales & Growth Associate.
One form, one PDF, no account to create. Attach a resume, point us at something you built, and tell us what you want to work on. Every application goes straight to Mike.
Please don't send a generic cover letter written by AI. Send your resume, a short note on why this particular job sounds interesting to you, and your answer to the question below. There isn't one correct answer — I'm interested in how you think.
PropelAI is an equal opportunity employer. We consider all qualified applicants without regard to any characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law. If you need an accommodation at any point in the process, say so in your application or email [email protected] and we will sort it out.