Business Development Intern (MBA), Home Services

NewsBreak•Mountain View, CA

6d•$40 - $60•Remote

About The Position

We're looking for an MBA-level Business Development & Strategy Intern to own a merchant-acquisition initiative end-to-end — from market research and territory selection, through self-sourced outreach and negotiation, to data-driven analysis and a final recommendation to leadership. This isn't a role where you follow a script someone else wrote. You'll get a market, a goal, and a blank page — and it's on you to figure out the smartest way to win it. You'll be measured on real business outcomes: partners signed, pipeline built, insight generated — not just activity.

Requirements

Currently pursuing an MBA (or equivalent graduate business program), ideally with prior experience in consulting, sales, BD, or a startup
Comfortable being fully self-directed — you build the plan, not just execute someone else's
Strong quantitative and analytical skills; genuinely comfortable working in spreadsheets and data
Excellent written and verbal communication, with the confidence to pick up the phone, knock on a door, and negotiate directly with small-business owners
High tolerance for ambiguity and rejection — energized by 0-to-1, hands-on work, and comfortable inventing your own approach as you go

Responsibilities

Independently map the local service-provider landscape in an assigned category or geography (e.g., HVAC in a specific metro): merchant density, acquisition channels, and competitive platforms (Angi, Thumbtack, Yelp, etc.)
Build your own scoring framework to size the opportunity and decide which merchant categories or neighborhoods to go after first
Build your own target list and figure out the smartest way to reach each one — no inherited leads, no playbook handed to you
Introduce Nearby.ai and pitch the value proposition to local business owners, handling objections yourself
Build and maintain a pipeline in a CRM or spreadsheet with real discipline: stage, next step, expected close
Treat outreach as a live experiment — test channels, messaging, and timing, and double down on what the data says is working
Analyze outreach and conversion data to identify what's working and quantify results (contacts made, response rates, conversion rates)
Turn merchant feedback into structured insight that could shape Nearby.ai's value proposition or onboarding process
Build a simple business case (expected partners signed, revenue impact) to justify where to focus next
Independently draft outreach scripts, pitch decks, and partnership proposals tailored to each merchant type
Lead onboarding conversations through to close
Recommend improvements to the onboarding process based on what you hear from merchants
Report weekly on outreach metrics and pipeline, framed as insights and next steps, not just raw counts
Deliver a final presentation to the team: your market analysis, results, and a recommended go-forward strategy for merchant acquisition