Originations Associate

Palm Venture Studios•Austin, TX

About The Position

Palm Venture Studios is seeking a driven, relationship-oriented business development professional to join as an Originations Associate. This role is exclusively focused on building and maintaining high-value deal flow channels for the firm, and perfect for MBA graduates with BD experience who want to develop an investment sourcing track record. This is not an investing or diligence position. Instead, you’ll own this high-velocity originations function with a focus on engaging with strategic partners, fielding new investment opportunities, and presenting these to the investment team. Our referral partners include: Venture debt lenders and banks Restructuring firms, assignees and trustees Independent sponsors Turnaround advisors Venture capital firms Startup-focused law firms and service providers You’ll act as an ambassador for Palm Venture Studios, being a value-add partner to our ecosystem and ensuring we’re top-of-mind and highly responsive when opportunities emerge. This role works directly with the investment team overseeing origination and is mentored by senior leadership. It is a paid short-term contract position (with potential for extension) requiring your full-time commitment.

Requirements

3+ years of experience in business development, sales, capital markets, lending, restructuring, or a highly network-driven role
Highly proactive, organized, and comfortable with high-volume outreach
Demonstrated success building and managing external relationships that generate revenue or opportunities
Existing network within venture debt, independent sponsor, restructuring, venture capital, or startup ecosystems strongly preferred
Strong written and verbal communication skills
Ability to represent the firm with credibility among senior professionals
Priority will be given to candidates based in Austin, TX
Naturally relationship-driven and energized by outbound engagement
Comfortable operating with autonomy and clear performance expectations
Enjoys building systems and iterating around relationship management and pipeline tracking

Responsibilities

Relationship Development Reach out daily to a targeted list of strategic contacts using phone, email, LinkedIn, etc.
Build new strategic relationships through thoughtful outbound business development activity
Establish recurring touchpoints with priority partners to stay top-of-mind
Develop a systematic approach to nurturing long-term referral relationships
Deal Flow Activation Generate qualified opportunities from cultivated referral sources and maintain disciplined follow-up
Ask thoughtful questions to gather key deal information
Facilitate warm intros between referral partners, leads and Palm investment team
Reporting & Data Capture Maintain accurate and consistent reporting on your daily activity and outreach performance
Log all activity, leads and associated details in Palm’s CRM