Win real customers for a real tech startup. Prove it in the pipeline.
Gain real sales experience, from first outreach to closed deals, and create evidence you can show employers. You sell a live product for a tech startup, your activity shows up in a real pipeline, and you leave with results and a Tech Founder reference.
For every level: new to sales, moving from a customer-facing role, already selling or ready to lead. Voluntary and fully remote, up to three hours a day across a 60 Volunteer day term.
Role plays show potential. A real pipeline shows results.
Sales hiring managers want numbers: meetings booked, deals moved, revenue won. They are hard to show without a sales job. At an early tech startup you sell a real product to real buyers, with a Tech Founder beside you, and every result is yours to quote.
Real buyers
Prospect, call and demo to the companies the product is built for.
Close to the founder
Learn how a founder sells, and help shape the pitch, the pricing and the process.
Numbers you can quote
Meetings, pipeline value and customers won, recorded in a real CRM.
Find your starting point.
Tech startups need sales people at every level. Check which description fits you, what you should already know and what you would take on.
New to sales
Graduates, career changers and anyone curious about selling, with no sales job yet.
- You should already know
- How to write a clear, polite message and hold a conversation with a stranger.
- You would take on
- Researching target accounts, building lead lists, logging activity in the CRM and your first outreach with guidance.
From a customer-facing role
People from retail, hospitality, support, recruitment or account management who want a sales role on their record.
- You should already know
- How to listen to customers, handle objections and build trust quickly.
- You would take on
- Outbound sequences, qualifying leads, booking discovery calls and supporting demos.
Already selling
SDRs, account executives and business developers who want tech startup or SaaS experience.
- You should already know
- Prospecting, discovery, running demos and moving a deal through stages.
- You would take on
- Owning deals end to end, proposals, closing and expanding existing accounts.
Ready to lead
Sales managers, heads of sales and senior sellers, including people returning after a break.
- You should already know
- Sales strategy, forecasting, coaching and how to build a repeatable process.
- You would take on
- Setting the target and process, leading a Volunteer sales team, coaching and owning the forecast.
Nine sales roles, one pathway.
These are the Volunteer roles tech startups list when they build their Sales team. Start in one, then grow across the team as your Volunteer Terms add up.
Head of Sales / Sales Lead
Owns the revenue target, the sales strategy and the team. Sets the process, coaches the reps and keeps the forecast honest.
Account Executive / Business Development
Owns deals end to end, from discovery and demo to proposal and close.
Sales Development Representative (SDR)
Prospects, qualifies and books the meetings that fill the pipeline.
Customer Success and Account Manager
Keeps customers happy, renews and expands revenue from existing accounts.
Sales Operations Support
Keeps the CRM, process and tools running smoothly, so the team sells instead of searching.
Proposal and Deal Support
Builds proposals and pricing documents that move deals over the line.
Sales Enablement and Training
Writes the playbooks, scripts and training that help every seller win.
Market Research and Lead Intelligence
Finds the right accounts, decision makers and buying signals.
Sales Analyst
Measures performance, cleans the data and sharpens the forecast.
Opportunities change daily. Create your free Volunteer profile to see live sales opportunities and apply.
What a Volunteer Term can look like.
Every tech startup is different. This example shows the kind of deliverables a sales Volunteer takes on, step by step, for a real product.
Learn the product and the buyer
Sit in on calls with the Tech Founder, learn the ideal customer and the problems the product solves.
Build a target list
Research 100 or more target accounts and the right contacts, and load them into the CRM.
Run an outreach sequence
Write and send a short email and LinkedIn sequence, then improve it from the replies.
Book and run discovery calls
Qualify interest, book calls and support demos with the Tech Founder.
Report the pipeline
Share meetings booked, pipeline value and lessons learned in your weekly update.
Contributor, then owner, then lead.
Many Volunteers continue for up to three consecutive Volunteer Terms by mutual agreement. Each term can add responsibility, and every handover matters, because succession planning keeps the pipeline moving when you move on.
Contribute
Research accounts, run outreach, book meetings and keep the CRM clean.
Own
Own a segment or a set of deals, run demos and send proposals.
Lead
Lead the sales process, coach newer Volunteers and hand over a documented playbook.
Leave with numbers, not a list of courses.
Depending on your role and the deliverables you complete, a Volunteer Term can leave you with evidence a hiring manager can check.
Pipeline you created
Meetings booked and opportunities added, recorded in a real CRM.
Outreach that performed
Sequences you wrote, with open and reply rates.
Deals you moved
Demos, proposals and customers won or renewed.
A sales playbook
Scripts, objection handling and process you documented.
A Tech Founder reference
You can ask the Tech Founder you collaborated with for a reference.
Global connections
Connections with founders and sales professionals across 158+ countries.
AI writes the emails. People win the trust.
AI now researches accounts, drafts outreach and updates the CRM in seconds. That makes the human parts of selling more valuable, not less: understanding a buyer's problem, building trust and guiding a decision. Volunteers who combine AI tools with real conversations will stand out.
Research at speed
Use AI to find accounts and signals, then judge which ones matter.
Personal at scale
Let AI draft, then make every message sound like a person who did their research.
People buy from people
Discovery, demos and closing still depend on trust that only a human can earn.
Sell alongside marketing and customer success.
Sales shares one pipeline with Marketing, which creates the demand, and Customer Success, which keeps customers growing.
Marketing
The marketers who generate the leads you follow up.
Head of Marketing
The leader you align with on targets and the shared pipeline.
Product Management
The product managers who turn what buyers ask for into the road map.
All career pathways
See every pathway, from market research to legal.
What happens after you click.
Four simple steps from sign up to your first deliverable.
Create your free profile
Sign up as a Volunteer. It takes a couple of minutes.
Set out your sales skills
Add your experience, the tools you know and any results, honestly.
Apply to opportunities
Apply to sales opportunities at tech startups, up to three live applications at a time.
Agree and deliver
Interview, sign the Volunteer Agreement, agree the outcome brief and deliver from Day 1 with daily and weekly updates.
Before you apply.
Can I join without any sales experience? +
Will I be asked to make cold calls? +
Do I earn commission? +
How much time must I commit? +
Will this help me get a sales job? +
I am a founder. Where do I recruit sales Volunteers? +
Sell a real product, not a role play.
Join a tech startup's sales team for a 60 Volunteer day term. Free, fully remote and flexible.
Create your free profile, set out your sales skills and interests, and apply for suitable tech startup opportunities. You can hold up to three live applications at a time.