Director/ Associate Director — Strategic Partnerships

About Us

Setu is working to reimagine financial products for the next billion users.

How do you put a dent in India’s economy when most of her population cannot afford insurance, credit, investments, etc. through the formal channels that you and I take for granted? Our auto-wallas cannot use Cred, our security guards cannot use Zerodha. There are several examples—you get the idea.

How can we enable them to get on such platforms?

By reducing the cost of distribution. If we break down financial products such as loans, insurance and investments into their fundamental building blocks, and offer them as APIs to businesses, they then package these APIs into highly custom apps, tailor-made for their specific customers, instead of a generic one-size-for-all approach that is the norm today.

This also enables them to go live with a fintech product or service in a matter of days, not months.

We believe that fintech will be a core part of every company’s offering. And at Setu, we’re building the fintech infrastructure that will accelerate this.

More About Setu

Setu is an acquired entity of Pine Labs, one of the fastest growing fintech companies in India and rapidly expanding its footprint in Asia, UAE, and the US. At Pine Labs, we’re looking for those who share our core belief—‘Every Day is Game Day’. We bring our best selves to work each day to realise our mission of enriching the world through the power of digital commerce and financial services. Know more about Pine Labs here!



Job Description

Importance of the role

At Setu, we believe in collaboration- both in action and spirit. Setu has been partnering with diverse FIs to sell-to, sell-with and co-create innovative products. In the last 6 months, we have specifically signed a few marquee partners to co-sell. Now we are looking to build the partnership team as a separate business function to start contributing to revenue. On the other side, we work with many critical data partners like NSDL, e-Mudra among others to co-create some of our key products.

This role is special since it will give you the opportunity to look at the entire market and not be limited by any particular segment or use case. You along with your team can bring immense value to organization by thinking out of the box and bringing business from the initially non-comprehended avenues.

Requirements

What will you do at Setu?

In this role, your sole objective will be to forge business partnerships infused with trust and loyalty. You’ll spend your time—

• Finding new partners and creating a win-win proposition to close them:
• Setu works with multiple types of channel partners including Banks, Bureaus and other complementing domain leaders like card networks to sell and co-create products.
• You will be expected to build and deliver a strong pipeline of strategic partners across these categories using various methods including—direct outreach, event-based networking and desk research.
• Get partners to sign up and start growing the business. We have stitched together some stellar partnerships like credit bureaus, card networks, etc. The expectation will be to groom those partnerships and add to the list.
• What is the value prop for the partner? Why should they work with Setu?
• Who are the key decision-makers at the partner org? How do we get their full buy-in?
• How do you identify the Total Addressible Markets (TAM)?
• Which Setu products should be positioned first?
• Which partner clients would benefit most?
• How should a joint GTM strategy be defined and executed?
• Tell stories and demos that sear themselves into the partner's memory!
• Managing and growing partners to create a multi-year multi-product relationship:
• Develop deep relationships once you’ve signed up key strategic partners— Conceptualise and execute alliances with partners. This means defining:
• Help partner business teams in preparing pitch materials and product demos for each product line and tuning it for different segments of customers.
• Conduct sales training regularly and accompany partner sales reps on calls to ensure their team pitches the products well.
• Support GTM with marketing collateral created jointly with help of the Setu team.
• Conduct monthly business reviews with senior management to ensure continuous drive and business buy in.
• Make friends with everyone in the partner org!
• Build and groom your team:
• You will be given a small team to start with and the team can grow as per the business requirement.
• You will be responsible for taking the team along and will be responsible for their professional well-being in the organization.
• Coordinating with internal stakeholders with Setu to ensure the partners always have the right support:
• With the Business team: Identify and prioritize high-potential products from both growth and revenue perspectives.
• With the Product Management team: Ensuring the right partner feedback is delivered to ensure continuous product improvements.
• With the Marketing team: Create GTM plans and campaigns that can help the partner communicate the right value prop to their customers.
• With the Onboarding team: Ensure best-in-class onboarding timelines and world-class customer support for partner clients.
• With Legal team: Quick turn around on agreements, and standardizing process for both legal and commercial approvals.
• Building and maintaining relationships with key executives and decision-makers in the partner's organization, with a primary focus on business expansion.
• Continuously grow the relationship and revenue potential with these strategic partners.
• Closing commercial agreements and handing them off for integration support and account management.
• Manage partner loyalty — appreciation, advocacy and awarding.
• On-going learnings and reviews:
• Learn and maintain in-depth knowledge of our products, partner priorities, industry trends and competition.
• Day to day management of partnership operations using: analytics-based sales planners (we use Pipedrive as a CRM), partner review dashboards, ensuring FTRs, automation tools etc.
  

Who is the right fit for this role?

To excel in this role, you will need—

• Empathy: We operate with a profoundly consultative approach. Empathy for the partner is a crucial requirement for this role. Asking relevant questions to understand their needs and motivations is critical. Making them feel heard can make all the difference between a transactional relationship and a true long-term partnership.
• Exceptional storytelling skills in both verbal and written form. Stories are the most effective way to communicate complex ideas. Your ability to craft compelling stories in the form of case studies will mean you close deals faster since your customers will understand the value proposition better.
• A burning desire to learn and develop deep fintech expertise. Selling API infrastructure is a lot harder (and more rewarding) than selling cashbacks. You will need to know about:
• How financial products work: You’re aware of how financial products are sold to large enterprises.
• The architecture of legacy systems: In order to educate customers on how we can dramatically improve their business, you must first know where existing systems are broken.
• Hands-on experience in solution-based sales and a deep understanding of APIs.
• Relentlessness: Enterprise sales is all about two words. Following through. Partnerships are rarely closed in one conversation. You will need to be friendly, patient, and relentless.
• Agility and flexibility: Setu provides many solutions. You might walk into a conversation planning to sell a particular product, but your conversations might reveal a different and more pressing customer need. At that moment, you must have the presence of mind to alter your sales pitch to address that need and the pitch materials ready to go.
• Familiarity with CRM systems, such as Salesforce, Pipedrive, Zoho and Trello—a craftsman must know their tools.
  

Benefits

Why Setu?

We will spare no efforts to ensure that Setu empowers you to do the most important and impactful work of your career—

• Opportunity to work closely with the founding team who built and scaled public infrastructure such as UPI, GST, Aadhaar, etc.
• We care deeply about your growth. So we work hard to provide you with—
• A fully stocked library and unlimited book budget.
• Tickets to conferences and industry events.
• Learning sessions where we invite both team members and external experts to teach you something new.
• Learning and development allowance that gives access to subscriptions, courses, certifications, music classes, and much more. Grow, learn, and improve with Setu!
• Kick-ass benefits including comprehensive health insurance for you and your family, personal accident and term life insurance, access to mental health counsellors, extraordinary coffee, and a beautiful office with lots of solid wood and natural light.
• We work hard to make sure our team is diverse and varied. We interview and hire purely on merit, skill, and competence—everything else is irrelevant.
  

Our core DNA

Our culture code—How We Move, defines the behaviours we expect from our people. When you display any of the six culture code elements, you demonstrate ‘Every Day is Game Day’. The six elements of our culture code—

• Take the shot: You decide fast and deliver right.
• Sign your work like an artist: You master what you do and take pride in it.
• Be the sherpa: You lead your crew on every expedition.
• Be the CEO of what you do: You own it and make things happen.
• Care with tough love: You empower others with trust, respect, and openness.
• Own tomorrow: You innovate for the customer and beyond.
  
  

Join us if you want to be part of a company that’s building infrastructure that will directly impact financial inclusion and improve millions of lives. No cashbacks, no growth-hacks, no gimmicks. Just an audacious mission, and an obsession with craftsmanship in code.