A Day In The Life Of A Director Of Strategic Partnerships At A Fintech Climate Startup
Rebecca's role as Director of Strategic Partnerships at a fintech climate startup involves a dynamic, non-traditional workday, beginning with daily calls to maintain strong relationships with the UK team and internal stakeholders, ensuring "Rebecca's alive, Rebecca's awake". The remainder of the day is a blend of external relationship-building through coffee meetings and outreach, alongside internal collaboration and project work, encompassing "rapid fire" pipeline building and more in-depth partnership development across climate, finance, and automotive industries.
Networking, Relationship Building, Strategic Partnerships, Project Management, Communication
Advizer Information
Name
Job Title
Company
Undergrad
Grad Programs
Majors
Industries
Job Functions
Traits
Rebecca Saletta
Director of Strategic Partnerships
Fintech Climate Start-up
UCLA
N/a
Communications
Climate, Environment, Sustainability & Waste Management, Finance (Banking, Fintech, Investing)
Business Strategy
None Applicable
Video Highlights
1. The dynamic nature of a startup environment and the lack of a typical workday. Rebecca emphasizes that each day is different and requires adaptability.
2. The importance of proactive relationship building, both internally (across various teams) and externally (with potential partners, industry professionals). Coffee meetings and consistent communication are key strategies.
3. The multifaceted role involving pipeline development (outreach, communication), deal negotiation (pricing, agreements), and project management, requiring a blend of rapid-fire actions and deeper relationship cultivation.
Transcript
What does a day in the life of a director of strategic partnerships look like?
A day in the life. This is a startup, so as many people know, there's no traditional day in the life at a startup. But usually in the mornings, I start by building relationships with my UK team. I'm the only person in America, so when I wake up, they're all going to bed.
I start around seven. To keep those relationships strong, I know myself well enough that I would be bored if my teammates were all asleep and I had no one to interact with. So, I set up calls every day of the week. These calls get me out of bed at seven and involve connecting with internal colleagues from operations, product, marketing, and finance teams, as well as the C-suite.
This way, they all know Rebecca is alive and awake. They give me the download of what they did during their day, which I can then pick up and run with. So, after those calls, it's basically on calls with the UK team from seven to ten in the morning.
Usually, throughout the day, at least once or twice a week, I have a coffee meeting. This is an external meeting where I'll go and meet with someone, perhaps from another startup I'm trying to build a partnership with, or someone from the industry.
I'm in the climate, finance, and automotive industries, which are a few different buckets. This means I have to have a lot of different kinds of coffees to understand how to learn. I try to engage in these meetings to gain some on-the-ground momentum.
Then, I do a lot of outreach. That's pipeline building, reaching out to people saying, "Hey, we'd love to have a chat. Can we talk?" We'll get on a call. If there's a particular partnership I'm building, my day might involve running pricing for someone and going back and forth to reach an agreement. I run those relationships a little deeper.
So, I spend time with internal relationships, spend time with external relationships, and then I work on projects. These include rapid-fire projects like building pipeline, and projects that are a little deeper. Those are the four buckets I usually dabble in.