Business Development Associate - Origination

About Vintage Stone Capital Vintage Stone Capital is a private equity firm focused on acquiring and growing lower middle market industrial businesses in the United States, typically 2m to 10m in EBITDA. We combine a rigorous investment process with a proactive origination engine. Our goal is to build one of the sharpest sourcing platforms in the market for founder and family owned industrial companies. We are now hiring a Business Development Associate whose primary mission is to build relationships directly with owners and generate a steady flow of high quality, on profile sellers for our investment team. Role Overview This is a seller focused, phone heavy origination role for someone with a true hunter mindset. Your job is to spend your day identifying industrial business owners who fit our criteria, getting them on the phone, having thoughtful conversations about their goals, and turning the right ones into genuinely interested potential sellers. You will not be measured on generic meetings with investment bankers or lenders. Senior partners at Vintage Stone lead those relationships. Your lane is the hard part: opening doors with owners who are busy running real companies and keeping a disciplined pipeline of live opportunities. Think of this role as a hybrid of SDR, investment origination, and consultative outreach to mid market entrepreneurs. You wake up thinking about who you can hunt today and you close your laptop only after you have moved the pipeline forward. What You Will Do Core responsibilities Source new opportunities with founders and owners of U.S. industrial businesses that fit our investment criteria Run high volume, high quality outbound outreach to owners by phone, email, and LinkedIn Hold live conversations with owners to understand their business, their motivations, and their openness to a sale, recap, or growth capital Qualify owners against our buy box and confirm real interest in exploring a transaction in the next 6 to 24 months Set up and coordinate next steps with Vintage Stone partners, including intro calls and follow ups Pipeline and reporting Maintain a clean, accurate pipeline in our CRM for all target companies and owner conversations Document every outreach attempt, call outcome, and agreed next step with discipline Track and report weekly activity metrics and results Work closely with the partners to refine lists, messaging, and targeting based on what is actually working in the market Market awareness Research industrial subsectors, clusters, and company lists to build targeted hit lists of potential sellers Use news, trade shows, industry directories, association lists, and other signals to identify potential seller intent Capture insights from your conversations to help sharpen our investment theses and our sourcing angles What Success Looks Like You are measured primarily on outcomes, not just dials. A consistent flow of new, qualified, genuinely interested owners sourced from your outreach Clear weekly and quarterly KPIs, including: New conversations with decision makers at on profile companies New qualified interested sellers added to the pipeline NDAs and follow on meetings that originated from your work You will have a clear target for new qualified interested sellers per month and a performance based bonus tied to that funnel and to closed deals that started with you. Who You Are You have a hunter mindset - you like the chase, you like opening new doors, and you measure your day in high quality conversations, not just tasks checked off 0 to 2 years of experience in sales, business development, recruiting, investment banking, consulting, or a similar outbound role Excellent spoken and written English, comfortable on the phone with seasoned business owners and financial professionals You enjoy being on the phone, asking smart questions, and uncovering what is really going on inside a business You are resilient - hearing no all day does not bother you as long as you are moving closer to the right yes You are organized and process driven, able to manage a high volume of outreach and follow ups without dropping balls You are genuinely curious about how companies make money, how industrial sectors work, and how private equity creates value You care about representing Vintage Stone Capital in a professional, thoughtful way in every interaction Compensation and Growth Competitive base salary for a U.S. based early career candidate Target annual bonus of approximately 25k tied directly to origination results and closed deals sourced by you Significant upside for outperformers through accelerators and additional bonuses Direct mentorship from partners and a front row seat to how lower middle market private equity works in practice Clear path to grow into a senior origination role and, for top performers, potential to migrate into the investing side over time if you think you're a fit, email your resume to redacted