About LOVB:
League One Volleyball (LOVB) is reimagining women's sports. Launched in 2019, our company is a mission-led sports performance, training and media enterprise that will change the game of volleyball in the USA and empower new generations of female athletes.
It is a groundbreaking time for volleyball in the US with our historic triple Olympic Gold medals in Women's Indoor, Beach and Sitting Volleyball. Volleyball is already the #1 most played girls' youth sport. There are 38M current and former players today. Of major sports, it's the only one that is women-first (~90% of players are female). But the volleyball market has been almost entirely missed by traditional sports investors, brands and media.
LOVB will capture this opportunity by creating a strong club business and from that built-in audience and fandom create the best Pro League in the world and use a digital media platform that will connect all aspects of LOVB. This community-up approach will drive participation and fandom, while enabling greater empowerment for girls and young women living this amazing sport.
The Role:
The Business Development Manager role is a unique opportunity to be a key player in developing LOVB's club communities across the country, focused on volley-obsessed markets with value-aligned leaders. In this role, you will lead multiple deals from start to finish. You will be tasked with developing trusted relationships with youth club leaders, evaluating clubs both financially and qualitatively, and negotiating deal terms, all with the goal of expanding LOVB's community footprint and building LOVB's youth club ecosystem. This position reports to the Head of M&A.
Key Activities and Skills:
- Establish relationships with youth club leaders and manage deal processes, from discovery to negotiations and ultimately through final diligence and documentation
- Analyze club financials and establish baseline to determine purchase price
- Evaluate a club's fit with LOVB's mission and values and verify reputation of key leadership and overall club culture
- Screen target clubs across the country to evaluate leadership teams and operating potential capable of growing from baselines to high-performing leaders in respective regional markets
- Collaborate with internal departments and Head of M&A to evaluate clubs, assessing financial and operational risks and structuring deal to mitigate those risks
- Build balanced scorecards that articulate the qualitative and quantitative factors that determine fit with LOVB's mission & vision
- Present club overview, highlights, risks, and terms of key deals to senior management and Investment Committee, providing clear strategic direction and thoughtful recommendations
- Work with LOVB counsel to review and identify risks in existing club contracts and to transfer acquisition and operational terms into legal documentation
Experience:
- Bachelor's Degree with an emphasis in Business or Economics, MBA preferred
- 3 to 5 years of consulting, business development, investment banking, VC, or corporate M&A experience strongly preferred
- Balanced analytical approach and professional relationship building to develop strong connections between internal team and priority clubs in evaluating mutual fit
- Demonstrated success in financial analysis and building scorecards (qualitative and quantitative) in assessing acquisition viability and recommending best alternatives
- Experience working across multiple digital platforms to organize and manage parallel workstreams (e.g., MS Office, Teams, SharePoint, Bigin, DocuSign, etc.)
- Experience translating high-impact business terms into formal contracts, working with legal counsel
- A proven ability to expedite with high quality control to advance the M&A process from start to close, efficiently
Capability & Other Personal Characteristics:
The ideal candidate is passionate about our mission at LOVB and can successfully build relationships and connect with club owners. You are a leader who is able to manage multiple acquisitions, often with multiple stakeholders, and to organize, schedule and overcome bottle-necks (e.g., data gathering, follow-ups, iterative negotiations, etc.), while simultaneously being mindful of the time constraints, wants and needs of the club owners/key leadership. Excellent communication, organizational, and financial valuation skills are your key strengths. You are not afraid to test and learn, to improve processes through inquiry and recommendations that balance risk/reward in high-growth ventures.
Location:
- Flexibility to work anywhere in the US (primarily over Zoom and digital platforms) with willingness to travel for regular offsites, tournaments, clubs, and other business-related destinations
- Reports to the Head of M&A based in Pacific Standard Time
We strongly encourage people of color, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and non-binary people, veterans, parents, and individuals with disabilities to apply. LOVB is an equal opportunity employer and welcomes everyone to our team
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