JOB DESCRIPTION: VP SALES INDIA

US

d.light design is hiring a VP Sales Executive who will report directly to the CEO and build sales and distribution in India. This position is based in Delhi and is an incredible opportunity to work with a high growth Silicon Valley social enterprise funded by both US and Indian investors including Mahindra & Mahindra, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Acumen Fund, Nexus India Capital, Gray Matters Capital and Garage Technology Ventures. Our goal is simple – to eradicate kerosene lanterns from the face of the earth. To do this we will become the market leader in delivering safe and affordable lighting solutions to over 1.6 billion people who currently do not have access to electricity.  Our initial focus is India, where we will provide modern lighting to the 78 million families still using kerosene lanterns.

YOU

You are passionate social entrepreneur, driven to create change and improve the lives of millions of Indian families. You are a great salesmen, with a successful track record and at least seven years experience executing sales and marketing initiatives in India. You are extremely entrepreneurial and creative in acquiring partners and leveraging resources. You are driven to succeed and willing to travel extensively and work long hours to propel d.light. Finally, you are a team builder, ready to build increasingly sophisticated sales teams and a leader that inspires others and acts with the utmost honesty and integrity.  Your role is to :

Lead

·         Create sales and distribution strategies for rural and peri-urban environments

·         Build the d.light brand by managing a national distribution network and sales force

·         Measure distributor and sales team progress against leading indicators

Sell

·         Market test products new to the Indian market and consumer

·         Hit high volume targets in 18 months for d.light’s first five products

·         Engage a range of distribution partners, including multi-national corporations, regional distributors, non-governmental organizations, and government offices

·         Manage key accounts including negotiating pricing and terms with distributors

Plan

·         Forecast sales volumes, profit margins, and net profit and achieve clearly defined, mutually agreed upon revenue/gross profit targets

·         Manage and meet marketing expense budgets

Innovate

·         Develop and continuously evaluate promotional and advertising activities

·         Deliver innovative business models, branding, and marketing approaches

·         Work closely with d.light design’s manufacturing and design officers to consistently improve our product line

Qualifications

·         Masters Level Degree

·         Strong direct and remote sales skills. Extremely comfortable dealing at senior levels. Must bring strong negotiating skills and ability to close

·         Intimate knowledge of rural Indian customer needs.  Hindi fluency required.

·         At least seven years direct experience marketing, selling, and building distribution networks in rural and peri-urban India

·         Knowledge and experience working with distributor networks in India

·         Excellent communications skills: Must have experience crafting and presenting effective proposals, and bring strong demonstrations skills

·         Responsible and resourceful manager who operates effectively without supervision

Compensation

Compensation is commensurate with experience. The VP Sales position is an integral part of our team and will have a competitive combination of salary and equity. The candidate is joining a pre-Series A start-up and should expect a modest base salary and high equity upside. As entrepreneurs, we earn our salary through results which convert into big returns!

Interviews

Interested parties should contact india@dlightdesign.com and include their CV and a statement off interest. Following successful phone interviews, the CEO, Sam Goldman, will  conduct personal interviews in Delhi.

Are you excited? Are you ready to sell millions of lights?

One of d.light’s all-star engineers, Erica Estrada, visited villages in MP during January and February, and shared the story below.  The story is relevant because I recently met with the founder and executive director of Gram Vikas, an innovative NGO and pioneer in sanitation work in east India.  They took over the government contract for providing biogas stoves to villages in Orissa and did an incredible job, building over 54,000 biogas plants with an astonishingly high rate of operation.  Hearing Erica’s story reconfirmed my convictions that we need to move quickly to provide private sources of lighting to families, because the switch from kerosene to electricity, both of which are controlled by the government will be slow in the coming.  This is especially true in Northern India.

***

While touring a very "off-the-beaten-path" village in MP, we kept noticing these huge concrete structures near people's houses.  The structures came in threes: One concrete dome approximately 5ft in diameter, and 2 concrete tubs each about the size of a western bath tub.  The building materials seemed like an anomaly among the earthen essence of the village houses.  

We asked one of the villagers about the structures, and what their use was.  She explained that it was part of a 'government scheme' to bring bio-gas to villages.  It was a breath of fresh air after seeing the lack in availability of kerosene and the prohibitive price of diesel.  Biofuel--what a great idea!  We started asking the lady how the system worked, and were eager to work our way to finding out the impact it's had on her life.  

The conversation starting dying when we realized that she had no idea how the system worked, and that it had been sitting in her yard for about 5 years.  She explained that this was of no use to her because she doesn't own any kind of gas-lamp or gas-stove!  A few years back the head minister of the state was coming for a visit, and so some thought that it would be a great idea to show-off the 'great work' that they are doing for the local villages.  They started the 'scheme,' the minister came and went, and the work for the scheme ended at about the time the minister was getting back into his car to move to his next stop.   Somewhere in this whirlwind of politics and scheming, they forgot to talk to the villagers and find out whether or not they owned any gas-operated appliances.

And so now these giant concrete structures sit--in the graveyard of government schemes.

The Good

First off - It feels GOOD to ship containers of our own d.light manufactured lights. We shipped a container to India, and container orders are coming in from other countries as the pace of adoption picks up. After one and half years of 18hr days, we are starting to see some results!!!  That said, life is busy.  Last week I returned to the US for a few days to say goodbye to friends and family, and I am currently in Europe for a few days on my way to India.  Next week I’ll start searching for my new house in India.  I am really excited to move.  I love all the bustle and growth around Delhi, people’s faces seem full of expectation and anticipation of a more prosperous future, and it’s a great mix side-by-side with India’s abundance of culture and history. 

The Bad

It is sad leaving California and my great friends there. Living in Delhi is also terrible on my lungs and its hard to work off the 18hr days without any meaningful exercise.  Stepping off the plane is a little like opening the door to one of those smoking rooms in the airport and just never coming out.  When I arrived in San Francisco last week it was a dream – the sun so bright I had to squint and the air so light and pure.  But, I am ready for the transition back. Of course, even the delhi air is nothing compared to what the villagers put up with at night, when the women cook over cow dung fires, and the children cluster around fires and kerosene lanterns for warm, inhaling the noxious fumes.

And The Fruitful

Last month, we had 7 people staff in the Indian states of Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh for a couple weeks.  They spent time interviewing families, sleeping in villages, demonstrating products to distributors, and learning about how goods make it from Delhi, or Bombay, or Chennai (the port towns) through India’s web of intermediaries and freight forwarders, and into the very discriminating hands of small town shopkeepers and rural customers.  We will have some great stories and photos up on our new website soon (www.dlightdesign.com), and some new products are coming out of these explorations. 

One thing is certain, there is absolutely nothing in Delhi that compares with sleeping in the villages.  I LOVED it.  Peace and quiet.  No horns. Great food. Generosity.  It was really important for me to reconnect with rural families making a hard living farming, and to understand what is front and center on their minds (ie agriculture and getting water for their fields).  It was also sad to help young children out with their homework by the light of dung fires.  I could barely see their books and the smoke made my eyes sting and water.  They seemed used to it, but when I broke down and provided one of our lights to see how behavior would change all the students migrated below it.  Now the eternal challenge - how to make it affordable to these families.  That’s what we are going to figure out.