Head of Growth — TurnStay

Head of Growth — TurnStay

Location: Cape Town (hybrid) · Type: Full-time · Reports to: Co-founders (Jamie Hedley & Alon Stern)

About TurnStay

TurnStay is building the financial operating system for the African travel sector. Today we power lower-cost international card payments with dramatically better conversion rates for travel businesses — travel agents, DMCs, tour operators, lodges, and the PMS/booking platforms that serve them.

We process multiple billions in payment volume per year and work with leading travel brands across the continent. We're growing fast — with a bold mission to scale volume by an order of magnitude. The long-term vision is a closed-loop payment network for African travel: money moving between merchants stays inside our rails, giving us a structural cost advantage no incumbent can match.

We're a founder-led, AI-first startup that builds fast and iterates faster. This is a rare chance to own growth at the inflection point.

The Role

We're hiring a Head of Growth to be the engine behind our 10x. You'll own the full growth function — from top-of-funnel demand generation through to landing and expanding large enterprise accounts. This is a hands‑on leadership role: you'll lead our small sales team from day one while staying close to the deals yourself, and grow the team as we scale.

You will:

• Own the revenue growth target — architect and execute the plan to scale our payment volume by an order of magnitude
• Land enterprise logos — tour operators, DMCs, and large travel merchants; run outbound, build pipeline, close deals
• Drive PMS & platform integrations — partner travel‑related booking platforms, and similar to unlock hotel/lodge onboarding at scale
• Build the growth engine — demand gen, outbound, partnerships, lifecycle, and referral loops; instrument everything
• Own the funnel end‑to‑end — define the ICP, build the playbook, set up the CRM motion (we run Attio), and report on CAC, conversion, and payback
• Lead the sales team — lead our existing small sales team from day one, and grow it into a high‑leverage growth team as we scale
• Be AI‑first — use AI tooling aggressively to do the work of a much larger team

What We're Looking For

Non‑negotiables:

• You've 10x'd a company before — you've personally led a business through a significant increase in revenue or volume, and can walk us through how you did it
• 7+ years in growth / commercial / revenue roles, with a track record of driving step‑change growth
• Deep experience in payments, fintech, or travel‑tech — you understand interchange, FX, conversion, merchant onboarding, or the travel distribution stack (OTAs, DMCs, PMS, GDS)
• Enterprise B2B sales chops — you've personally built pipeline and closed six/seven‑figure deals
• Data‑driven operator — fluent in funnel metrics, cohort analysis, CAC/LTV, and attribution
• Builder mentality — comfortable going from zero, no playbook, hands dirty

Strong pluses:

• Existing network in African travel, hospitality, or payments
• Experience with partnership‑led / platform‑led growth (integrations, channel)
• Startup / scale‑up background; thrives in ambiguity and speed
• Familiarity with modern growth + AI tooling (Attio, Apollo, outbound automation, AI workflows)

You are:

• A closer and a builder — equally comfortable in a deck, a spreadsheet, and a sales call
• Low‑ego, high‑ownership; you measure yourself by results, not activity
• Excited by the mission: reshaping how money moves across African travel

Why TurnStay

• Massive, underserved market — travel payments in Africa are broken; we fix them
• Real traction — multiple billions in annual volume, leading travel brands, clear path to scale
• Structural moat — closed‑loop network economics that compound
• Founder access & ownership — work directly with the founders; meaningful equity
• AI‑first culture — we build with the best tools and move at the frontier

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