Senior Account Executive

Overview

You're selling Zeni's AI bookkeeping platform to startups and small businesses that are currently using QuickBooks + a fractional bookkeeper, or paying $3-5K/month to a traditional accounting firm. Most of your deals are in the $20-50K ACV range (annual subscription + setup fees), and you're working a mix of outbound prospecting and inbound leads from their website and product-led free trial conversions.

Role Snapshot

Company Context

Stage: Series B/C equivalent (432 employees suggests they've raised $30-50M+)

Size: 432 employees

Growth: CRO actively hiring multiple AEs, indicates they're scaling after proving the model

Market Position: Challenger in crowded fintech space - competing against traditional accounting firms, Pilot, Bench, inDinero, and DIY QuickBooks

GTM Reality

Pipeline Sources:

• 30% Inbound - Website demo requests, free trial users who've connected their bank accounts, some content marketing leads. Quality varies - lots of tire-kickers who aren't ready to switch yet.
• 60% Outbound - You're doing your own prospecting via LinkedIn Sales Navigator, cold email sequences, and some cold calling to founders/CFOs at funded startups. You're targeting companies that just raised a round (when they care about cleaning up their books).
• 10% Referrals - Existing customers and VC networks

SDR/AE Structure: Likely some SDR support but you're expected to self-source a significant portion of your pipeline. This is a "senior" role, which usually means they want hunters who don't need their hand held.

SE Support: Probably no dedicated SE - you're doing your own demos of the platform. The product is fairly straightforward (bookkeeping automation), but you need to understand accounting well enough to speak credibly to controllers and CFOs.

Competitive Landscape

Main Competitors:

• Pilot (venture-backed bookkeeping)
• Bench (automated bookkeeping for SMBs)
• inDinero (similar AI + human hybrid model)
• Traditional firms (BDO, RSM for larger customers)
• DIY QuickBooks + fractional bookkeeper

How They Differentiate: "AI-powered" automation + human finance team hybrid. They bundle bookkeeping, bill pay, and financial dashboard in one platform. Banking integration (checking accounts, cards) is a lock-in mechanism.

Common Objections:

• "We're happy with our current bookkeeper" (switching cost)
• "We're too small/not ready yet" (timing)
• "We need an expert who understands our industry" (trust/credibility)
• "Too expensive compared to our current setup" (they don't see full value)
• "We tried automated bookkeeping before and it was a mess" (category skepticism)

Win Themes: Real-time financial visibility, time savings for founders, cleaner books for fundraising/audits, all-in-one platform reduces vendor management

What You'll Actually Do

Time Breakdown

Prospecting (35%) | Active Deals (40%) | Internal/Admin (25%)

Key Activities

• Outbound Prospecting: Spend 1-2 hours daily on LinkedIn, building lists of recently-funded startups, sending connection requests and DMs. You're looking for companies with 10-50 employees who just raised seed through Series B and are probably outgrowing their current bookkeeping setup.
• Product Demos: Run 4-6 demos per week, usually 30-45 minutes, walking through the platform. You're screen-sharing their actual financials (if they've done a trial) or showing generic dashboard examples. Most demos end with "let me talk to my co-founder/CFO" rather than a close.
• Multi-Threading Deals: Chase down stakeholders for next steps. Startups often have the founder, CFO, and maybe a controller involved. You're scheduling follow-ups, sending ROI calculators, getting them on calls with their dedicated finance team member, and pushing toward signed contracts.
• Negotiating & Closing: Deal with procurement, legal review of MSA, pricing negotiations (they'll try to negotiate annual vs monthly pricing). You're often waiting on their lawyer to review the contract, or waiting for their board meeting to approve the budget.

The Honest Reality

What's Hard

• Long consideration cycles: Even though the sales cycle is "1-3 months," deals slip constantly. Companies say they want to switch "next quarter" after tax season, or after they close their current fundraise. Your pipeline timing forecasts will be wrong a lot.
• Switching cost anxiety: You're asking them to fire their current bookkeeper (who they might like personally) and trust an AI system with their financial data. That's a big leap of faith. Lots of deals stall at "we're just not ready to make a change right now."
• Price sensitivity: Startups are cheap. You're selling a $3-5K/month service to companies watching every dollar. Expect a lot of "can we start with just bookkeeping and add bill pay later?" (which breaks your bundling model).
• Product complexity: While the platform looks simple, explaining how AI categorizes transactions, how their dedicated finance team works, and how data flows from their bank to the dashboard requires some accounting knowledge. If you don't understand debits/credits, you'll lose credibility fast.
• High rejection rate: Most funded startups already have a bookkeeping solution they're "fine" with. You're fighting inertia more than competition.

What Success Looks Like

• Closing 1-2 deals per month in the $25-40K range
• Maintaining 3-4x pipeline coverage (so $250-300K in active opportunities at any time)
• 20-25% demo-to-close conversion rate over 90 days
• Average deal size staying above $30K (upselling bill pay, multiple entities, etc.)

Who You're Selling To

Primary Buyers:

• Founders/CEOs (at smaller startups, <25 people)
• CFOs or VP Finance (at larger startups, 25-100 people)
• Controllers (at mid-market companies moving upmarket)

What They Care About:

• Real-time financial visibility: Can they see cash burn, runway, and key metrics in a dashboard without waiting for month-end close?
• Audit-ready books: Clean, GAAP-compliant books for fundraising due diligence or year-end audits
• Time savings: Founders don't want to spend 5 hours/week on QuickBooks and chasing receipts
• Scalability: Will this system work when they're 10 people? 50 people? 200 people?
• Data security: They're connecting their bank accounts - is Zeni SOC 2 compliant? What happens if they get hacked?

Requirements

• 5+ years in B2B SaaS sales, consistently hitting quota
• Proven track record closing $500K-1M+ annually in $20-75K ACV deals
• Experience selling to finance buyers (CFOs, controllers) or founders - you need to speak their language about GAAP, accrual accounting, cash vs. accrual basis, etc.
• Comfortable with full-cycle sales - prospecting, demoing, negotiating, closing. No SDR support to rely on.
• Willing to work in-office in Lehi, UT (5 days/week based on "in-office" requirement)
• Fintech, accounting software, or financial services sales experience is a major plus
• Ability to thrive in high-pressure quota environment - this is a "high-intensity, high-reward" role per the CRO