Account Executive (Technical Product)

Overview

You're selling a technical product (AI, data infrastructure, or developer tools based on the backing) to technical buyers. This is full-cycle sales—you're prospecting, running demos, handling objections about architecture/security/implementation, and closing deals. The $360K OTE and strong backing (Vercel co-founder + Google Ventures) suggests you're selling into mid-market or early enterprise accounts with deal sizes likely in the $50-100K+ range.

Role Snapshot

Company Context

Stage: Series A (inferred from Google Ventures backing and hiring AEs now)

Size: Likely 20-50 employees based on stage

Growth: Well-funded with top-tier investors suggests strong runway and growth targets

Market Position: Likely competing in a crowded technical infrastructure space—need to differentiate on specific use case or performance

GTM Reality

Pipeline Sources:

• 30-40% Inbound - developer communities, content marketing, maybe some PLG motion with free tier
• 50-60% Outbound - you're sourcing a lot yourself via LinkedIn, cold email to technical leaders
• 10% Partners/Referrals - early stage means this is still building

SDR/AE Structure: Early stage probably means limited SDR support. You'll likely self-source 60-70% of your pipeline.

SE Support: Unknown, but at Series A selling technical products, you might have 1-2 SEs shared across the team. Don't count on dedicated support for every call.

Competitive Landscape

Main Competitors: Unknown without knowing exact product, but likely 3-5 direct competitors plus larger platform players

How They Differentiate: Investor backing suggests novel technical approach or better performance on specific use case

Common Objections:

• "We already have [incumbent solution]"
• "Our eng team would need to evaluate this"
• Security/compliance questions
• Implementation timeline concerns

Win Themes: Likely better performance, easier implementation, or solving a specific technical pain point the competition doesn't address

What You'll Actually Do

Time Breakdown

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

Key Activities

• Prospecting technical buyers: You're finding VPs of Engineering, CTOs, or technical leads on LinkedIn. You're writing cold emails that show you understand their tech stack. Most won't respond. You need 50-75 quality touches per week to keep pipeline moving.

• Running technical discovery calls: You're asking about their current setup, pain points, and technical requirements. You need to speak their language—if you say "API" and can't explain REST vs GraphQL, you'll lose credibility fast.

• Coordinating technical validation: Getting their engineers to test the product, scheduling demos with your SE, chasing them for feedback. This is where deals stall most—their eng team is busy and your eval isn't their priority.

• Navigating procurement and legal: Once technical validation passes, you're working with their finance/legal team on contracts, security reviews, data processing agreements. This adds 3-6 weeks minimum.

The Honest Reality

What's Hard

• Technical credibility: You're selling to engineers who can tell if you're bullshitting. You need to actually understand the product architecture, not just repeat marketing slides.

• Long evaluation cycles: Technical products require proof of concepts, security reviews, and multiple stakeholder approvals. Deals you think will close this quarter regularly slip 30-60 days.

• Self-sourcing pressure: At Series A, there aren't enough inbound leads. You're doing a lot of cold outbound while also managing active deals. It's hard to context-switch between prospecting mode and closing mode.

What Success Looks Like

• Closing 10-12 deals per year at $50-150K each to hit your $1.5-2M number
• Maintaining 3-4x pipeline coverage ($6-8M in pipeline to make your number)
• Getting technical champions inside accounts who advocate for you internally

Who You're Selling To

Primary Buyers:

• VP of Engineering / CTO (technical buyer and budget owner)
• Engineering Managers / Tech Leads (day-to-day users and technical evaluators)
• Sometimes CFO/finance for larger deals

What They Care About:

• Does it actually work? They want to test it themselves, see benchmarks, talk to other technical users
• Implementation effort: How long to get value? Do they need to rewrite code? What's the migration path?
• Cost vs build: Could their team build this internally? What's the opportunity cost?

Requirements

• 3+ years in B2B SaaS sales (SDR/BDR/AE background acceptable)
• At least 1 year of closing experience (carrying a quota)
• Experience selling technical products (AI, data infrastructure, developer tools, etc.)
• Ability to have credible technical conversations—you don't need to code, but you need to understand architecture concepts
• Comfortable with self-sourced pipeline and outbound prospecting
• Track record of hitting quota in a startup environment