Founding Account Executive

Overview

You're the first AE at a 17-person social listening startup that helps B2B teams turn social signals into actionable insights. You'll own the full sales cycle for larger deals, build the strategic account motion from nothing, and work directly with the founder to define what "enterprise" even means here. No inherited playbook - you're writing it.

Role Snapshot

Company Context

Stage: Early-stage (likely seed/pre-Series A based on size)

Size: 17 employees

Growth: First strategic AE hire - moving upmarket from existing PAYG base

Market Position: Emerging player in social listening/intelligence for B2B - competing against established monitoring tools and newer AI-powered platforms

Product: Social listening platform that captures professional network signals (LinkedIn, etc.) and routes insights to marketing, product, and sales teams. Focuses on signal-to-noise ratio - filtering for what actually matters.

GTM Reality

Pipeline Sources:

• Self-sourced outbound (100% initially) - you're building the motion
• PAYG customer expansion - existing smaller customers ready to scale up
• Inbound from marketing campaigns (you'll help shape these)

SDR/AE Structure: No SDR support - you're doing full-cycle

SE Support: No dedicated SE - founder/product team helps on technical calls

Current State: They have customers on pay-as-you-go who love the product. You're figuring out how to land larger, committed deals and what the ICP even looks like at higher ACVs.

Competitive Landscape

Main Competitors: Likely competing against Brandwatch, Sprinklr, Mention for social listening; Crossbeam/Reveal for signal intelligence; potentially sales engagement tools with social components

How They Differentiate: Goes deeper on professional networks (LinkedIn), AI-powered signal distillation vs just monitoring, routes insights to specific teams vs dumping data

Common Objections:

• "We already use [established tool]"
• "How is this different from our social media manager manually checking?"
• "Seems like nice-to-have vs must-have"
• Early-stage company risk for enterprise buyers

Win Themes: Signal quality over volume, professional network coverage, AI insight routing, flexibility for smaller teams

What You'll Actually Do

Time Breakdown

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

Key Activities

• Build outbound from scratch: Research target accounts, test messaging, try different channels (email, LinkedIn, calls). Most won't respond. You'll iterate weekly on what works and document it.

• Move PAYG customers upmarket: Identify which existing customers could commit to larger contracts. Schedule expansion conversations. Many will say "we're happy as-is" - your job is figuring out the upgrade path that makes sense.

• Run full sales cycles: First call through close, no handoffs. Discovery, demo (probably with founder initially), proposal, negotiation, contract. You'll learn what questions matter and what objections kill deals.

• Define the product together: Weekly syncs with CEO on positioning, pricing for larger deals, what features enterprise accounts need. You're not just selling - you're shaping what gets built.

• Create the playbook as you go: Document what messaging works, which buyer personas convert, what the sales process should look like. This becomes the template for future AEs.

The Honest Reality

What's Hard

• Zero template to follow: No CRM hygiene standards, no proven pitch deck, no "this is how we do enterprise" guide. You figure it all out through trial and error.

• Unclear ICP and pricing: You'll spend time on deals that don't fit because the ICP isn't defined yet. You'll propose pricing that feels right and see if it sticks. Lots of "let me discuss with the team" moments.

• Founder dependency: Early technical questions or big conversations need the CEO. You can't just run independently - you're coordinating constantly.

• Long, uncertain cycles: Strategic deals at a small unknown company take time. Procurement asks questions you don't have answers to yet. Deals slip because their legal team has concerns about vendor size.

• Wearing all the hats: You're doing prospecting, demo prep, proposal writing, contract negotiation, onboarding coordination, and documenting best practices. It's scrappy.

What Success Looks Like

• Close 3-5 deals over $20K in first 6 months while building the motion
• Create a documented playbook (ICP, messaging, process) that the next AE can use
• Identify 2-3 repeatable paths to pipeline (specific verticals, use cases, expansion triggers)
• Land 1-2 "lighthouse" accounts that become case studies for future enterprise sales

Who You're Selling To

Primary Buyers:

• VP/Director of Marketing (demand gen, brand teams)
• VP/Director of Sales (sales intelligence, account research)
• VP/Director of Product (market intelligence, customer insights)
• RevOps/GTM Ops leaders (signal routing, workflow automation)

What They Care About:

• Signal quality vs noise - tired of social monitoring spam
• Coverage of professional networks (LinkedIn especially) not just consumer social
• Routing relevant insights to the right teams automatically
• Proving ROI - how does this drive pipeline, retention, or product decisions?
• Risk of buying from small/early vendor (security, reliability, longevity)

Requirements

• 3-5+ years B2B SaaS sales closing $20K+ ACV deals
• Track record of consistently beating quota, not just hitting it
• Experience building something from scratch - early-stage company, new territory, greenfield role
• Self-directed and comfortable with ambiguity - you don't need a detailed roadmap to execute
• Bonus: Knowledge of social listening, sales engagement, or data enrichment spaces
• Bonus: Experience working at companies using AI/automation heavily in their workflows