Founding Account Executive (AE)

Founding Account Executive (AE) Most sales roles have you building credibility from scratch. This one has you walking in with some of the world's largest corporations already as customers, a working sales engine and a green field to grow our US market and other geographies. 🌎 Remote — Anywhere in the US 🔍 What We Do FounderNest is building AI that changes how the world's largest organizations do market intelligence . This is a category we are disrupting and hundreds of teams at corporations such as L'Oréal, Honda, Audi, Johnson & Johnson, Bloomberg, Bain & Co or Moodys are already our customers. As our first US Account Executive , you won't just be selling that intelligence — you'll be building the presence, the motion, and the market position that makes FounderNest the default choice for the teams that need it most. You will also have a chance to contribute to our sales playbook. ⚡ Why This Role Exists It's very simple. We have more pipeline that we can handle and we need more hands . We’re growing quickly , driven by a product that impresses from the very first demo. AI is rewriting how companies understand markets, and FounderNest was built AI-native from day one to move faster than anything legacy tools can match. We’re already seeing stronger win rates and faster cycles as budgets move toward productivity , and the category is still being defined right now. This is the moment to shape the playbook, the narrative, and the outcomes. Our ambitions are bold, and we’re looking for people who thrive on building pipeline, picking up the phone, owning deals and making an immediate impact . 🎯 What You’ll Own US market development: Build and own the US sales motion from the ground up — pipeline, process, ICP refinement, and the early customer relationships that define our market position. End-to-end deals: Run the full sales cycle from first conversation to signed contract and clean handoff to Customer Success. Pipeline creation: Drive targeted outbound across phone, email, and LinkedIn — focused, high-quality outreach backed by a proven motion from our European business. Deal execution: Lead structured discovery, deliver tailored demos, build mutual action plans, and navigate pricing, procurement, and negotiation. GTM input: Bring US market intelligence back to the team. Help adapt messaging, sequences, and ICP for the American buyer. Forecast discipline: Own clean, reliable pipeline management in HubSpot with full visibility into your numbers. 🧠 What You Bring 2+ years closing B2B SaaS deals in enterprise or upper mid-market . You build your own pipeline and are strong on calls, email, and objection handling. Confident consultative selling to senior stakeholders in Strategy, Innovation, M&A, CVC, R&D, or Venture teams. Strong HubSpot discipline and a structured, repeatable way of running deals. Experience in early-stage or founding / first sales roles , helping build GTM from the ground up. Openness to be coached and coach others 🧭 About You You're driven by outcomes and take ownership of your results without waiting to be managed. You want to help shape how a function operates , not just perform within one that's already fully defined. You value direct, constructive feedback and hold yourself and others to high standards . You're comfortable with ambiguity and use it as an opportunity to build , not a reason to wait. 🚀 What We Offer A founding role : real ownership, meaningful equity, and the chance to shape how FounderNest grows in the US and elsewhere; and our playbook. Fast growth environment: You’ll work with top-tier teammates and ambitious customers. Travel and attend events. Meet and hang out with customers! Access to a Silicon Valley network of world-class investors and advisors — many of whom are FounderNest backers. Competitive compensation (with uncapped variable and additional bonuses) with meaningful stock options. We value closers, period. Flexible hours (you own your own schedule) - Just deliver Unlimited PTO A no-BS culture: no fluff, high standards, high pace, radical candor, experimentation, we pick up the phone, we learn, we win, and we celebrate together. 🤝 Hiring Process Intro call: A conversation with our People Excellence team to walk you through the role and learn more about you and your experience. Deal Walkthrough & Product Demo: You’ll get to showcase one of the deals you've worked on and learn from our product, and join a live selling simulation with our Chief of Staff. Meet the team: Final conversation with our CEO and our Head of Customer Excellence. Department Sales Locations San Francisco, New York City Remote status Fully Remote Employment type Full-time Our DNA & Values Our DNA: What drives success at FounderNest At FounderNest, we believe that the best teams are built on shared DNA traits . Here’s what makes someone succeed at FounderNest. 🤝 Humility without Egos : To listen, learn, adapt, and grow together, prioritizing collective success over personal recognition. There is always something new to learn from others! 🧠 Intellectual Ambition : To see challenges as opportunities and thrive in a team of brilliant minds. Always curious and resourceful, with a 10X mindset and first-principles thinking approach, we innovate, adapt, and ask: "What’s next? 🚀 Agency & Ownership : To be proactive, take the lead and hold the difficult conversations without being asked to, take initiative, embrace accountability, and lead and build with purpose in order to succeed in our high-performing environment. 👥 100% Team Player : To always make decisions with the team in mind, knowing that collaboration doesn’t just add impact—it multiplies it. Together we are stronger. 💪 Hard-Working : To go the extra mile with focus and passion while ensuring balance is maintained, fostering sustainable long-term excellence. ⚡ Outcome-Driven Mindset : To focus on making things happen—zero fluff, just real impact. It’s about owning results, moving fast, and focusing on what truly drives change. Our Values: CALIBER We pride ourselves on having built an open, humble, diverse, supportive, and truly unique culture that revolves around our seven values codified in the word CALIBER. 🎯 Customer Excellence : Our users have to experience excellence in all we do. Excellence attracts excellence. We hire people and technology smarter than us. 💨 Agility : Towards building adaptability to change and without compromising excellence. No analysis paralysis. A strong sense of urgency. We disagree and commit. 🙇🏼‍♂️ Learning : To constantly learn and give constructive feedback in any direction towards personal and professional growth. 🪄 Innovation : To lead through constant innovation that does not compromise simplicity. The impossible is possible. ⚖️ Balance : To not hesitate to go the extra mile when required and without waiting for someone to tell you. To also take time off any time you need it. 😇 Ethics : To be frugal and radically truthful and transparent and to never behave unethically. Cannot afford to die of success or arrogance. 🫂 Respect : To always suspend judgment and assume positive intent, to be compassionate, and to have no ego. We admit mistakes proactively, recognize others’ achievements, and are thankful and appreciative of them. About FounderNest Born at Stanford and Wharton , FounderNest is a gen-AI company that helps (today but with huge potential expansion opportunities) corporations in the world improve and streamline their market intelligence processes, including (for their spaces of interest): (1) helping them understand the taxonomy and dynamics of the space, (2) mapping out all the players, (3) getting unique insights about the space (e.g. growth rate, investment activity); and (4) tracking what their competitors are doing. Our core technology is built on real-time analytics running on private and public company data. This fuels our Natural Language Processing AI with +50M companies and +1.2B aggregated data points, allowing us to be 3x-5x better than alternatives. We are proud to count amongst our clients some of the largest corporations across a wide range of industries worldwide — for example, 4 of the Top 10 Pharma companies worldwide, two of the largest management consulting firms, one of the largest biotech companies, and one of the largest food & beverage companies in the world. Co-workers 30