Work with me Field Notes Hire a Founding AE Partners Why deals stall →
For B2B founders · $500K–$10M ARR

Founder-led sales worked.
Until it didn't.

If your pipeline looks active but revenue is unpredictable, you probably don't have a volume problem. You have a GTM constraint hiding inside your motion.

Why are my deals stalling? → Hire a Founding AE →
250+ founder conversations since May 2025
Founding AE: $0 to $10M ARR at ExpoTV
6 years in sales leadership at Salesforce
$1M to $25M territory growth at Outreach
Free · 5 minutes · See results instantly
Why are my deals stalling?
1
Answer 12 questions about your current motion
2
See your primary GTM constraint: Speed, Problem, Results, Implementation, Niche, or Trust
3
Get a clear next step, not a vague diagnosis
Why are my deals stalling? →
Takes under 5 minutes · Optional email capture after
Warning signs

When founder-led sales starts breaking

The warning signs don't look like failure. They look like activity.

Demos are increasing but revenue is flat

Buyers sound interested but won't commit to a decision

Your first AE is struggling to close deals independently

The pipeline looks full but feels unreliable every quarter

You're getting pulled back into deals to get them over the line

You're not sure if the issue is message, ICP, urgency, or process

If any of these sound familiar, find out why your deals are stalling →

12 questions · under 5 minutes · free

The real enemy

You are not losing to competitors.

You are losing to noise.

Your buyer has already seen ten vendors this quarter. They all have AI. They all have proof. They all sound credible.

When everything looks the same, the safest decision is delay. That delay is not a pipeline problem. It is not an awareness problem. It is not an effort problem.

The real constraint

It is a clarity problem.

→ Your buyers cannot see why to act now
→ They cannot see how you are different
→ They cannot explain your value internally

So they keep moving without deciding.

100Founders Newsletter

One pattern from 250+ founder conversations. Every week.

What's breaking in GTM right now and why. No theory. No frameworks for the sake of frameworks. Just what founders at $500K to $10M ARR are running into and what's actually working.

Track record
250+
founder conversations since May 2025
$10M
ARR built as a founding AE at ExpoTV
6 yrs
in sales leadership at Salesforce
25×
territory growth at Outreach. $1M to $25M
"

Based on his grasp of founder-led sales, Dave was able to understand my business quickly and add immediate value. Any founder selling for the first time would be lucky to have him in their corner.

Luke Aschenbrand, Founder and CEO of Emblem
Luke Aschenbrand
Founder & CEO, Emblem
Free · 5 minutes · See results instantly

Why are my deals stalling?

Answer 12 questions and identify the one GTM constraint most likely holding back growth. Not a list of things to improve. The rate-limiting step.

  • See what's actually causing stalls, not just symptoms
  • Separate genuine buying motion from curiosity
  • Identify whether the issue is Speed, Problem, Results, Implementation, Niche, or Trust
  • Get a concrete next move, not a vague diagnosis
Why are my deals stalling? →
01
Answer 12 questions
About your current sales motion, pipeline, and where deals are stalling
↓
02
See your primary constraint
Speed · Problem · Results · Implementation · Niche · Trust
↓
03
Get the right next move
Specific and executable, based on your answers, not a generic framework
Work with me

Two ways to work together.

5-day engagement · $4,500
SPRINT GTM Reset
"Deals engage. Nothing commits."

Your motion is working on founder instinct. That's not repeatable, and it breaks the moment someone else runs the call. Five days to name the real constraint — before you hire, before you scale, before the wrong fix costs you a quarter.

→The bottleneck named precisely
→The trigger that creates buyer urgency
→A concrete next move before the engagement ends
→Buyer patterns that tell you a deal is real
Learn about the Reset →
Founding AE Installation
Hire a Founding AE
"Your first sales hire will make or break the motion."

Most first sales hires fail because the role was unclear, the system wasn't ready, and the search started too late. This engagement fixes all three — with a real network of vetted founding AEs, not a cold LinkedIn search.

→Product review — understand why you win
→Vetted candidates from a real network
→Structured hiring process that surfaces the right decision
→Founder interview so the AE can ramp fast
Learn about AE hiring →
"

After five days with Dave, nexwise reframed the problem, sharpened the ICP, and left with a clearer way to tell which deals were real. From "fix for broken shops" to a board-level constraint.

Mathis Stolz, Founder of nexwise
Mathis Stolz
Founder, nexwise
"

Dave delivered strong candidates quickly — and the quality was there. He maintains a real community of founding AEs so he's not starting from scratch on every search. As a European company hiring in the US, that kind of operator relationship is hard to find.

Philipp Wolf, VP Global Sales, Voize
Philipp Wolf
VP Global Sales, Voize · $50M Series A
Dave Rubinstein — GTM Advisor and Founding AE Recruiter
Background
Salesforce Outreach
Background

Why founders work with me

I built this by talking to founders constantly. What began as 30 founders in 30 days became 250+ conversations across 40+ countries, a pattern library, and a practice focused on one thing: helping founders find the real constraint before they waste time fixing the wrong one.

Before this, I was a founding AE at ExpoTV, from zero to $10M ARR. I spent six years in sales leadership at Salesforce and grew my territory from $1M to $25M at Outreach. I work from current market patterns, not old playbooks. The 250+ conversations aren't background. They're the product.

Subscribe to 100Founders →
Field notes
From 250+ founder conversations
See all field notes →
Founder-led sales
Magicians vs. Soldiers: Why Founder-Led Sales Breaks Scaling

If deals only close when the founder is in the room, you don't have product-market fit. You have a magician.

6 min read
Hiring
The "First Sales Hire" Trap

Hiring your first salesperson feels like progress. Most of the time, it's a multiplier on whatever already exists: clarity or chaos.

5 min read
Pipeline health
Curiosity vs. Purchase Intent

Buyers who engage deeply but never decide aren't stalling. They were never buying. Here's how to tell the difference earlier.

6 min read

If your pipeline looks active but revenue is not moving, this is fixable.

But not by adding more pipeline. The diagnostic identifies the one constraint most likely holding back growth. 12 questions, under 5 minutes, optional — see results first.

Why are my deals stalling? →