Founder looking to hire a Founding AE? Start here →
About Founders Founding AEs Insights Book 15 Min →
Founding Account Executive Hub

The Founding AE seat looks like ownership.
Sometimes it is.

Most AEs find out which one they signed up for in month four — not month one. I was a Founding AE who took a company from $0 to $10M ARR. Now I help reps tell the difference before they say yes.

See what I’m working right now →
What AEs say

"If you're a founding AE but not a lone wolf type, the monthly meetings are amazing. Dave is building a really solid network of Founding AEs. I've made great connections, and one of them just led to my new role."

Helen Rowe
Helen Rowe
Founding Account Executive
What is the Founding Account Executive Hub?

The Founding Account Executive Hub is a free network for Founding Account Executives — founding AEs — at seed and Series A B2B SaaS companies — whether you’re considering the move, evaluating offers right now, or already in the seat with a founder who’s never sold. The 15-minute conversation is the entry point. From there: a coach who’s been in the seat, deal flow from 300+ founders, and a monthly group of Founding AEs working through what’s actually happening in the role.

Where are you?
Considering a Role Weighing an offer, reading the founder, working out if the seat is real. Everything before you sign. Start here → In the Seat You took the job. Ramping, building the motion, and the community of operators doing it alongside you. Start here →
The current slate
Currently

Right now I’m actively working Founding AE roles with OTEs from $200K to $350K+ across NYC, San Francisco, Boston, and Remote. Several are still being scoped — not yet announced anywhere.

$200K–$350K+
OTE range across the roles I’m working today
4 markets
NYC, San Francisco, Boston, and fully Remote
Video first
Founder walkthroughs recorded for several roles — no wasted intro calls
Connect with me on LinkedIn →

Tell me what you’re looking for. If there’s a fit, I’ll tell you what I know about the role and the motion — no call until it’s worth your time.

Want the next one that fits?

I don’t forward everything I see.

I assess the product as if I were going to sell it myself — and some of these are still being scoped, so I hear about them before there’s a req. Leave your email and I’ll send you the next one that actually fits.

That didn't go through. Try again, or email me directly.

LinkedIn is optional — it's just how I read a seller. Personal email, not work — no reason to run this through your company's inbox. Your address stays with me, and so does the fact that you're looking.

Got it. You’ll hear from me when the next one opens — often before there’s a req.

Not looking, just want to get better in the seat? Before It Scales is a weekly read on the craft of the job.

What I’m filling right now
Spotlight

This isn’t a job board — there’s nothing to browse. I take on a few searches at a time. These are the two founding AE jobs I’m filling right now. A handful of others are mid-process and never make this page.

You and I could buy a truck tomorrow. You and I are never going to buy an airplane.
Logistics tech: $0 to $30M in four years, backed by a major US airline. Account Executive, remote, $300K–$350K OTE.
Read the thesis →
Hundreds of AI scribes exist for physicians. For nurses, the count is in single digits.
A $50M Series A healthcare AI company is opening the US market and adding a third seller. Account Executive, NYC hybrid, $300K OTE.
Read the thesis →
Why this is worth your time

I talk to 300+ founders a year. That’s a live map of the market — and I share it with the Founding AEs I know.

Founders come to me because they want the ownership-vs-title read before they hire — the same thinking that ran in Harvard Business Review. That gives me a real-time view of who’s actually growing, which teams are real, and where a founding seat is set up to work instead of quietly burn someone out.

You see wider
Perspective on what’s out there, what’s interesting, and who’s growing — before it’s public.
You’re not solo
A room of Founding AEs sharing what’s landing, what’s stuck, and how they’re navigating the seat.
Fits find you
When a role could fit you down the road, you hear about it first — because I know you.
Join the Founding AE LinkedIn Group →

The room where I share what I’m seeing and Founding AEs trade notes. Free to join — get on my radar so I can point the right things your way.

What you get
→A coach across the move, not one decision — wherever you are. Curious what’s out there, not sure if it’s time, stuck on whether to stay. Bring the question, not the conclusion.
→A real-time read on what’s working in the role — outbound, AI tools, tactics. Not what worked five years ago. What landed yesterday.
→A monthly group of Founding AEs trading what’s landing, what’s stuck, and what to try next.
→Deal flow from 300+ founders — roles before they’re searches. Most of the strong ones get filled before they ever hit the market.

All of it is free.

"I've sold with Dave. If he calls, I pick up — and I send people his way."

Jay Canete
Jay Canete
Founding AE · First hire on Dave's team at Outreach

"Dave just gave me his straight read and coached me through it. If you're a Founding AE and you're not in this network, you're navigating blind."

Brennen Amann
Brennen Amann
Founding Account Executive

"Dave helped me evaluate an opportunity I was on the fence about. His insights helped me make the right decision — saved me 6 months in a role that wasn't the right fit. I'll run other opportunities by him going forward."

Jake Woodrich
Jake Woodrich
Founding Account Executive
The monthly group

Working sessions with other Founding Account Executives.

One Zoom a month. Working sessions on what’s actually happening in the seat — how we’re leveraging Claude and other tech to move ahead, founder behavior to navigate, what’s landing in outbound right now, ramp problems no one warned you about.

It’s the room you wish existed at every Founding AE company — full of people who get the seat because they’re sitting in one, somewhere else.

Free. Fit is assessed in the 15-minute conversation. Not everyone is right for the room.

What a session covers
How we’re leveraging Claude and other tech

The tools and workflows people are actually using to move faster — research, prep, outreach, follow-up. What’s working this month, shared straight across the room.

Founder behavior to navigate

The patterns people are working around — without naming names. How others have handled the same thing.

What’s landing in outbound

Channels, hooks, messaging. What’s working this month vs. what worked six months ago and stopped.

Get into the room →
Is the offer fair?

Most Founding AEs don’t actually know.

Before anything else: what I won’t do is pretend to assess equity. There are too many unknowns at this stage. Anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something.

Every AE wonders if they’re underpaid. The honest answer is most don’t have a way to find out. Levels.fyi doesn’t cover $1M ARR companies. The mentors you’d ask ran the role before AI changed it — their reference points are years out of date.

I see comp every week across stages, geographies, and founder profiles. I’ll give you a real read on the OTE structure — whether the quota is real or founder hopium, and whether the ramp terms are reasonable for what’s actually built.

The questions you should be asking

Does the quota math hold up?

A $1.2M quota means nothing if the pipeline math doesn’t support it. I can usually tell within ten minutes of looking at the GTM motion.

Are the ramp terms reasonable?

Three-month ramps at companies without a repeatable motion are how Founding AEs end up working for free.

Is the offer better than you think?

Sometimes. I’ll tell you that too. The goal is a real read, not a renegotiation.

Get a read on your offer →
Across multiple processes

If it’s a no, you’ll know why.

You spent eight hours on a case study. Wrote a 30-60-90. Ran a mock discovery call with the founder. Prepped for the panel. You showed up.

Then the email lands: “They’ve decided to go in a different direction.” No detail. No context. Nothing you can use the next time.

That’s the standard recruiter close. It’s not how I run it.

If you interview for a role I’m placing and it doesn’t land, you’ll get a real read — what worked, what didn’t, and what to change going into the next conversation. The hours you put in become signal you can use, not effort that disappeared.

01
The founder’s read

The real reasons, not the polite version. What landed, what didn’t, and what they were looking for that didn’t come through.

02
My read

What I see across 300+ founder conversations — where strong AEs get tripped up in this kind of process, and what I’d change for the next one.

03
What’s next

Roles aren’t one-shots. The next match is often a better fit than the one that didn’t close. I keep tracking.

Vouched for by the people who’ve worked with me

A network is only as good as the operator behind it.

Three people who’ve seen me from different angles — the leader who hired me, an AE I coached into a leadership seat, and an AE building her career on the same playbook now.

From the leader who hired me

“DR is a top 1% of 1% type of sales leader. He attracted, retained, and promoted top talent and was an amazing cross-departmental collaborator.”

Mark Kosoglow
Mark Kosoglow
Former SVP Sales, Outreach
From an AE I coached into leadership

“Hands down one of the top sales leaders I’ve ever worked for. I’d work for him again in a heartbeat.”

Curt Clauss
Curt Clauss
Founding AE at Samaya AI · ex-Harvey, ex-Outreach
From an AE on the playbook now

“DR was instrumental in my development to become a more strategic seller — coaching me to think bigger, call my shot, and be a broken record.”

Laura Roumani
Laura Roumani
Strategic Account Executive · ex-Outreach
Published in Harvard Business Review
Startup Founders Need a New Sales Playbook

The same thinking the Hub runs on, in HBR — drawn from my interviews with 250+ founders on why early sales motions stall and what actually moves buyers in crowded, AI-driven markets. Co-authored with Prof. Vincent Onyemah of Babson College, June 2026.

Read it on HBR.org →

Most of these seats are a founder closing on force of personality, handing you a motion that only works when they run it — and you find out in month four. I took a company from $0 to $10M as a Founding AE. Below is what I wish someone had handed me before I said yes.

Start reading

Three reads per path. Start with the first one.

Written for AEs, not founders — by someone who took the seat, got it wrong once, and now talks to the people doing the hiring. The full library sits behind each path.

Considering a Role

All considering-a-role reads →

Before you sign: reading the founder, testing whether the seat is real, and knowing what a good offer looks like.

Start here What Is a Founding AE? The role, the pay ranges, and how it differs from a VP of Sales — the plain-English definition before you go further. Read it → How to Read a Founder Before You Sign You’re not evaluating a company — you’re evaluating one person. Three signals worth more than the pitch deck. Read it → What to Look for in a Founding AE Opportunity A big quota and a “great founder” tell you nothing. The signals that separate a real seat from a good comp number. Read it →

In the Seat

All in-the-seat reads →

After you sign: ramping without a playbook, and turning founder instinct into a motion you can run.

Start here The First 90 Days: Complete Guide Land, Extract, Translate, Own — the four phases, with what the work looks like at each stage. Read it → Your First Week as a Founding AE The offer is signed and you want to run demos. Don’t. Week one is three structured conversations with your founder. Read it → Why Your Founder Can’t Give You the Playbook It isn’t withholding and it isn’t disorganization. The playbook lives as instinct — extracting it is your job. Read it →
Before It Scales · The Weekly Read

The playbook doesn't exist yet. You're writing it.

A weekly newsletter for founding AEs selling before the playbook exists — mostly the craft of the job, sometimes the career around it. Every week, one honest read on what's actually working in the seat: what's landing in outbound, how to read the founder across from you, and how to sell through the ambiguity. Five minutes a week.

Common Questions

Frequently asked questions

What Founding AE roles are you working right now?

I'm actively working Founding AE roles with OTEs from $200K to $350K+ across NYC, San Francisco, Boston, and Remote. This isn't a job board and there's nothing to browse. The easiest way in: send me a connection request on LinkedIn and tell me what you're looking for. If I see a fit, I'll walk you through the role and the motion — sometimes with a video from the founder — so you can decide whether it's exciting before we ever get on a call. I won't put a role in front of you that doesn't fit.

I’m not actively looking yet — is the Founding AE Hub still for me?

Yes — especially. The reps who land the best Founding AE roles started the conversation six months before they needed to. By the time you’re three offers deep with severance running out, your options are whatever happens to be in front of you that week. Start the conversation early and you get to be selective when it matters.

I’m already in a Founding AE role — what’s in it for me?

If your founder has never sold, there’s no senior IC to learn from, and the CRO hasn’t been hired yet, you’re translating a motion no one wrote down — alone. The Hub gives you a coach who’s been in the seat, plus a monthly group of other Founding AEs working through the same problems somewhere else. It’s the room you wish existed at every Founding AE company.

How does the monthly Founding AE group work?

One Zoom a month with other Founding AEs. Working sessions on what’s actually happening in the seat — how we’re leveraging Claude and other tech to move ahead, founder behavior to navigate, what’s landing in outbound right now. Free. Fit is assessed in the 15-minute conversation. Not everyone is right for the room.

Is this Founding AE offer fair?

Comp varies by stage, motion, and how much risk you're absorbing, but the working range for US seed and Series A roles is $100K–$175K base and $200K–$350K OTE. A Founding AE at a seed company with no proven motion should expect more equity and accelerators than someone joining at Series A with a working playbook. The full breakdown by seller tier is in the Founding AE salary guide. Before evaluating any single offer in isolation, get context on what the rest of the market looks like right now — which founders are worth pursuing and what comp ranges are reasonable for your specific situation. That's what the 15-minute conversation is for.

How do I tell if the founder is strong enough to bet a year on?

Look for clarity, not charisma. Strong founders can answer who buys, why they buy now, and how deals actually close. They have closed enough deals themselves to know the pattern, written it down, and need leverage to scale what already works. Founders who want you to figure out sales for them rarely succeed. The right test isn't whether the pitch is exciting. It's whether the work that comes next is real.

What questions should I ask before saying yes?

At minimum: who's already buying and why; what happens to your quota in month four; how the founder will support you when deals stall; what the actual ICP is, not the aspirational one; and what changed for the buyers who closed most recently. If the founder can't answer these clearly, you're walking into a search problem, not a sales role.

How do I set myself up to ramp successfully?

Most Founding AEs fail because nobody designed their ramp. The motion exists in the founder's head and they're left to figure it out alone. Before starting, push the founder to document what's already closing, identify the patterns across recent wins, and structure your first 30 days around extracting that knowledge rather than generating new pipeline. You're a translator first, a closer second.

What does the Founding AE Hub cost?

Nothing. The Hub is a free resource. The 15-minute conversation, the ongoing coaching, and the monthly group are all free, no obligation, no pitch. Dave benefits when more vetted Founding AEs are in the network, so helping AEs make better decisions about roles is part of how he builds a reputation founders trust. AEs who engage with the Hub may also be considered for live searches when the fit is right.

What kinds of AEs is the Hub for?

Early-stage AEs evaluating offers, currently in a Founding AE role and questioning whether to stay, considering whether to take their first Founding AE role, or trying to navigate the broader job market at seed and Series A. If you're early enough in your career to still be making big career bets, the Hub is for you.

Fifteen minutes. No pitch.

You talk, I listen, and I tell you what I’m seeing — the roles worth pursuing, the comp that’s reasonable for where you are, and whether it’s even the right time to move. Even if the honest answer is to stay put.

Book 15 Minutes with Dave →