Everything for the Founding AE who already signed — ramping without a playbook, turning founder instinct into a repeatable system, and a room of operators doing it alongside you. The conversations you can’t have inside your own company.
Start with the guides →Or jump to the community →
A Founding AE in the seat has two jobs in year one: ramp fast enough to close, and turn the founder’s instinct into a motion a second person can run. This page collects the eight guides that cover both — from your first week through pricing negotiation — plus a free, vetted community of current Founding AEs at seed and Series A B2B SaaS companies, hosted as a private LinkedIn group with an optional 60-minute monthly meet-up.
Land, extract, translate, own. Trying to do all four at once is how most Founding AEs burn out by month four. Start with the full guide, then go deep by stage.
Diagnosing stalled deals, holding margin without a price book, and getting leverage out of the tools that actually save you time.
Not in the seat yet? Start with Considering a Role →
The playbook doesn't exist yet. You're writing it.
Before It Scales is a weekly read for founding AEs selling before there's a playbook — what's landing in outbound right now, how to read the founder across from you, and how to sell through the ambiguity. Five minutes a week.
A private LinkedIn group where Founding AEs trade notes throughout the month. What’s landing in outbound. How people are using Claude and other tech to move ahead. Founder behavior to navigate. Comp benchmarks. The conversations you can’t have inside your own company.
60 minutes on Google Meet, roughly once a month. A small group of Founding AEs from the room, working through the problems each is sitting on right now.
Both are gated through the same access request. Everyone who fits the room gets in. The meet-up is smaller — selected for stage and motion fit, kept that size so the conversation stays useful. I review every request personally, usually within a couple of days.
Request Access →Not a job board. Not a content channel. A room of people sitting in Founding AE seats somewhere else, asking each other the questions they can’t ask their own founder.
I review every request personally. Not everyone is right for the room — and the bar is what protects the value for everyone inside.
Start with the first 90 days guide, then work through the stage-specific reads: your first week, the first 30 days, and the full 90-day arc. Once you are past ramp, the motion pieces matter more — why your founder can’t hand you the playbook, the motion/message/market diagnostic for stalled deals, and how to negotiate pricing without a price book.
A community of Founding AE operators across stages, verticals, and motions. Hosted as a LinkedIn group with periodic working sessions. Members compare notes on what’s actually happening in the seat — what’s landing in outbound, how they’re using Claude and other tech to move ahead, and founder behavior to navigate.
Current or recent Founding AEs at seed and Series A B2B SaaS companies. Access requests are reviewed individually. The community is for operators sitting in the seat, not for people interested in the seat from the outside.
Nothing. The community is free for accepted members. Dave benefits when more vetted Founding AEs are in the network, so helping operators sharpen each other is part of how he builds a reputation founders trust.
Request access through the private LinkedIn group. Dave reviews every request personally, usually within a couple of days. Not everyone is right for the room — the bar is what protects the value for everyone inside.
No. There are no content quotas and no participation rules. Members engage as much or as little as is useful to them. The optional monthly meet-up is there if you want live conversation, but nothing is required to stay in the room.
Yes, optionally. There’s a 60-minute meet-up on Google Meet roughly once a month, scheduled in the group — a small group of Founding AEs from the room working through the problems each is sitting on right now. The meet-up is smaller than the group, selected for stage and motion fit so the conversation stays useful.
A vetted room of peers in the same seat, comparing notes on what’s landing in outbound, how people are using Claude and other tech to move ahead, founder behavior to navigate, and comp benchmarks — the conversations you can’t have inside your own company. Members also get access to the optional monthly meet-up.
Request access through the LinkedIn group. I review every one personally — usually within a couple days.
Request Access →Free. No content quotas, no participation rules.