Founding Account Executive

This is a fully remote position, open to applicants in California.

📋 Description

• Take charge of the complete sales cycle for the Hackathon product, which includes sourcing, qualification, discovery, demos, negotiation, and closing deals.

• Develop and implement an outbound sales strategy using email, LinkedIn, and phone calls.

• Manage inbound leads sourced from marketing efforts and warm introductions.

• Identify discrepancies between the needs of prospects and the Hackathon product offerings.

• Utilize AI coding tools to create prototypes, lightweight integrations, custom automations, or mockups.

• Evaluate technical feasibility and ensure realistic commitments are made.

• Transform insights and prototypes from field experiences into structured feedback for product and engineering teams.

• Provide accurate forecasts and effectively manage the CRM pipeline.

• Assist in defining the ideal customer profile and crafting effective messaging.

• Document discovery, demo, and closing methodologies into a repeatable sales playbook.

• Aid in the implementation of the CRM, sales engagement tools, and AI technology stack.

• Collaborate with product, marketing, and other teams at Brightidea on positioning, packaging, pricing, and feedback mechanisms.

• Bring insights on objections and win/loss trends to leadership to refine pricing and packaging strategies.

• Assist in sourcing, screening, or reference-checking potential future sales hires.

⛳️ Requirements

• A minimum of 5 years of experience in full-cycle B2B SaaS sales, with proven success in generating self-sourced pipeline and closing revenue.

• Previous experience as an early or founding sales team member, or a strong desire to develop processes from the ground up rather than following an existing playbook.

• Hands-on experience with contemporary AI coding tools (e.g., Claude, Cursor, ChatGPT) is essential.

• Sufficient technical understanding to assess feasibility: knowing the difference between a simple script, an API integration, and a significant engineering effort.

• Strong instincts for outbound sales.

• Comfortable engaging with both technical and executive buyers; capable of translating business challenges into compelling sales narratives and technical prototypes.

• Curious, low-ego, and motivated by uncertainty.

• Able to be the primary (initial) go-to-market hire for a single-product startup team.

• Experience selling to innovation, HR, people operations, event, or L&D personas is a plus.

• Previous experience in an early-stage or lean-team SaaS startup is beneficial.

• Familiarity with selling event, community, or engagement-platform products is advantageous.

• A portfolio, GitHub, or demo showcasing something you've developed using coding is preferred.

• Experience in building or formalizing a sales process, playbook, or tooling stack from scratch is a plus.

🏝️ Benefits

• Opportunity for startup-level ownership and rapid execution.

• Support from Brightidea, including customer relationships, operational assistance, and 26 years of industry credibility.

• Access to existing customer connections and warm introductions from Brightidea's clientele.

• Chance to influence the development of Hackathon's product, go-to-market strategy, pricing, packaging, processes, playbook, and toolkit.

• Opportunity to participate in the recruitment of future sales team members.

• Competitive compensation package with an OTE ranging from $150,000 to $300,000, based on quota size (base salary not specified).