Founding Sales Lead

Founding Sales Lead

Full-time | Onsite / hybrid - Palo Alto, Reports to Founders

Must be based in Bay Area. Must come from B2B tech sales, preferably in AI.

Introduction

Join a growing startup as we build the next generation of LLMs and agentic systems. Our team—alumni of Google DeepMind, Apple, Stanford, and Cambridge—is on a mission to develop specialized, efficient AI.

We have raised nearly $25M backed by Microsoft, Khosla Ventures, Insight Partners, GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke, Docker CEO Scott Johnston, and other world‑class operators and investors.

We are looking for a Founding Sales Lead who can operate as a hands‑on, high‑velocity individual contributor while laying the groundwork for a world‑class sales organization. The ideal candidate has early‑stage AI startup experience, ideally at a company that has raised ~$10–20M and launched an open‑source model or developer‑facing AI product. You’ve closed B2B deals, built repeatable sales motions, and thrive in highly technical environments.

There will be a clear path to grow into Sales Manager / Head of Sales as we scale.

Responsibilities

Serve as the founding IC salesperson, owning the entire sales cycle—from prospecting to qualification, demos, negotiation, and close.

Build and manage a predictable pipeline across startups, mid‑market, and enterprise buyers evaluating LLMs, agentic systems, and AI infrastructure.

Partner closely with the founders, engineering, and product teams to refine messaging, inform roadmap prioritization, and accelerate product‑market fit.

Engage deeply with technical buyers, developers, and AI teams evaluating open‑source, fine‑tuned, or agent‑focused models.

Build repeatable outbound and inbound processes, including tooling, qualification frameworks, sales reporting, and early playbooks.

Work with marketing and community to drive launch success for new open‑source model releases.

Represent us at conferences, workshops, demos, and customer sessions.

Collaborate with the Chief of Staff and founders to set revenue targets, positioning, and go‑to‑market strategy.

Bring customer insights back into research and engineering to improve our model performance, APIs, and developer experience.

Wear multiple hats as we scale—everything from first‑call outreach to shaping deals to defining onboarding and support flows.

About You

2–6 years in B2B sales, ideally in AI, ML infrastructure, dev tools, or technical SaaS.

Experience at a startup that has raised $10–20M and launched an open‑source model or developer‑facing AI product.

Prior experience as a founding salesperson, first GTM hire, or early IC strongly preferred.

Comfortable selling highly technical products to engineering leaders, founders, and applied AI teams.

Demonstrated success exceeding quota in high‑velocity or mid‑market / enterprise cycles.

Energetic, hands‑on operator with a biased‑to‑action mindset.

Strong communicator—comfortable demoing LLM capabilities and engaging with technical and non‑technical stakeholders.

Builder mentality : you thrive in ambiguity, create structure where needed, and can scale yourself into a manager role as the team grows.

High integrity, extreme ownership, and relentless follow‑through.

Why us

Be one of the first GTM hires, helping define our sales DNA from the ground up.

Work alongside elite researchers and engineers shaping the future of agentic AI.

Contribute directly to open‑source model launches and cutting‑edge LLM advancements.

Clear growth path into Sales Manager → Head of Sales as we scale.

High‑impact, fast‑paced environment backed by top‑tier investors and operators.

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