The founding sales hire toolkit

If you can tick eight or more, you're ready to hire a founding AE. Fewer than six, keep selling yourself.

• We have 10+ paying customers we closed ourselves
• We can name the ICP in one sentence
• Our sales cycle length is known within a few weeks
• Pricing is stable across the last five deals
• Founder time on sales is the main growth constraint
• We have 12+ months runway after this hire
• Someone senior can coach the hire for 90 days
• We know why we win and why we lose
• There's a CRM with real pipeline data in it
• We've agreed the number the seat will be held to

Write this before you open the role. Every interviewer scores against it.

• Mission: one sentence on why the seat exists
• Outcomes for 90 days, 6 months, 12 months
• Must-have competencies (max five)
• Context fit: stage, deal size, buyer persona sold to
• Explicit red flags you'll screen out
• Who owns the hiring decision

Four stages, each with one job. No stage repeats another.

• Founder screen: motivation, stage fit, deal history (30 min)
• Deep dive: walk through two deals end-to-end (60 min)
• Role-play: discovery call on your real ICP (45 min)
• Working session: build a 30-day pipeline plan (60 min)
• Two backchannel references you source yourself
• Debrief against the scorecard within 24 hours

A starting shape, not a quote. Calibrate to your deal size, stage and market.

• Base: competitive enough to remove money worry
• Variable: 50/50 or 60/40 split, paid on closed revenue
• Ramp: reduced or guaranteed quota for months 1–4
• Equity: meaningful founding-team grant, standard vesting
• Quota: 3–5x on-target earnings once ramped
• Written comp plan agreed before day one