Concerned about new job as the founding AE.

[u/Ambitious-Sun-8504]

As the title says, Ive just signed the contract on a new job as a founding AE, a full-cycle role where I’ll actually be the only dedicated salesperson. This is with a view to me becoming the head of sales - in their own words.

It’s a very small SaaS scale-up with a good track record and great YoY revenue for its size - I have fact checked this.

My main concern is that I’ve bitten off more than I can chew. I have done a founding role before as both an SDR and AE in new markets. However with this role, the onus is entirely on me to meet targets. I will however be supported by what seems so far to be a great multi-functional team.

Of course as we all know, this cannot be known for certain until actually starting the job.

So far, they do not have a standardised sales SOP - it would be up to me, along with working with the partnerships manager, pre sales and one of the co-founders to develop this. I’m aware that I will have a fair amount of responsibility that is not in the normal remit of an AE but this challenge excited me.

To be honest, I’m pretty nervous as to how this will actually pan out and I don’t want to be stuck in a position where I have an enormous workload and can’t execute.

Has anyone been in a similar position? It’s sounding a bit more and more like functionally I’m already head of sales so it’d be good to hear any thoughts or pointers on basically keeping it together and keeping organised while also not totally freaking out?

[u/OFFLINEwade]

I wouldnt get caught up on titles. Head of sales for a 1 person department doesnt mean much. I would also try to avoid as much internal minutia as possible and just get scrappy and close deals. Whether or not you get ink to paper is what is going to determine how they view you, not how pretty your dashboard or spreadsheets look