Hiring your first sales person is one of the most critical — and confusing — steps in growing a SaaS business.
You’ve reached a point where founder-led sales is no longer sustainable. Deals are happening, but pipeline management, outbound, and customer follow-up are stretching your bandwidth.
The question now is:
👉 Should you hire an Account Executive (AE) or a Sales Leader as your first sales hire?
Let’s break down how to make the right choice for your stage, goals, and GTM maturity.
Let's Dive In!
1. Understand What Stage You’re Really At
Before deciding who to hire, you need to be brutally honest about where your business is.
Ask yourself:
• Have we reached consistent product-market fit?
• Do we have a repeatable sales motion, or are we still experimenting?
• Is there enough pipeline for someone to close deals today?
If you’re still refining ICP, messaging, and value proposition — you’re not ready for a VP Sales.
In early-stage SaaS (typically <$2M ARR), you don’t need a “leader of sales.” You need someone who can sell — and help you refine how to sell.
That’s where a Founding Account Executive comes in.
2. The Case for Hiring an Account Executive First
In most early-stage SaaS startups, the first hire should be an AE, not a VP Sales.
Why? Because early on, you don’t have a fully defined playbook. You need someone who’s:
• Hands-on with discovery calls and demos
• Comfortable with trial and error in messaging
• Capable of creating structure, not waiting for it
• Willing to work directly alongside the founder
A great founding AE doesn’t just close deals — they help shape the sales process.
They’ll be testing ICPs, refining pitch decks, and feeding back insights to product and marketing. In many ways, they’re part salesperson, part researcher, part builder.
Ideal profile:
• Startup or early-stage experience
• Thrives in ambiguity
• Can self-generate pipeline
• Builder mindset — helps create CRM workflows, outreach cadences, and sales assets
Once you’ve got product-market fit, a repeatable sales motion, and a few reps hitting quota — then it’s time to layer in sales leadership.
3. When (and Why) to Hire a Sales Leader
A Sales Leader (Head of Sales or VP Sales) becomes the right hire once you’re ready to scale what’s already working.
If you already have:
✅ A validated ICP and buying journey
✅ Documented playbooks and predictable conversion metrics
✅ At least 2–3 AEs closing consistently
Then you’re ready for someone who can:
• Recruit, coach, and manage a growing sales team
• Build pipeline and forecasting processes
• Implement CRM discipline and reporting
• Align sales with marketing and customer success
At this stage, a true sales leader amplifies what you’ve built — but they’re not there to discover it from scratch.
Hiring them too early often leads to frustration. Many experienced sales leaders come from scale-ups with existing systems — not scrappy startups where they’re expected to build everything alone.
4. The Most Common Mistake Founders Make
Founders often make the wrong first hire because they’re thinking too far ahead.
They’ll bring in a VP Sales hoping they’ll “own revenue” — only to realise that the VP has no process, no team, and no playbook to execute. Within 12–18 months, that hire usually fails.
The best early-stage sales hire isn’t the most senior person you can afford — it’s the person who best fits your stage.
Start with someone who’s close to the customer, hands-on with deals, and motivated by building from zero.
5. How to Sequence Your Early Sales Hires
Here’s a simple roadmap many successful SaaS founders follow:
1️⃣ Founder-led sales: You close the first 10–20 customers.
2️⃣ Founding AE: They take over direct selling and help refine the sales motion.
3️⃣ 2nd & 3rd AE: You validate repeatability and process consistency.
4️⃣ Sales Leader / VP Sales: You hire leadership to scale the proven system.
This sequence allows you to build from the ground up — ensuring every step is informed by real customer learning.
6. When in Doubt: Think Builder vs. Scaler
The simplest way to decide:
• If you need to build your sales process → hire an Account Executive.
• If you’re ready to scale your existing process → hire a Sales Leader.
Trying to scale before you’ve built is what kills most early-stage SaaS revenue engines.
7. Bonus Tip: Use an Expert Recruiter for Your First GTM Hire
Your first sales hire is too important to get wrong. Partnering with a SaaS-focused recruitment agency can help you:
• Define the right profile for your stage
• Access candidates experienced in early-stage selling
• Avoid costly mis-hires (especially at the leadership level)
A great recruiter won’t just fill a role — they’ll help you understand whether you really need a builder or a leader.
Final Thoughts
In an early-stage SaaS business, your first sales hire sets the tone for your entire go-to-market function.
If you’re still refining product-market fit and sales motion → hire an Account Executive.
If you’ve found repeatability and need to scale → hire a Sales Leader.
Get that sequence right, and you’ll lay the foundation for predictable, scalable growth. Get it wrong, and you could spend a year rebuilding.
Choose the stage-fit hire, not the flashiest title.
Choosing the right SaaS sales recruitment agency is about fit, expertise, and trust. By asking the right questions and digging into their processes, you can find a partner who not only fills roles — but helps you build a sales team that fuels long-term SaaS growth.
Invest in a software sales Recruitment agency and accelerate your path to success.
Reach out to a member of the team here, or see more about how we can support your growth here.
Adam Richardson
Co-Founder and Director
