Hiring your Founding Account Executive (AE) is one of the most pivotal moments for any SaaS startup. This isn’t just another sales hire — it’s the person who will take your product to market, build your early revenue engine, and shape the DNA of your future sales team.
But finding the right founding AE is tough. The profile that thrives in an early-stage SaaS startup is very different from someone used to selling at an established, process-driven organisation. So, what skills and traits should you look for in a founding AE?
Here’s what matters most. Let's Dive In!
1. Adaptability and Resourcefulness
Startups are unpredictable. Playbooks are still being written, ICPs are evolving, and product features are changing weekly. A successful founding AE must be comfortable with ambiguity and capable of building structure where none exists.
Look for people who have:
• Worked in early-stage or fast-changing environments before.
• Demonstrated success without established processes or heavy marketing support.
• Shown initiative in creating their own pipeline, messaging, or tools.
š Red flag: Candidates who need lots of enablement, structure, or inbound leads to succeed — they’ll struggle in the chaos of early-stage SaaS.
2. Strong Discovery and Consultative Selling Skills
At this stage, your founding AE isn’t just closing deals — they’re still helping you validate your ICP and refine your messaging. That means you need someone who can run deep discovery conversations, uncover customer pain points, and tailor the value story on the fly.
Look for:
• A track record of solution or consultative selling, not just transactional deal closing.
• The ability to translate technical product capabilities into business outcomes.
• Curiosity and active listening skills — they should sound more like a problem-solver than a pitch artist.
Your founding AE should bring insights back from every customer conversation that feed into product and GTM strategy.
3. Builder Mentality (Not Just Closer Mentality)
Many great salespeople can sell — few can build. Your founding AE needs to be a builder: of process, of messaging, and of the early customer base.
That means they’ll need to:
• Create outbound cadences and email templates from scratch.
• Help define the CRM setup, pipeline stages, and deal qualification criteria.
• Work closely with founders to shape pricing, pitch decks, and demos.
Think of them as a “player-coach in training.” They’ll be doing the work now, but the goal is that they can eventually help hire and mentor future reps as you scale.
4. Resilience and Grit
Early-stage sales is not for the faint-hearted. Your founding AE will hear “no” far more than “yes,” and they’ll need to stay motivated even when product-market fit is still evolving.
Traits to look for:
• Evidence of persistence through slow or uncertain cycles.
• A positive attitude toward rejection and feedback.
• Examples of self-motivation — especially in roles without heavy support or structure.
š Pro tip: Ask candidates to describe the toughest sales quarter of their career and how they turned it around. The best founding AEs will light up when they talk about solving tough problems.
5. Cross-Functional Collaboration
Your founding AE will work closely with Product, Marketing, and Customer Success — and often be the first person outside the founding team interacting with customers daily. They need the ability to collaborate across teams and represent customer feedback constructively.
Look for:
• Candidates who can communicate effectively with non-sales stakeholders.
• Examples of how they’ve influenced product roadmaps or messaging based on customer input.
• Comfort being a bridge between customers and internal teams.
The best founding AEs become a key voice in shaping your GTM motion — not just closing logos.
6. Founder Alignment and Cultural Fit
Finally, don’t underestimate fit with the founding team. The relationship between founders and the first sales hire can make or break your early revenue function.
A great founding AE will:
• Share your company’s mission and long-term vision.
• Be honest, communicative, and collaborative.
• Understand that success is shared — they’re helping build a company, not just a quota.
They should be someone you trust to be in the trenches with you.
Final Thoughts
Hiring a founding AE in a SaaS company is one of the most defining early hires you’ll make. Look beyond CVs from big-name vendors and focus instead on adaptability, curiosity, resilience, and a builder’s mindset.
The best founding AEs thrive in uncertainty, collaborate cross-functionally, and lay the groundwork for scalable growth. They’re not just your first salesperson — they’re your co-architect of revenue.
If you get this hire right, you don’t just fill a role — you set the tone for your entire GTM organisation.
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.
