Founding Account Executive
Clera· San Francisco, United States·
About the Role
This is a rare opportunity to be the first dedicated sales hire at a fast-growing B2B SaaS company pioneering the value intelligence category — AI-powered software that helps go-to-market teams automate business cases, prove ROI, and scale value selling across the full customer lifecycle. Zero churn. A small but mighty team. A product already trusted by dozens of enterprise customers.
Every deal to date has been closed by the founding CEO. That worked to build an early customer base. This hire — you — is responsible for taking the mid-market motion from founder-led to repeatable and scalable. The CEO will continue co-selling on larger strategic accounts; you own the mid-market independently.
What You'll Do
Build your own pipeline. There is no SDR team. You'll develop a repeatable outbound motion targeting the ICP — Series C–E SaaS companies with emerging or scaling value engineering functions. Expect to prospect, network, run events, and work creative channel plays to generate your own pipeline.
Run full-cycle mid-market deals. You own the entire sales cycle from first meeting to signed contract: discovery, multi-threading across buying committees of 5–10 stakeholders, positioning with economic buyers (typically the CRO), navigating procurement, and closing.
Engage sophisticated buyers. Your typical contacts are Heads of Value Engineering, VPs of Sales, and CROs at high-growth SaaS companies. These buyers know what great selling looks like — you need to have done this work yourself, not just talk about it.
Partner on expansion. Stay involved post-close to identify upsell and expansion opportunities in partnership with the Implementation Lead. You are incentivized on expansion revenue.
Build and defend business cases. Use the platform's value intelligence capabilities to build rigorous ROI analyses and business cases for prospects — this is core to the product and your pitch.
What We're Looking For
Required:
Proven ability to own an end-to-end mid-market SaaS sales process — sourcing pipeline, qualification, negotiation, and closing — independently
Strong experience building, presenting, and defending business cases and ROI analyses with executive-level stakeholders
Excellent written and verbal communication and negotiation skills; comfortable engaging CROs, VPs of Sales, and procurement teams
Self-starter mentality — you don't need leads handed to you and can generate your own pipeline from scratch
Authorized to work in the United States without employer-sponsored visa (visa sponsorship is not available)
Nice to Have:
Background in value engineering, sales enablement, or GTM software
Experience selling to or within high-growth SaaS organizations
Prior experience as an early or founding sales hire building a repeatable motion from scratch
Familiarity with Salesforce or similar CRM and enterprise sales workflows
Compensation & Benefits
OTE: $200,000 – $270,000 (base + variable)
Equity: 0.3% – 1.0%
Early-stage equity with meaningful upside in a category-defining company
Location
This role is on-site in San Francisco, CA. Remote work is not offered. Candidates must be willing and able to work from the San Francisco office.