Everything You Need to Know Before Becoming a Founding SaaS Sales Rep

Perhaps one of the most challenging GtM positions: the founding sales hire at a SaaS start-up.

A role where no two days are the same. Where you are a product marketer. An SDR. A CSM. An AE. Where you have little to no support functions available, and are expected to build your own pitch decks, email campaigns, messaging, and more from the ground up. 


There will be no structure, no playbooks to refer to, no sales enablement, and (probably) no CRM in place. And apart from any collaboration with the founder(s) or mentoring from the sales advisor (if the start-up has one), you will be alone.

Anyone who is still here reading this is probably unfazed—or even excited—by the idea of being a founding hire. That’s why this role attracts only the most resilient reps. Those who are comfortable with chaos and embrace variety in their day-to-day. They’re the ones who truly succeed.

However, if you do accept an opportunity like this, here’s both the good and bad for what you can expect in this role.
 

The First 12-Month Goals

The most important goal for any founding sales rep in their first 12 months? Creating a repeatable sales motion. To achieve this, your role will heavily involve A/B testing and learning which methods work best for your cold calling, articulating product value, messaging, pitch decks etc. 
 

For more specific goal examples, this will vary from start-up to start-up, and what kind of pains they’re experiencing and what stage they’re at. You could be focussing on anything from objectively mapping out the ideal customer profile, to increasing the volume of top of the funnel activity (new business meetings, converting them into Proof of Concepts etc). It all depends on the start-ups situation.

What Resources/Support Could Be Available?

The short answer is: very little. 

Aside from any existing findings/successes etc learned from founder-led sales, in nearly every case you will be expected to figure things out for yourself. 

Without an established brand, gaining traction and taking an unknown brand to market is going to be incredibly challenging. You will have to truly learn your ICPs pains and know how to get across product value before you even think about closing any deals. The challenge is even greater if you are having to evangelise customers and articulate value for non-commoditized, brand-new products.

On top of that, without any support from the likes of BDRs, a marketing function, or presales, you will have to think outside the box and become a jack-of-all-trades in most GtM areas. There will likely be no CRM, no tech stack, or any tools to help you with curating your own email campaigns, sourcing lead information, or building supportive collateral etc.

But that’s the beauty of a role like this. Not everything is neatly set out on the table for you to jump into selling and start making revenue from the get-go. You put in the hard yards and get your hands dirty. You A/B test. You explore what could work. You learn what did, what didn’t. You adapt. And you greatly impact a start-ups growth as a result of what you’ve built.
 

Learning Opportunities

An incredibly valuable aspect of a founding role is the exposure you’ll get from close collaboration with founders/VCs, something that is simply impossible in more established teams. With more sales-focussed/business savvy founders, you’ll essentially learn the equivalent of a mini-MBA from them as you tag-team to build a sales playbook. With a more technical founder, you’ll get a masterclass of the product, and capitalise on the expertise of a leader with unparalleled technical product chops. 

If you are fortunate enough that the start-up has a sales advisor on board, it’s likely that you’ll receive 1-2-1 training from them. This could be anything from learning how to get the needle moving, influencing multiple stakeholders, or even general reviews/feedback.
 

Progression

Arguably one of the most rewarding parts of being a founding hire is the speed at which you can climb the ladder. From collaborating closely with leadership, and becoming an expert in most areas of the business, founders/leadership will witness first hand your ability and success, and position you as a valuable leader in expanding the sales function. Expect a high likelihood of progressing quickly within the first 12-24 months. 
 

Non-Traditional Comp Plans

It is unrealistic to go into a founding sales role and expect the same comp plan/incentives as the hundredth hire at a more established startup. No one joins at Series A and earlier and expects to be paid the big bucks from the get-go – you will be compensated via other avenues.
And one of the biggest avenues is equity – a percentage of ownership of the company. 

With that, you cannot realise any value until the company exits (by an IPO or acquisition for example) and you’ll have to wait until your equity has vested (often over a 4 year period) before you can sell or transfer. This is why shares are a popular way for founders to retain sales talent.

But with that comes huge risk. You’re taking a chance on a startup that might not even reach $100M valuation. Need I remind you of a well-known statistic: about 90% of startups fail, and 10% of startups fail within the first year. 

However, the reward speaks for itself. Typically, a founding sales rep would get anywhere between 0.1% to 1% equity, depending on the seniority of the startup. That doesn’t sound like much, but imagine you’ve been at this company for 4/5 years and the startup is valued at $1BN. That 0.1% is now worth £1,000,000.

Whilst equity offers long-term upside, it doesn’t pay the bills today. That’s why your annual take home salary will look different from a traditional sales role. Instead of a standard OTE tied to revenue targets, your incentives will align with outcomes/behaviours that the founder is trying to achieve. And this depends on the stage of the startup, their pains, what their goals are etc. 

There are various types of outcome/behavioural focused incentives. Here are the two most common:

A non-recoverable draw – Guaranteed commission for a set period regardless of sales achieved, with a specific target. 

SPIF (Sales Performance Incentive Fund) – Receiving a predetermined bonus/reward from a dedicated incentive pool upon achieving certain targets.

In practice, a SPIF looks like (using booked qualified new business meetings as the top-of-the-funnel-metric):

 

The predetermined bonus would then be received by the rep as the specific target had been achieved.  

The founding sales hire is, without question, an incredibly challenging role to successfully fulfil. It requires thick skin, resilience, and the ability to be comfortable with the chaos of fast-paced, unstructured environments. This role is not for everyone, but for those who embrace its challenges, the rewards are unparalleled.

Success in this position can be a true career-defining opportunity. The exposure to founders and VCs, the depth of learning, the accelerated progression, and the tangible impact you have on shaping a company’s growth are unmatched compared to roles at more established orgs. If you’re ready to roll up your sleeves and embrace the chaos, the journey as a founding sales hire can be as transformative as it is rewarding.
 

Are you excited by the idea of being a founding sales hire at a high-growth SaaS startup?

Get in touch with us so we can discuss your goals, nail down your criteria, and help you secure a founding sales role!