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Founding AE - AI

Founding AE - AI

Key Information:

  • Sector – AI driven data-analytics
  • Company Size – 10
  • Project Type – x1 Founding AE

Overview: (company / rec situation)

  • Our client is a seed backed start up venture born out of a British University.
  • After securing a round of funding and successfully building an innovative tech product they were looking to take the product to market.
  • They were looking for someone to initially take full responsibility for the sales function and revenue performance. That person would then grow the function.
  • The ideal candidate was someone who had successfully scaled a sales function from scratch before, was from industry and knew how to build a repeatable, scalable function. It was imperative they had the ability to work with the founders of the business who were new to running a scaling business. They would also be working with other advisors.

Approach:

  • Our first step was to utilise our network of founding sales professionals and gain an initial longlist, followed by recommendations and referrals of any up-coming top performing AE’s.
  • We then put together a list of the fastest scaling businesses in the target sector area and proactively headhunted from a target list.
  • We initially produced a longlist of 10 individuals who we then brought down to 5.
  • Due to the headhunt nature of the project, the interview process was personalised to the individuals and subtly focused on the suitability of their skill set, strategic planning / alignment, past performance and relationships / behaviours built with the founders.
  • We put forward a shortlist of 5 individuals. By the end of the process there was 1 clear favourite for the board.

Conclusion:

  • Following the identification of their preferred candidate we then helped negotiate an effective package which compiled of a range of different incentives such as stocks and accelerators. These were based on performance and longevity.

Stats / Results: 

  • Project length: 10 weeks
  • 5 candidates interviewed for 1 hire