Founding GTM Lead at Emergence Capital Partners (San Francisco, CA)Founding GTM Lead

Founding GTM Lead

You'll build the go-to-market engine from scratch. You'll close deals yourself while building the playbook, processes, and team that scale revenue from early traction to repeatable growth. As the founding GTM hire, you'll own the entire sales motion – from identifying target customers and crafting messaging to running demos, negotiating contracts, and closing deals. You'll develop deep expertise in the customer problem and become the voice of the market inside the company. The playbook you create will become the foundation for how the company sells. This role requires someone who can sell, not just manage. You should be comfortable carrying a quota and closing deals while simultaneously building the infrastructure for scale. The best candidates combine hustle with strategic thinking – they can grind through outbound prospecting and also step back to analyze what's working and systematize it.

• Own the full sales cycle from prospecting through negotiation to close for enterprise customers
• Develop ideal customer profile, value proposition, and sales messaging through direct selling experience
• Build pipeline through multiple channels: outbound prospecting, inbound qualification, partnerships, and network
• Run product demos and technical presentations tailored to customer needs and stakeholders
• Negotiate contracts and pricing, working with leadership on deal structure and approval
• Create and document sales playbook: qualification criteria, objection handling, competitive positioning
• Implement sales tools and CRM processes that enable tracking and forecasting
• Partner with product and engineering to translate market feedback into roadmap priorities
• Hire and develop the first sales team members as volume and complexity increase

• 5+ years of B2B sales experience, with at least 2 years selling into enterprise accounts
• Track record of quota attainment and closing complex deals ($50K+ ACV)
• Experience as an early sales hire at a startup or selling a new product into an established market
• Ability to sell consultatively, understanding customer problems and mapping solutions to value
• Strong prospecting skills with experience building pipeline through outbound and network
• Excellent presentation and communication skills for executive-level conversations
• Experience with technical or complex sales cycles requiring multi-stakeholder alignment
• Comfort with ambiguity and ability to iterate on approach based on market feedback

• Experience selling AI, data, or technical products to enterprise buyers
• Background selling into the company's target vertical (financial services, healthcare, legal, etc.)
• Previous experience building and managing a sales team
• Technical background that enables deeper product and customer conversations
• Network of relationships with potential customers in target markets
• Experience with PLG motions, partnerships, or channel sales in addition to direct enterprise sales