---
title: 'Founding sales lead at Hexa'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/founding-sales-lead-hexa-paris-99zxdh5wra2p'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-10-18'
---

# Founding sales lead at Hexa

- **Company:** Hexa
- **Location:** Paris, France
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Posted:** 2026-09-30
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-10-18
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/hexa/35956581-c1e4-4cb1-a0b1-24a198d48bf7

## Job description

Who are we? The sea is the physical layer of the economy: our energy, data and trade move across it and under it. It is also Europe's most exposed flank. Cheap underwater drones, divers and mines now threaten ports, naval bases, subsea cables and offshore energy sites, and most of what is funded today stops at detection: it tells you a drone has entered the harbour, not how to stop it before it reaches the hull or the cable. Pelagon is creating the category of maritime interdiction: detection and action together. We design, deploy and operate protection zones around critical maritime infrastructure: a persistent sensing network running our own acoustic-first AI detects and classifies threats, and an underwater interceptor acts on them. We sell to navies and coast guards, and to the civilian operators of ports, subsea cables and offshore energy. Pelagon was founded by Aymeric de Pontbriand (serial deeptech entrepreneur, founded and exited Scortex) and Gauthier Bouxin (French Navy officer, then McKinsey). A team is already in place around them: a lead embedded systems engineer, a lead hardware engineer and an a chief of staff. We are backed by [Hexa](http://hexa.cc/), the pioneer startup studio in Europe behind Front, Aircall and Spendesk.

⚡ What is at stake in the coming months

- Confirm the technology at sea with navies and operators.
- Deploy and sign our first paid pilots.
- Sign our first contracts.

By joining us, you'll play a key role in turning that early traction into multi-year protection contracts, and in building the sales team that follows.

🎯 Your mission

- Own every deal from first meeting to signed contract, with navies, port authorities and operators of cables and offshore energy.
- Sell interdiction, not detection alone: make the threat and the gap between alarm and response concrete for each buyer, then turn pilots into multi-year protection contracts.
- Shape requirements before the tender: work with navies and operators months ahead of an RFP so that it asks for detection and action together.
- Open our priority export markets: the Baltic and the Nordics, the Black Sea, the Gulf and Southeast Asia.
- Work as a pair with Gauthier, our Co-CEO, on key accounts, and bring Aymeric and the engineers in when the technical conversation starts.
- Build the partner channel: primes and integrators, offshore and cable operators, and local partners in each country.
- Turn every deployment into a reference the next customer can check.
- Set up the sales machine, then hire and lead the first sellers.

📈 How you will be measured

- First 3 months: you own the pipeline, have a qualified deal plan for each priority region, and a first paid pilot or LOI is signed.
- 6 months: paid pilots are running and the first contracts are signed.
- 12 months: recurring contracts in at least two countries, and your first sales hires are made and ramped.

🤩 This job is your dream job if:

- You have closed defense or government deals and want to do it again, from zero, where every contract changes the trajectory
- You like being the second half of a founder pair: the CEO brings operational credibility, you bring the deal
- You'd rather be on a plane to Tallinn, Constanța or Abu Dhabi than in a forecast meeting
- You speak engineer well enough to sell sensors, AI and C2
- You want to write the sales playbook yourself, then hire the team that runs it

🙅 This job is not for you if:

- You need a brand, a marketing team and SDRs to sell
- You have only sold short-cycle SaaS or SMB deals, never through formal procurement
- You want to manage a large team from day one rather than close deals yourself
- Sales cycles of 12 to 24 months and 40% travel put you off
- You are looking for the comfort of a large defense group

## What we offer

- A founding role in a seed-stage defense tech company backed by Hexa
- Fixed salary, variable on signed revenue, BSPCE
- Offices in Paris, real deployments at sea

🧭 Our recruitment process

- A first call to get to know each other.
- A deep dive into two deals you closed.
- A case study on a real Pelagon challenge, presented to the founders.
- A conversation with the founders.
- Reference checks, with your consent.
- Offer.

We answer after each step.

Pelagon is committed to creating a diverse environment. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment irrespective of gender, origin, identity, background and sexual orientation.

## About Hexa

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Hexa is a multi-stage startup studio that partners with founders to build, launch, and scale software companies from scratch.
- **Entity Type**: Private (multi-stage startup studio; operates Start, Sprint, and Scale tracks)
- **Headquarters**: Paris, France (12 rue Martel 75010)
- **Founded**: 2011
- **Founders**: Not publicly listed as a single founder; built as a studio by a founding team.

## Core Business
- Primary industry/industries: Venture Building / Startup Studio / Company Creation
- Target customers: Aspiring and experienced entrepreneurs (B2B, B2C, Enterprise tech founders)
- Mission or purpose statement: "To build alongside founders, not from the sidelines" – creating companies that leave a mark on the world by combining hands-on operational support with capital.

## Products & Services
- **Hexa Start**: A 12-month, intensive program for entrepreneurs who want to build a company from scratch (often before they have a concrete idea). Hexa provides the idea, team, co-founder, and covers all costs until the company becomes independent.
- **Hexa Sprint**: A 6-month program for founding teams who already have an idea and are looking for their first check (pre-seed). Offers €500k (€20k convertible note for 4% + €480k convertible note with MFN & cap at €8M).
- **Hexa Scale**: A growth-stage program for post-product-market-fit companies ($1–10M ARR, 10–40% YoY growth). Hexa invests €5–20M per company, takes a majority stake, and provides hands-on operational support (GTM, product, AI strategy, international expansion, hiring) for 9–12 months.
- **In-house Expertise**: 30+ experts in Product Design, Product Management, Engineering (via hired teams), GTM, Sales, Marketing, Finance, Legal, People & Talent, Comms & Brand, Community, and Investing.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Combined valuation of launched companies exceeds **$5 billion**.
- **Key Metric**: **50+ companies launched**; **2,600+ employees** across portfolio companies; **12 exits**.
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Not explicitly listed on the site, but the studio itself acts as the primary investor and operator. Portfolio includes multiple billion-dollar companies (names not publicly listed in the provided data).
- **Growth Signals**: Studio has been operating since 2011 and has scaled from 0 to 50+ companies. The addition of the Scale track indicates a pivot to later-stage growth. Receives ~1,000 founder applications per year, selecting ~12 founders (2 per project) annually for the Start track.

## Competitive Advantages
- **Hands-on, not hands-off**: Unlike traditional accelerators or VCs, Hexa provides a full in-house team of operators (product, design, GTM, legal, finance) working alongside founders for 12 months (Start) or 9–12 months (Scale).
- **Founder-friendly majority stake**: For Scale, Hexa takes a majority stake but claims to be "the world’s most founder-friendly majority investor" – founders remain in the driver's seat with active board support.
- **Proven track record**: 50+ companies, $5B combined valuation, 12 exits, spanning 12+ years of SaaS expertise.
- **End-to-end platform**: Covers the entire lifecycle from idea (Start) to pre-seed (Sprint) to growth (Scale) – rare in the startup studio space.
- **Built-in network & resources**: Founders get immediate access to a team of 30+ experts, legal, finance, recruiting, and a community of other founders.

## Strategic Focus
- **Scaling the Scale track**: The newer Hexa Scale program is a key growth driver, targeting profitable, capital-efficient B2B SaaS companies with $1–10M ARR.
- **AI & embedded finance**: Hexa Scale explicitly helps companies with AI strategy and adding fintech/embedded finance capabilities.
- **International expansion**: Helping portfolio companies expand into new geographies and verticals.
- **Maintaining high selectivity**: Keeping the Start track highly curated (~12 founders/year) to ensure deep support and quality outcomes.

## Why Work Here
- **Culture**: "You'll never build alone" – the studio emphasizes deep collaboration, ambition, humility, and execution. The team is composed of entrepreneurs and expert operators.
- **Remote/Hybrid Policy**: Hexa is based in Paris. For the Start track, a presence at HQ is important to benefit from resources and mentorship. Sprint is remote-friendly but based in France/Europe for events. Scale is likely remote-friendly with in-person board/partner meetings.
- **Perks & Engineering Culture**: No software engineers in the core team – each startup's product is built by engineers recruited specifically for that company. This means engineers get to join a funded startup with a built-in support system from day one. The studio provides legal, finance, recruiting, and strategic support so engineers can focus on product.
- **Career Path**: Two kinds of roles: (1) the core team that builds the machine (partners, product managers, designers, GTM, finance, legal) and (2) founding hires inside the startups coming out of the studio. Either way, you're in "before it exists" – a high-risk, high-reward environment with significant ownership and impact.

## Sources
1. [hexa.com](https://www.hexa.com/)
2. [hexa.com/positions](https://www.hexa.com/positions)
3. [jobs.ashbyhq.com/hexa](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/hexa)
4. [hexa.com/team](https://www.hexa.com/team)
5. [hexa.com/faq](https://www.hexa.com/faq)

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- [Investment Associate @Hexa Scale](https://feeny.ai/job/investment-associate-hexa-scale-hexa-paris-ewx0msmj3x8p) — Paris, France
- [Embedded System Lead Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/embedded-system-lead-engineer-hexa-france-2yyg4mg11fp9) — France
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