By Sade Clarke, Senior Lead, Sales Stream at Jumpstart. Updated September 2026.Since the summer the platform has filled up with account executive roles. Seed and Series A companies that hired their first SDRs a year ago now have pipeline and nobody senior enough to close it. So this is the profile I am looking hardest for right now: an AE with one to four years of carrying a number, who has beaten it, and who wants a bigger job than the one they have.
This page is the conversation I would have with you on a call. What the roles look like, what they pay, who I put forward and who I don't, and what founders check before they say yes.
Who I'm looking for
One to four years in a carrying role. That is the range founders will pay for at this stage: enough deals behind you to have judgement, not so many that you need a sales ops team and a marketing budget to function.
The ideal background is a growing AE team at a startup. You joined when there were three reps, there are now ten, and you watched the playbook get written and rewritten around you. If that's you, you already know what the job is.
If you've only sold at a large company, I need to see something else: an entrepreneurial streak. You ran your own business, or tried to. You opened a new market or a new segment nobody had sold into before. You built pipeline from nothing rather than working leads marketing handed you. Founders will ask, because the job is different in one specific way, which I'll get to.
I'm also open to senior BDRs who have earned the step up. If you've been the top SDR for a year, sat in on closes, and can run a discovery call without a script, junior AE is a real path and several of the roles below were filled that way.
The word "founding" and what it actually means
A lot of these roles are titled founding AE, or they're the first or second closer at the company. Founders use the word to describe a very particular situation: there is no playbook. Nobody has written the discovery questions. There is no battle card, no case study, no pricing page that has survived contact with a customer. The company has a product, some early users, and no credibility yet in the market you're selling into.
Your job is to build the playbook while running it. That means trusting yourself to create pipeline for a business nobody has heard of, losing deals for reasons you'll have to diagnose alone, and turning what you learn into the process the next three hires will follow. Some people find that terrifying. Some find it the most fun they've had at work. Founders can tell which you are within ten minutes, so be honest with yourself first.
What it pays
Base salaries for AE roles on the platform run from £45k to £65k and upward, with commission almost always uncapped and usually structured so that on-target earnings are at least double the base. Enterprise AE roles currently live sit at £80k to £100k base. Equity is common at seed and Series A, and it's real money if the company works.
Some examples from roles I've filled: a junior AE hired as a commercial associate at £50k base, which is the upper end for that level but very achievable with the right background; a senior AE at £60k-plus base; commercial associate and SDR roles up now at around £50k base for people with experience. If you're completely fresh to closing, expect £30k to £55k base plus commission, plus the chance of equity.
AE roles we've filled
Nine account executive roles, with salaries from the briefs, are on the roles page. Founding AE, AE, account manager and commercial roles at seed to Series B companies, most with a founder video.
What founders check
- Quota attainment, with numbers. Not "consistently exceeded target". Revenue closed, biggest deal, percentage of quota by year. Founders have seen the vague version a hundred times.
- Full-cycle ownership. Discovery, demo, negotiation, close. If someone else did discovery for you, say so; it isn't disqualifying, but pretending otherwise is.
- Whether you understand their economics. A founder's runway, their ACV, their sales cycle. The AEs who get hired ask about these on the first call. The ones who don't ask about the commission plan first.
- Stakeholder range. At a startup you're selling to the buyer and reporting to the founder, often in the same afternoon. They want evidence you can hold your own with both.
What I tell people on the call
Three things make the right AE lean in. The first is money, properly understood. Base and commission are the short-term picture; equity is the long-term one. If you're joining a company at ten people and helping build the revenue that gets it to a hundred, you should own a piece of what you're building. I walk through what that means in practice, and the people who get it stop asking about the commission accelerator and start asking about the cap table.
The second is that this is a vetted route. Getting onto the platform is not a formality; I'm assessing you on the call, and founders know that. It's why the roles on Jumpstart are worth your time, and why founders reply.
The third is interview coaching. In this market it's hard to get a job, and harder still to be seen at all. On Jumpstart founders pitch to you directly, and you get one-to-one support from interview coaches through the process. We're measured on jobs landed, not interviews arranged.
Who should not apply
Some people want to join a well-oiled machine: defined territory, a playbook, marketing feeding them leads, a manager who has done the job before. There is nothing wrong with wanting that, and it is exactly what a startup cannot give you. If you'd rather slot into a process than be the person who builds it, wait a stage or two.
The other disqualifier for startup sales specifically is a lack of curiosity about business. You'll be asked to understand your customer's economics, your founder's runway and your own unit economics, and to care about all three. And you'll be expected to carry what you hear on calls back into the building: to product, so the thing you're selling gets better, and to marketing, so the story gets sharper. Sales at a startup is a front-line role in the go-to-market, not a quota in isolation.
One to four years carrying a number and ready for more scope? Book a 15-minute call. I'll tell you which of the live AE roles fit and what your background reads like to a founder.
Book an AE call →How to position yourself
Lead with the numbers, in the first line of your CV and in the first thirty seconds of your video pitch. Then tell the founding story: the market you opened, the business you started, the deal you built from nothing. Then, and only then, the company names.
On Jumpstart, founders pitch their roles to you on video before you apply. Watch how a founder talks about their sales motion. If they can't describe who buys and why, you'll be doing that work for them, and you should price accordingly.
How the process works
Book a 15-minute call with me. If the AE stream fits, you're on the platform with a profile and a 60-second video pitch within 24 hours. You apply to tailored roles, founders pitch to you on video, and 80% of candidates who hit the 24-hour window land a role in four to six weeks. Free for candidates. Jumpstart can't support visa sponsorship or candidates in full-time study.