Answer 13 questions in about 4 minutes and see whether you're ready for an SDR, an AE, a founding AE or a GTM engineer, or what to do first.
For B2B companies with a live product.
Founding GTM Hiring worksheet01 / 03
Prove the motion. Then hire the right role.
SDR Build pipeline
AE Close the deals
Founding AE Build and sell
GTM engineer Connect the systems
Do the math firstOTE × multiple = quota
How to choose your first sales hire
Your first sales hire should match what your sales motion needs next, not what a bigger company would hire. The quiz above looks at your deals, your pipeline and how repeatable your sales are today, then points you to one of five answers.
SDR (sales development rep)
Books meetings for someone else to run. Fits when you already close deals well and the bottleneck is how many first meetings you get. An SDR needs a proven message and a list of the right companies, or they burn through your market.
AE (account executive)
Runs deals from first call to signed contract. Fits when the way you win is written down: who buys, why now and what to say. An AE inherits your process. They are not hired to invent it.
Founding AE
A senior seller who closes deals and helps build the process at the same time. Fits when you have early customers but your wins still depend on you. Expect to pay more than for a standard AE, and to give them more room.
GTM engineer
Builds the systems behind the sales motion: lists, buying signals, outreach, CRM and reporting. Fits when the founder can still close but the pipeline is manual and inconsistent.
Not ready yet
If you don't have a repeatable way to win deals yet, a new hire usually inherits a guess. Write down who buys, why now and what to say first, then hire into it.
Do the math before you hire an AE
A quick check uses three numbers: on-target earnings (OTE), average deal size and close rate. Quota is commonly 3 to 6 times OTE (Bridge Group 2024). At a $160k OTE and a quota of 4.5 times OTE, that is $720,000 a year. At $15k deals that is 48 deals, and at a 20% close rate it is 240 qualified opportunities a year, about 20 a month. If you can't produce that many today, your first hire will spend their time looking for pipeline instead of closing it.
Questions founders ask
When should a startup hire its first salesperson?
When the founder has closed enough deals the same way that someone else can follow the method, and there is enough pipeline to keep a new hire busy. A good test: can you write down who buys, why now and what to say?
Should my first sales hire be an SDR or an AE?
Usually an AE or a founding AE. An SDR books meetings for someone else, so it works best once a closer already exists and the message is proven.
What is a founding AE?
A senior account executive who closes deals and helps build the sales process while it is still being figured out.
How much pipeline does a first AE need?
Work back from quota. Quota divided by deal size gives deals a year, and deals divided by close rate gives the qualified opportunities needed. The example above comes to about 20 a month.
