Founding Account Executive

Founding Account Executive — School Partnerships | AI EdTech Startup $250-$300k OTEMost people who could do the most good for education never go anywhere near it. This role is for the ones who want to change that.Our client has been backed by Y Combinator-backed AI startup building a grading and feedback platform for secondary school teachers, cutting marking time from 10–20 hours a cycle down to 2–4, so teachers can give students the fast, high-quality feedback that actually improves outcomes. Backed by top-tier investors, growing fast, still small enough that the next two hires shape how this function works for years.Every school partnership so far has been closed by the founders themselves. They now have more opportunities than they can personally chase, which is where you come in.The roleWe're hiring two Founding Account Executives — one owning New South Wales, one owning Victoria. You'll get a strong existing motion, direct founder support, and help with prospecting logistics, but you own the entire process end to end:Build a prioritised account map of schools and departments across your territoryGenerate your own pipeline through outbound, referrals, and eventsRun discovery to understand how a school currently marks and where the real pain isDeliver tailored demos against real student work, not a generic feature tourNavigate Heads of Department, school leaders and other stakeholders to build genuine consensusClose new partnerships and own onboarding so teachers get real, immediate valueExpand accounts into more year levels and subjects over timeHelp run in-person "benchmarking sessions" — bringing Heads of Department and assessors together to grade real student work and calibrate standards (some evenings/weekends, when senior educators are actually free)What success looks like in year oneYou've built and are actively managing a high-quality territoryYou've got genuine relationships with the Heads of Department and school leaders who matterYou're generating consistent pipeline yourself, not waiting on inboundYou've closed new partnerships and made sure the first deployments actually stuckEducators trust you — not an easy thing to earn as the rep for a tech companyYou've started shaping the playbook the next hire after you will inheritWho this is forThere's no single right resume. Good fits include:An experienced SaaS or EdTech AE who's carried a quota and wants real ownership, not a mature sales org's guardrailsAn educator or former school leader who wants a higher-leverage way to drive change in education and is willing to learn the craft of salesAn exceptional early-career operator with strong evidence of drive, agency and follow-through who wants to spend their career on something that mattersNon-negotiables: drive, agency, discipline, and the ability to earn trust with sceptical, experienced educators.CompensationCompetitive base salary, based on experience10% of ARR closed — uncapped, paid monthly (realistic OTE in the $250K–$300K+ range at target)Equity (a real %!) with flexibility for exceptional candidatesBacked by a company with real momentum and a credible funding base