Founding Account Executive

About Distill Distill manages outreach for founders and executives so they can focus on running their companies. We find or screen the right people, research them, and handle personalized outreach, follow-up, and replies through to a booked meeting. Customers use Distill to find new customers, book conference meetings, follow up with high-value inbound leads, ask for warm introductions, and recruit candidates. Our AI-powered platform and dedicated Account Strategists keep outreach moving while customers stay in control. We focus on thoughtful, relevant messages that protect our customers’ reputations and start conversations with people who matter to their business. Founded in 2024 by serial entrepreneurs Russ Heddleston (DocSend → Dropbox, Pursuit → Meta) and Tim Su (Astrid → Yahoo, Tandem), we’re a remote-first team helping busy leaders build valuable relationships. The Opportunity We’re hiring our first Founding Account Executive to work directly with our CEO and help build a repeatable sales process. You’ll own the customer journey from initial conversation through a successful trial and a signed quarterly commitment. You’ll understand each prospect’s business, recommend the right approach, help them launch their trial, and stay involved until they see enough value to commit. Once they convert, you’ll coordinate a clear handoff to our Account Strategists. This role is a strong fit for an exceptional SDR or BDR ready to own the full sales cycle, or an early-career AE with prior sales development experience. You’ve done the work our customers do—researching prospects, writing outreach, managing replies, and booking meetings—and can bring that understanding to every sales conversation and customer trial. You’ll combine consultative selling with hands-on customer execution. As our first hire in this role, you’ll help define how we sell, run trials, and turn early results into lasting customer relationships. What You’ll Do Understand buyers and recommend the right approach Run discovery calls that uncover a prospect’s goals, audience, current workflow, and challenges. Deliver demos that connect Distill’s capabilities to the buyer’s specific needs. Help prospects choose the right starting point: targeted outbound, conference outreach, existing-network campaigns, or warm introductions. Use your outbound experience to assess targeting, messaging, and whether a proposed campaign is likely to work. Launch trials and help customers succeed Agree on a focused use case, clear success criteria, and a timeline for evaluating the trial. Help customers get set up, select their target audience, develop messaging, and launch their first campaign. Stay close throughout the trial: monitor progress, address obstacles, and help improve targeting or messaging. Keep customers engaged with proactive check-ins and clear next steps. Bring in Account Strategy or Product when their expertise can help the customer succeed. Convert trials into quarterly commitments Review trial results with customers and connect those results to their business goals. Address objections, align on expectations, and close signed quarterly commitments. Own timely, thoughtful follow-up from the first conversation through conversion. Keep the CRM current across sales opportunities and active trials, with clear next steps, owners, and timelines. Partner with the CEO on calls and progressively take ownership of the full sales cycle. Make a clean handoff to Account Strategy Capture the customer’s goals, audience, campaign approach, trial results, and commitments made during the sales process. Ensure Account Strategists understand what worked, what needs improvement, and what the customer expects next. Coordinate the transition so customers maintain momentum and don’t have to repeat themselves. Help build the sales playbook Turn successful calls, common objections, effective follow-ups, and trial learnings into reusable materials. Share buyer feedback with the founders, Product, and Account Strategy. Practice calls, seek feedback, and test ways to improve discovery, demos, trial outcomes, and conversion. Help define a sales process that future hires can learn from and build on. What We’re Looking For Prior SDR or BDR experience is required. You have personally run outbound prospecting, including researching accounts, identifying decision-makers, writing outreach, following up, and booking meetings. Deep empathy for the buyer. You understand outbound firsthand and can connect that experience to the needs of busy founders and executives who want qualified meetings without managing outreach themselves. Practical judgment about outbound. You can recognize weak targeting or messaging, explain what needs to change, and help customers improve during their trial. Strong discovery and communication skills. You listen carefully, ask useful questions, and explain recommendations clearly in writing and on calls. Curiosity and sound judgment. You can quickly understand unfamiliar businesses and make thoughtful recommendations without relying on a fixed script. Hands-on ownership. You’re willing to work directly on customer setup, targeting, and messaging to help trials succeed. Excellent organization and follow-through. You can manage multiple opportunities and active trials without losing context or momentum. Ambition and coachability. You welcome feedback, enjoy practicing your craft, and want to work closely with a founder. Comfort with AI tools and startup ambiguity. You’re eager to learn an evolving product and help build the process as you go. Nice to Have Experience as an AE or converting trials into paying customers. Experience selling sales technology, recruiting technology, GTM tools, or workflow software. Familiarity with LinkedIn prospecting, conference campaigns, and warm-introduction workflows. Experience at an early-stage startup. What Success Looks Like Qualified prospects launch trials promptly with a focused use case and agreed success criteria. Trial customers receive proactive support and experience meaningful value. Trials convert into signed quarterly commitments. Account Strategists inherit customers with clear expectations and useful context on their initial campaigns. You independently lead more of the sales cycle as your product knowledge and judgment develop. The sales and trial process becomes increasingly repeatable. Why Join Distill? Work directly with experienced founders who have built and exited multiple companies. Own the full sales cycle and help shape how an early-stage company sells. Sell a product built for a workflow you understand firsthand. Build expertise in AI-powered outbound and influence the product through what you learn from customers. Join a remote-first team with a high degree of ownership, autonomy, and trust. Competitive compensation and equity.