ClosedWon Talent

“Enterprise AE” titles can be a trap. I’ve seen it firsthand. At one company I worked at, we had the classic structure: -Emerging AE -Mid-Market AE -Enterprise AE Sounds legit…until you look at the deals. We only sold to SMBs. An “emerging” deal might be $720/year. A “big enterprise” deal might be $10K/year. At many companies, that’s a blip of an SMB deal, but internally, it felt like enterprise. Titles created a false sense of scale. Here’s where people can get stuck: They optimize for optics. They won’t consider a SMB or Mid-Market role elsewhere because it sounds like a step down. In reality, it could mean: -5-10x larger deal sizes -More complex sales cycles -Bigger customers -Higher salaries & commissions That’s not a step back...that’s leveling up. There’s another problem too... If you apply “up market,” companies might pass on you. Not because you’re bad, but because your experience doesn’t match the deal size, velocity, or complexity they need. So you end up stuck in between. All because of a title. Titles don’t mean much. Deal size, complexity, and who you sell to do. Focus on that, crush your quota, and everything else should take care of itself.

New role at a Series A client we've helped hire 5+. And it's fully remote (w/ most employees in NYC & Boston). They're looking for a BDR Manager to lead a small existing team with plans to grow it once a strong structure is put in place. They had an insane finish to 2025 and have big plans for 2026 + beyond. Over $20M raised, incredible founder, strong sales leader we helped them hire who this person would report to. Crazy good product-market fit & enterprise logos. If you can't tell, they're one of our FAVORITE startup clients at ClosedWon Talent. Want to learn more? Check out the job post here: https://lnkd.in/eeXABDb5

Your first few AE roles need to be winners. And there's some clear tells which are not... Recently spoke with someone who went from door-to-door sales straight into a very early-stage startup as a full-cycle enterprise SaaS AE. He reported directly to the CEO and owned everything from prospecting and demos to closing and managing customers. You can probably guess how the first six months went...not great. Eventually the CEO hired a sales leader who decided the role required someone with more experience and let him go. Now he's in a tough spot looking for his next role. On paper he has six months of SaaS closing experience, but the numbers were weak and the environment was stacked against him from the start. So how can someone spot a strong AE opportunity when they do not have much (or any) closing experience yet? 1. Bet on your boss Early in your career, the person you report to matters more than the logo on your LinkedIn profile. You want a manager who has actually done the job well and can coach you through it. Someone who understands pipeline, deal strategy, and how to win. It also helps to have a strong team around you to learn from. This person had neither. A CEO trying to save money by hiring a junior rep to run enterprise sales is rarely the right environment that will lead to successful outcomes. 2. Make sure the product actually fits the market you are selling into. In this case, the rep was selling to enterprise...but their website literally said the Pro Plan was “ideal for small teams or solo consultants.” That mismatch makes your job dramatically harder before you even start. 3. Do not skip steps in the learning curve If your background is prospecting, non-SaaS sales, or SMB deals, jumping straight to enterprise usually slows down your development because you need repeition early in your career. A calendar full of fast-moving deals that close in 30 to 90 days will teach you far more than chasing a handful of enterprise opportunities each quarter. Enterprise money is great, but if you are only working a few deals per quarter you are limiting how fast you can actually learn how to be a great seller (and your likelihood of failure rises dramatically). Careers compound the same way investments do...stack a few smart moves early and everything becomes easier later. Good luck out there!

Signed two new clients this week and have 3 new roles! Founding AE (2 openings), Founding SDR, and VP Marketing. Here's info about the startup w/ the 3 sales openings: -$100M+ ARR startup building their FIRST US GTM team! -Industry: Privacy/compliance SaaS -Traction: Strong PMF & logos, ~400 employees -Persona: Selling to CMO/Head of Privacy/Legal/CTO -Deal Size: $13-30k ARR, most deals close < 75 days -Global HQ: Europe (multiple offices) -Role Location: NYC (hybrid in Manhattan 2-3x/week) -Role 1: Founding AE ($90-$100k salary, $180-200k OTE) -Role 2: Founding SDR ($70k salary, $100k OTE) In terms of requirements: -AE role: 2+ years SaaS closing experience -SDR role: 1 year of SaaS SDR experience I love this opportunity because you get to build the US market from the ground up WITHIN a thriving global ecosystem. IMO, this is one of the least "risky" founding SDR/AE roles out there! DM me if you're in the NYC area and want to learn more. Oh, and if you're looking for a cybersecurity VP Marketing role, DM me as well ;)

Two new roles at an incredible NYC Series A startup. If you like technical SaaS...and legit PMF...it could be for you ;) Quick overview of them: - NYC startup (hybrid schedule Tues-Thurs) - Securing sensitive credit card data for Ramp, Rippling, Sling, etc. - $19M in total funding - Grew revenue 3x in 2025 and have a plan to do it again in 2026! Role 1: Revenue Operations Manager - First RevOps hire supporting the entire revenue engine - Key projects: Analyzing funnel inefficiencies, creating target account lists and workflows, unifying data across tools, and supporting comp & incentives - Ideal background: Knowledge and interest of AI & modern tools like Clay and/or Claude, analytical, strong systems thinker, CRM architecture experience (they use Hubspot) - $150-200k salary + bonus + equity Role 2: Solutions Engineer - Technical brain to the sales process - Lead technical validations, architecting payment data flows, and ensuring a fit in customers' tech stack - This is a not a platform that is sold via demo, discovery & technical validation is EVERYTHING! - Ideal background: 2+ years as an SE, experience within payments/card data, Infra, security, crypto, etc. (very technical products where you've mapped complex solutions) - $140-180k+ salary (flexible) + bonus + equity Either sound interesting? Or know someone who might? DM me!

Growing the Atomic team 💙 We’re excited to welcome Matt Bruhn (Head of Sales) and Olha Sverdel (Data Scientist) to Atomic. Both bring incredible experience and perspective, and we’re pumped to have them help shape what we’re building next. Welcome aboard! 🚀 Olha Sverdel, Matthew Bruhn

ClosedWon Talent supports lots of 🔥🔥 SaaS startups. Here's NINE of our top AE openings hiring NOW: Founding AE (2 openings) - Stage: Seed - ICP: Technical buyers (engineering leaders mostly) - Deals: Mid Market & Ent ($15-50k+ lands PLUS expansion) - Work style: Hybrid in San Francisco - Report to: Founder - Product Overview: Turns engineering data into actionable insights - Compensation: $100-$150k salary x 2 AE (1 opening, we just helped them hire their Founding AE!) - Stage: Series A - ICP: Finance and ops leaders in healthcare - Deals: $30k-$200k+ ARR - Work style: Hybrid in San Francisco - Report to: Founder - Product Overview: Automated financial reconciliation and insights - Compensation: $120-$150k salary x 2 AE (1 opening) - Stage: Series A - ICP: Payment companies dealing with PCI compliance - Deals: $50k-$200k - Work style: Hybrid in New York - Report to: Head of Sales - Product Overview: Dev tools to encrypt & protect sensitive data in apps - Compensation: $125-150k salary x 2 Enterprise AE (2 openings) - Stage: Series A - ICP: $10B+ manufacturing/CPG companies - Deals: $50k+ ARR lands PLUS expansion - Work style: Hybrid in Somerville, MA - Report to: Head of Sales - Product overview: IoT sensors & AI to optimize manufacturing efficiency Mid Market and Ent AE (3 openings) - Stage: Series A - ICP: Product & UX teams - Deals: $50-$200k+ ARR - Work style: Fully remote - Report to: Head of Sales - Product overview: Centralizes and automates user research operations - Compensation: $120-150k salary x 2 BONUS: - The company above is ALSO hiring SDR's! - Work style: Fully remote (East Coast preferred) - Need 12 months of SDR experience, mix of phone & email outreach - Report to: SDR Manager - Compensation: $70k salary, $100k OTE Send me a DM if any look interesting & I'll do my best to respond. Want more sales content/hot jobs in your feed? Follow me 😎

$1.18M in revenue in 2 years, with +85% profit. And we started ClosedWon Talent with only $4k. Before taking this leap, I was working at a startup with less than six months of runway, completely miserable. I knew I had to get out, and I knew I was done working for other people. I just didn't have much time to figure out what to do next. I kicked around some ideas, but none felt right. At the same time, the anxiety kept building because I knew I could be out of a job any day and had a family to support. Then I caught up with Jake Citrano, and things clicked fast. That was December 2023. The plan was for me to go full-time on February 1st, but I couldn't afford to walk away from a $190k salary with zero traction. So I started early by reaching out to founders and hiring managers I already knew and signed two clients, before ever going public. 2024 was slow, and we finished the year at $412k. I only paid myself $104k. Ouch. Toward the end of 2024, we brought Kaylie Martin onto the team, a decision we knew would be a game-changer for us (and it has!!) 2025 started strong...but was very lumpy. Then Q4 hit. We restructured how we operated and closed $276k, finishing the year at $566k. I paid myself $172k...better...but we left lots of money on the table. But our momentum was building. Then January 2026 rolled around...and we closed $203k in a single month, with $165k in profit. With 37% of our total two-year revenue coming in over the last four months... ...and with my annualized 90-day earning average hovering around $300k (and rising fast)... I finally feel like I can breathe a little. Building a business is hard. The ups and downs are very real. Could I have earned more the last 2 years working for someone else? 100%. But I'm playing the long game. This experience has reinforced my belief that you don’t need a large team to accomplish great things. You need the right people, with the right backgrounds, operating in a structure that actually lets them win. That’s exactly why we focus on Sales and GTM hiring at early-stage startups, where the stakes are HIGH and adding the RIGHT employees can change everything. Thanks to the 24 startups who have already hired at least one person from us and the 61 people who have trusted us with their careers. I'm eternally grateful to you all 🙏 Onward 📈