Founding GTM

Kepler • New York, NY

5d • $170,000 - $230,000 • Onsite

About The Position

Kepler is hiring its first market-focused individual contributor to build relationships and drive go-to-market work with investment firms, including hedge funds, private equity firms, and allocators. The role centers on reaching portfolio managers, CIOs, CTOs, and heads of data and AI, developing trusted relationships, understanding firms’ workflows and technical environments, and turning initial conversations into engagements. This is a senior individual contributor position with no quota or territory; the CEO remains involved in the company’s most important relationships.

The hire will lead discovery, conferences and events, deal shaping, customer and market feedback for product and marketing, relationship coordination, partnerships, and market research. They will tailor Kepler’s pitch and proposed engagement to each firm’s needs, coordinate long sales cycles through scoping, security reviews, and evaluation, and keep conversations and next steps moving. The role also includes explaining Kepler’s technical approach to both investment and engineering audiences and working with engineers in customer discussions.

Kepler builds an AI agent harness designed to make model outputs reliable, traceable, and verifiable. Its finance research product supports analysts with tasks such as pulling comparables, building models, and researching filings. The company’s New York team works together in an office and uses AI tools extensively. The pace is startup-fast, with an emphasis on high-quality customer relationships, teamwork, and ownership.

The ideal candidate has buy-side experience or has worked closely with investment firms, has a current network among target buyers, and has built relationships that led to business. They should be able to lead conversations with investment and technical stakeholders, understand both investment workflows and underlying technology, manage many long-running relationships and deals, host effective small events, and use AI tools fluently. Sales experience is not required. The role offers meaningful responsibility for establishing Kepler’s market function, with the possibility of building a team as the work grows.

Requirements

• At least 5 years at a hedge fund, private equity firm, or allocator, or in a role working with them daily, such as capital introduction, corporate access, research, or advisory.
• A current network at firms Kepler wants to work with, with the ability to identify initial contacts and explain why they would take the candidate’s call.
• A track record of relationships that generated business, such as capital raised, clients won, or deals enabled through introductions.
• Ability to lead first conversations with portfolio managers, CTOs, or heads of data, understand how their teams work, and establish clear next steps.
• Knowledge of investment-team workflows and the technology supporting them, including the ability to discuss models or filings with portfolio managers and data pipelines, APIs, and security with CTOs.
• Ability to learn Kepler’s system well enough to explain and demonstrate it, and to recognize when to involve an engineer.
• Ability to manage numerous relationships and live conversations through long sales cycles, keeping their status and next steps clear.
• Ability to host effective dinners and choose appropriate venues and guest lists.
• Fluency with AI tools, including using Claude for meeting preparation, firm research, and relationship organization.
• Strong judgment about people, credibility with buyers, technical depth, and drive.
• Measures work by relationships that become customers rather than by meeting volume; follows up promptly and communicates proactively.
• Willingness to raise concerns about ineffective pitches, targets, or events, and to adapt when plans change.
• Sales background is not required.

Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain relationships with portfolio managers, CIOs, CTOs, and heads of data and AI at hedge funds, private equity firms, and allocators.
• Lead discovery conversations to understand firms’ workflows, data locations, existing engineering efforts, and what an initial engagement must demonstrate.
• Coordinate and participate in customer conversations, bringing in the CEO and engineers when appropriate.
• Plan conference participation, arrange meetings before events, and manage follow-up afterward.
• Organize small dinners and roundtables for investment-firm research and data leaders.
• Shape deal pitches and offers around each firm’s needs in collaboration with the CEO and product team.
• Translate feedback from buyers into clear input for product and marketing, including segment-specific messaging, decks, and one-pagers.
• Use Kepler’s product as a user and communicate product gaps and buyer objections to the team.
• Coordinate inbound requests, live conversations, follow-ups, NDAs, scoping sessions, and materials across multiple relationships and long sales cycles.
• Develop relationship paths through customers, investors, advisors, and their introductions.
• Build potential partnership relationships with prime brokers, fund administrators, data providers, and other firms connected to buyers.
• Monitor AI adoption among target firms, competitor messaging, and potential customer segments.
• Learn and explain Kepler’s system to investment and technical audiences, including how customer data is handled and how outputs are sourced.
• Over time, establish Kepler’s approach to events, partner channels, advisors, deal management, and potentially a market-focused team.

Benefits

• 100% company-paid medical, dental, and vision insurance for employees and their families.
• Company-funded HSA contribution up to the IRS limit.
• Automatic life, AD&D, and disability insurance coverage.
• Daily lunch in the office.
• Unlimited PTO policy.
• Development environment budget for a MacBook Pro, monitors, ergonomic setup, and development tools.
• Dedicated budget for tools, libraries, datasets, or infrastructure needed to solve technical challenges.
• Learning budget for conferences, courses, or programs.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: No Education Listed