Founding In-Market Account Executive
About The Position
Lemon.io is establishing a presence in San Francisco and is seeking a founding In-Market Account Executive. This is a full-cycle, senior-level sales role responsible for building and executing the growth strategy in the San Francisco market. The role emphasizes in-person sales, relationship building, and market ownership. Lemon.io is a bootstrapped, fast-growing developer marketplace that connects companies with vetted developers. The company is expanding its offerings to include embedded engineers, Forward-Deployed Engineers (FDEs), and outcome-based project work. The culture is transparent, and the company has a high eNPS score. The in-person sales approach has shown to be twice as effective as remote sales. This role is unique as it offers significant autonomy and influence. The Account Executive will report directly to the President, have high visibility, and their market insights will shape company strategy. They will not inherit a playbook but will help create one for future market expansions. The target customers are funded startups (Series A-C) and enterprise software/technology accounts in verticals such as SaaS, AI/ML, fintech, healthtech, and marketplaces. Buyers typically include founders, CTOs, VPs of Engineering, and Heads of Product. The sales cycle is longer and more relationship-driven, typically lasting 3 months, focusing on earning trust with senior buyers for larger, outcome-based deals.
Requirements
- 5+ years of full-cycle B2B sales with a demonstrable, quantifiable track record of over-performance against plan, period. You can walk us through your quota, attainment, and biggest wins with specifics, not adjectives.
- A field seller at heart - outside sales, in-person, relationship-driven. You close eye-to-eye, and it energizes you.
- Bay Area–based and Bay Area–wired. You know the SF tech ecosystem, or you'll own it within 90 days. A network here is a strong plus.
- A builder. You've been early at something before, or you've wanted to be. Ambiguity is oxygen.
- Fluent in the buyer - you can hold a real conversation with a founder or engineering leader about hiring pain, roadmap, and what outcome-based delivery means for them.
- Sharp qualification instincts - efficient discovery, quick signal-vs-noise judgment.
- Fluent English (all company-wide communication is in English).
- Hands-on with HubSpot, Apollo, LinkedIn Sales Navigator, ZoomInfo, Slack, and Notion.
Responsibilities
- Own the market. Register for and work every conference, summit, and demo day worth attending in the Bay. Turn attendee lists into booked meetings and become a known face on the SF tech circuit within a quarter.
- Sell across the table. Coffees, lunches, dinners, whiteboard sessions, events, and entertainment. You know how to use hospitality to build real relationships, and you're funded to do it.
- Close and grow. Run the full cycle: discovery, scoping, demo, negotiation, close - then expand usage, drive repeat business, and turn happy clients into referrals.
- Self-source with pride. Marketing, SDRs, the BDR, and outbound feed you pipeline, and you still book plenty of your own. The best field AEs never wait for the phone to ring.
- Build the growth plan. Partner with the President on strategy and bring the market intel that sharpens targeting, positioning, and where we go next.
- Manage pipeline & KPIs. Maintain a structured pipeline, forecast accurately, and hit conversion, revenue, and growth targets.
- Collaborate cross-functionally. Work with Product, Marketing, CDX, and Developer Matching to align solutions with client needs.
Benefits
- USD salary + uncapped commission
- An expensed events, travel, and entertainment budget; the tools of the trade, funded
- 14 vacation days + 7 sick days
- Annual reimbursements for health, self-development, travel, home office, and mental wellness
- A founding seat with a direct line to the President and real influence over how we grow
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Senior
Education Level
No Education Listed
