Founding Account Executive

Job Description

Job Description

Textio (Lavalier) | San Francisco, CA (hybrid, 2–3 days/week in office)

Compensation: $125,000–$150,000 base | $250,000–$300,000 OTE (50/50 split)

About Lavalier

Lavalier is Textio's interview intelligence platform, built on a simple belief: hiring faster only matters if you're also hiring the right people. Most tools in this space stop at transcription — efficiency without quality. Lavalier is different. We coach interviewers in the moment, when it actually changes outcomes, rather than handing them a transcript after the fact.

The market signal is clear: talent leaders want this. Companies like Bloomberg, Cisco, Johnson & Johnson, Samsung, and Spotify already trust Textio. Now we're looking for the person who will drive awareness of Lavalier, land our foundational customers, and build the sales motion from the ground up.

About the role

This is a true founding AE role. You'll run your book like it's your own business — sourcing your own pipeline, executing deals end to end, and shaping how we go to market. You'll work directly with our CEO and VP of Marketing, and your fingerprints will be on everything from messaging to pricing conversations to product feedback.

What you'll do

• Generate your own pipeline. Build and execute an outbound plan focused on one-to-one outreach and account targeting — mid- and lower-funnel work, not mass email cadences. 
• Execute deals end to end. Develop relationships across the full buying team, share content that moves each stakeholder, and coordinate internally with our operations team on technical, security, and procurement questions.
• Project manage every deal. Know every deadline, know who owns what, and follow up proactively (and respectfully) when things stall — whether that's a buyer going quiet or an NDA sitting with a contracts team.
• Partner closely with marketing. Stay aligned on who owns what, push for the content and one-pagers you need, and avoid redundant or competing motions.
• Know the product. Demo Lavalier and Textio's recruiting and feedback products effectively, and match the right product to where a company is in its lifecycle.
• Provide product feedback. Bring structured, useful product feedback back to the team. As a founding AE, you're the voice of the market inside the company. 

What we're looking for

• Full-cycle B2B sales experience with a track record of hitting quota, ideally in HR tech, recruiting tech, or selling to talent acquisition and HR leaders
• A proven outbound motion — you've succeeded in environments where you sourced most of your own pipeline, not one where inbound did the work for you
• Experience navigating multi-stakeholder deals: building champions, managing procurement and security reviews, and keeping momentum through long cycles
• Comfort with ambiguity and early-stage pace
• Strong project management instincts and proactive communication, internally and externally
• Based in San Francisco and able to be in office 2–3 days per week 

Bonus points

• Former recruiter or talent acquisition background — you've lived the problem we solve
• Experience selling into or alongside ATS ecosystems (Workday, Greenhouse, Ashby, iCIMS)
• Founding or first-AE experience at an early-stage company

Why this role

The need is real and the timing is right. Talent leaders are already convinced they should be recording and transcribing interviews — the next step is showing them that transcription alone doesn't improve hiring quality. You'll be the one making that case, with a differentiated product, strong integrations across the most common ATSs, and direct access to leadership. Few sales roles offer this much ownership over the outcome.

Textio is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.