Growth Account Executive

Job Description

Location: San Diego (Cardiff), in person

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Reports to: CEO

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Type: Full-time

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About Dewey

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Dewey's mission is to build the infrastructure layer for academic data. We envision a world where access to data is no longer a constraint on research.

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We help universities, libraries, and researchers acquire, license, and manage data, making data procurement transparent, efficient, and scalable to unlock better research and faster innovation.

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We're a cash-flow positive, fast-growing startup with over 300+ subscribed institutions and thousands of users. We're a small, nimble team, and every person makes a visible impact.

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The Role

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We're looking for a Growth Account Executive to own the full cycle for individual researchers and research teams: sourcing, discovery, demos, closing, and renewals.

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You'll work a healthy stream of inbound demand, and you'll build outbound pipeline on top of it. We want someone who can own the outbound process end to end: target lists, sequences, and the discipline to keep building pipeline when inbound is already keeping you busy.

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Two parts of this role reach past your own number. The research teams you win and renew are how our institutional pipeline gets built, so your accounts become the universities our institutional AE pursues next. And because you'll talk to more researchers than anyone else at Dewey, you'll be the user-facing point person for new products and the person who carries that feedback back to our product team.

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You'll also own the self-serve path that feeds you, with real latitude to improve it: pricing clarity, trial experience, onboarding, and how quickly a researcher can get a quote for their grant.

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As an early commercial hire, you'll report directly to the CEO and shape how Dewey builds this function. Your success will be measured by new subscription growth, renewal rates, self-serve conversion, and the quality of the institutional signals you surface.

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If you've been booking meetings for someone else to close and you're ready for your own number, or you're an early AE who'd rather build a motion than inherit a territory, this is a good fit.

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Responsibilities

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Pipeline & Outbound

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·     Work inbound demand from self-serve signups, trials, and content

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·     Own the outbound process: build target lists, run sequences, and generate pipeline beyond what comes to us

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·     Prospect into research groups, labs, and departments where we already see early interest

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Discovery, Demos & Closing

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·     Run discovery calls to understand what a researcher is actually trying to do and which datasets fit

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·     Deliver product demos built around the research question in front of you, not a generic script

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·     Close new individual and research team subscriptions

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·     Handle the practical parts of academic buying: quotes, POs, grant timing, procurement questions

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Renewals & Account Growth

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·     Own renewals for research team subscriptions

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·     Track usage and engage accounts well before renewal, not at it

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·     Grow existing accounts by adding seats and expanding into adjacent groups on campus

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Institutional Signal & Handoff

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·     Monitor which universities are showing clustered researcher activity

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·     Qualify those signals and hand them to the institutional AE with context

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·     Support institutional deals where an existing researcher relationship helps

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Growth & Funnel

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·     Own the self-serve conversion path end to end and improve it continuously

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·     Identify where prospects stall and fix it: messaging, pricing clarity, trial flow, onboarding

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·     Test and measure and look for improvements across the funnel.

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·     Partner with marketing on campaigns, content, and demand generation

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New Products & the Feedback Loop

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·     Be the user-facing point person for new products as we bring them to market

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·     Run early access and pilot programs, and get real researchers using new things quickly

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·     You'll talk to more researchers than anyone else at Dewey, which makes you our fastest and most direct read on what's landing and what isn't

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·     Bring that back to the product team in a form they can act on. You're the voice of the user in roadmap conversations.

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Building the Function

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·     Write the playbook. You're the only person in this seat, and how you do it becomes how we do it

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·     Own and report your metrics: conversion, cycle time, pipeline coverage, renewal rate

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·     Jump in across functions as needed

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What We're Looking For

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Required

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·     1 to 4 years in an SDR, BDR, or early AE role, ideally at a SaaS or data company

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·     A track record of hitting quota, and the ability to talk specifically about how

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·     Experience building outbound pipeline, not just working inbound

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·     Confidence running your own discovery calls and demos

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·     Comfort with volume. This is a high-velocity motion, not a handful of enterprise cycles

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·     Exceptional written communication. Most of this job is email, and researchers can tell when they're getting a template

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·     Genuine curiosity about research, and enough technical comfort to hold a credible conversation with someone doing quantitative work

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·     Comfort in an early-stage startup: thrive with ambiguity, eager to create structure where none exists

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·     Proactive, bias for action. You identify problems and solve them without being asked

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A Real Advantage

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Our customers are researchers, and they can tell within a sentence whether you understand their work. Technical chops go a long way here:

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·     Hands-on experience with data analysis: SQL, R, Python, Stata, or similar. You don't need to be an analyst, but knowing what a panel dataset is and why someone would want one is a genuine edge

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·     Time spent in an academic setting: research assistant, grad program, university staff, or a lab

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·     Familiarity with academic research workflows, university procurement, or library licensing

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·     Experience with product-led or self-serve growth motions

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·     Experience with HubSpot, Stripe, or similar

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·     Current or former PhD student (or Dewey user!) looking to move into industry

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You don't need: a technical degree or prior experience selling to universities. Academic buying works differently from commercial software, and everyone here learned it on the job.

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Why Join Dewey?

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·      First closing role with real ownership: you carry a number and you own the motion that produces it

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·      Builder's seat: design the growth function from the ground up rather than running someone else's playbook

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·      Strategic exposure: work directly with the CEO on how we grow

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·      Career growth: as the team scales, so do opportunities around it

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·      Mission-driven: help drive innovation and research from leading universities

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Benefits

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·      PTO: you set your own vacation schedule

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·      Retirement: contribute to a 401k

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·      Healthcare: multiple PPO options through Anthem. Dewey covers 90% of your medical and dental premiums, 40% of dependent medical costs, and offers vision coverage

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·      Growth: opportunity to get in on the ground floor

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·      Other: weekly team lunch, work computer, office snacks and coffee, office in coastal Cardiff (by Seaside Market), “Local Summer Fridays” (Labor Day – Halloween)

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Our Values

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At Dewey, our values guide everything we do:

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·      Grit. We show resilience, creativity, and tenacity, doing at least one hard thing each day.

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·      Ownership. We take responsibility and set high standards for ourselves and the company.

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·      Action. We bias toward speed, iteration, and never being the blocker.

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·      Trust. We act with integrity, and treat each other with humility and authenticity.