Founding Account Executive

Why This Role Exists

Demand for our product has outpaced our ability to close deals ourselves. We need a Founding Account Executive to take the wheel on sales: someone who can both convert the inbound interest we’re already generating and build new pipeline from scratch.

What You’ll Do

• Close inbound deals. Own the full-cycle sales process for warm leads coming inbound, from first call to signed contract.
• Build outbound pipeline. Prospect, cold call, cold DM, and cold email your way into new accounts.
• Sell across segments. Move fluidly between SMB, mid-market, and enterprise deals. Each have a different sales motion, cycle length, and stakeholder map, so you’ll need to flex your approach accordingly.
• Build the sales motion from the ground up. As the first AE, you’ll help define our ICP, messaging, pricing conversations, CRM/process setup, and what a repeatable sales playbook looks like at Kernel.
• Work in-person, in NYC. Be in the room with the founding team daily.

What We’re Looking For

• 2–4 years of quota-carrying, full-cycle AE experience, ideally with both inbound closing and outbound prospecting responsibility. Flexible on years for the right person.
• Comfort operating across deal sizes and buyer types. You’ll need to run an SMB deal at speed and navigate a longer enterprise sales cycle with multiple stakeholders.
• Genuine enthusiasm for cold outreach. This isn’t a role for someone who exclusively wants qualified leads handed to them.
• Enthusiastic about building out a working sales motion from the ground up.
• Based in or willing to relocate to NYC, and excited to work in-person
  $180-200K OTE