The Founding AE

We’re closing out 2025 with a real Founding AE conversation. In this episode of the Founding AE Podcast, Justin Dorfman sits down with Matthew Smith, a multi-time Founding AE and current early hire at Permit Rockstar—an AI-driven platform helping construction companies with permitting, inspections (including virtual), and plan review. Matthew shares what it actually looks like to build go-to-marke...

What does good founder-led sales actually look like in the AI era - and how do you successfully hand it off to a Founding AE without losing the magic? In this episode of The Founding AE Podcast, Justin Dorfman sits down with Tyler Pavlas, Founding AE at GrowthX, to unpack how GrowthX went from idea to ~$11M–$13M ARR in record time by combining:A ruthless focus on solving the #1 problem for CMOsA c...

What happens when a writing & PR major becomes an early sales hire at a fractional back-office firm - and 3x’s inbound close rates in under two years? In this episode of The Founding AE Podcast, Justin Dorfman sits down with Will Oberndorfer, Business Development Representative at Milestone, to unpack what it’s really like selling fractional accounting, CFO, HR, and payroll services versus Saa...

Most founders massively underestimate how hard it is to make their first sales hire. The data says ~70% of first sales hires don’t make it to 12 months — and for early-stage startups, that mistake can be fatal. In this episode of The Founding AE podcast, Justin Dorfman sits down with Ian Illig, 3x Founding AE and Co-Founder of Stompbox, to break down exactly how to de-risk your first sales hire an...

What does it really take to be the first sales hire at a startup? In this episode of The Founding AE Podcast, Justin Dorfman sits down with Anda Willett, a seasoned B2B SaaS seller with 15+ years experience selling into local government, higher education, and nonprofit markets — and most recently, a true Founding AE at an early-stage startup. Anda breaks down the reality of building GTM from zero:...

On this episode of The Founding AE Podcast, host Justin Dorfman sits down with Richie Duignan (Founding AE, Magic, a global digital marketing agency) to unpack how he went from referral-driven sales to launching a repeatable outbound motion—and closing a six-figure deal within his first five months. From Dublin to Melbourne, Richie shares his playbook for identifying ICPs, picking the first tools,...

Sales isn’t “Wolf of Wall Street.” In this episode, Chris Taylor (Founding Sales Lead at New Charter Technologies) breaks down how he went from being skeptical about sales to leading zero-to-one teams—plus the big differences between selling IT/security services and pure SaaS. We dig into what replaces the “demo” in a services motion, how to know it’s time to hire, whether your first reps should b...

How do you break into an “unsexy” but massive category like HR—and win—when incumbents loom large? In this episode of The Founding AE, host Justin Dorfman sits down with Quentin Le Roy, Founding AE at Zelt, to unpack selling across the UK/EU & GCC, building the first repeatable playbook, and why People Ops is the real wedge into modern HR transformation. Quentin shares how he moved from SDR to...

UK-born, Spain-based David Jones went from guitarist and litigator to Founding AE. In this episode, David unpacks seven years riding Typeform’s PLG rocket (from ~$9M to ~$100M ARR), why he left to get “uncomfortable” again at Invopop, and the playbooks for layering sales on top of PLG—across Europe’s wildly different cultures and compliance regimes. What you’ll learnHow a legal + music background...

Space is hard. Selling it might be harder. 🚀 In this episode of The Founding AE , host Justin Dorfman sits down with Ben Kovacs (ex-Founding AE turned Product Marketer in SpaceTech) to compare go-to-market in SpaceTech vs. SaaS —from category creation and long sales cycles to building ROI-driven demos, partnering smart, and future-proofing GTM without forgetting the fundamentals. SpaceTech vs. Sa...

What does it really take to be a Founding AE? In this episode, Justin Dorfman sits down with Ben Sklar (Founding AE, Pivotly) to unpack his winding path from school teacher & golf pro to tech sales, why “founding” means building for scale, and the gritty motions - power dialers, events, LinkedIn, and relentless curiosity - that move early-stage deals forward. Ben shares the mental game behind...

What does it really take to be the first seller at a startup? In this episode of The Founding AE Pod, Justin Dorfman sits down with Mike Jank (Founding AE @ StackPack) to dig into the real playbook:- His path from nonprofit fundraising to SaaS sales 🚀- How he structured his first 30/60/90 days at StackPack- The tools and tactics that actually matter for early-stage sellers- Why network-led outbou...

On this episode of The Founding AE, host Justin Dorfman sits down with Justin Silsbee - fresh off a stint as a Founding AE and now leading Business Development at a drone light-show company - to unpack what he learned on the front lines. We dig into selling to traditional industries like construction, prospecting when your buyers aren’t glued to a laptop, partnering closely with a founder through...

Meet Ross Miller, Founding Account Executive at TJM Labs, where AI “digital techs” run 24/7 to automate pharmacy workflows. Ross went from enterprise/strategic AE roles (e.g., scale-ups like monday.com) to owning the entire sales motion at an early-stage startup - smashing 500% of quota in month one and +200% for the quarter. In this episode, host Justin Dorfman digs into the real differences betw...

Early-stage selling is a different sport. In this episode of The Founding AE, host Justin Dorman sits down with multi-time founding AE Sean Donnelly of CloneOps.ai (ex-restaurant tech & logistics) to unpack the builder’s mindset, day-to-day rhythms, and the playbooks that actually move pipeline when you’re the first rep on the field. What you’ll learn Founding AE mindset: why being nimble, cur...