Account Executive (Founding)

Midwest Startups; Atlanta (GA); Hybrid; USD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Aerovy is building the GTM engine for industrial hardware, and this founding Account Executive role reports directly to the CEO. You will own a pipeline from ~120 named accounts, guiding engagements from discovery to technical validation and business case to signature.

You’ll balance selling capabilities that ship next quarter with honest communication about gaps, iterating the playbook as the platform evolves. This is a high-visibility, career-defining opportunity at a fast-growing startup.

Qualifications

• 6–10+ years selling enterprise software with six- to seven-figure ACV on multi-quarter cycles.
• Full-cycle experience: built pipeline from scratch, conducted discovery, evaluated tech, and closed deals.
• Experience with MEDDIC, SPICED, or a similar qualification framework.
• Experience selling to manufacturers or industrial enterprises; comfortable on a plant floor and in a boardroom.
• Early-stage startup experience, contributing to building a playbook.
• Pricing and margin maturity; able to stand firm on terms when needed.
• Strong CRM hygiene and reliable forecast.

Responsibilities

• Build your own pipeline from the 120 named accounts; research, outbound, meetings with the ICP.
• Leverage sales automation and AI for prospecting with sequences.
• Iterate the Aerovy playbook to move prospects through discovery to validation to business case to signature.
• Qualify or disqualify early; prioritize real deals over maybes.
• Lead discovery beyond stated asks focusing on P&L elements like downtime, warranty leakage, first-time fix rate, cost to serve.
• Collaborate with marketing to develop case studies and collateral.
• Involve founders for technical validation and pilot scoping.
• Keep CRM forecasts current; manage territory.
• Travel to customer sites; feed field feedback into positioning and roadmap.
• Document successful approaches for future AEs.

Skills

Enterprise sales

Full-cycle sales

MEDDIC/SPICED

Account planning

Job description

Aerovy is the operating layer for hardware OEMs. We take the signals coming off equipment in mobility, industrial, material handling, and construction, and normalize them into one model for assets, components, health, and events that holds across brands and model years.

With Aerovy, OEMs:

Launch an AI ecosystem for their hardware: branded apps a manufacturer puts in front of its own customers, from the app that comes with the machine to connected services and subscription tiers Elevate aftermarket service: the machine reports a fault, it's diagnosed, the right technician is dispatched with the right part, and the job is closed out and reported. First-time fix rates go up; time to acknowledgement and time to response come down Cut warranty cost and service spend: predictive failure detection, automated triage, and AI-driven root-cause across their install base

We're a fast-paced startup building the digital infrastructure for the next generation of intelligent hardware. Founded in 2023 as a spinoff of research from Purdue University, we've grown from 5 full-time workers at the end of 2025 to 13 today, with ARR up 4x+ over the same period. We're backed by institutional VCs from Mudita Venture Partners, M25, Quorum Capital Partners, Knoll Ventures, and Purdue Ventures, and angels from Google, Tesla, Intel, Siemens +more.

The role

You'd be Aerovy's Founding Account Executive, reporting directly to the CEO. This is a potentially career-defining role to establish Aerovy's GTM engine.

The Aerovy platform continues to iterate, so the pitch, the pricing, and the roadmap will continue to advance while you sell. Some weeks that means selling a capability that ships next quarter and being straight with a buyer about the gap. You'll iterate on the process as you go. That requires: the discipline to run a tight cycle and the stomach for a moving target. Whatever you build will become the template for the reps who come after you.

What You'll Do

Build your own pipeline from the 120 named account list: research the account, run outbound, book meetings with the ICP. Put sales automation and AI to work on prospecting, with sequences and account research that let one seller cover a list this size Leverage the Aerovy sales playbook & iterate upon it to move prospects through selling stages of discovery to technical validation to business case to signature Qualify hard and disqualify early. A short list of real deals beats a long list of maybes, and walking away from the wrong one protects the quarter Lead discovery that gets past the stated ask to the P&L underneath: downtime, warranty leakage, first-time fix rate, cost to serve Work with marketing to develop case studies and collateral that support the enterprise selling process Bring in the founders for technical validation and pilot scoping Keep pipeline and forecasts current in the CRM; your territory, your number Travel to customer sites for meetings Feed what you hear in the field back into positioning and the roadmap Write down what works so future AEs start from your process

What we're looking for

6 - 10+ years selling enterprise software, with closed deals at six- and seven-figure ACV on multi-quarter cycles Full-cycle experience: you've built pipeline from scratch, run discovery, managed technical evaluations, and closed on your own A qualification framework you actually run, whether that's MEDDIC, SPICED, or one you built yourself Experience selling to manufacturers or industrial enterprises; you're comfortable on a plant floor and in a boardroom Time at an early-stage company where the playbook didn't exist yet, and you were part of writing it Commercial maturity on pricing and margin, including when to hold firm on terms Clean CRM hygiene and a forecast people trust

Nice to have

Existing relationships in material handling, construction equipment, specialty vehicles, or electrified systems You've converted a pilot into an enterprise agreement and can walk through how it happened Working fluency in at least one of: telematics, fleet software, aftermarket and field service, predictive maintenance, enterprise data platforms Comfort pricing data and AI platforms on value

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