Founding AE

Lightsprint (YC P26); San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 130,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

LightSprint is seeking its founding account executive to work directly with the founders to build the sales motion from the ground up and help product and engineering teams understand how LightSprint fits into the way they already build and ship software.

You’ll own relationships from the first conversation through adoption, bring customer feedback back into the company, and help shape a repeatable approach without losing the care and context required at an early-stage company.

Qualifications

• Track record of selling technical B2B software through a consultative, multi-stakeholder process.
• Ability to build trust with product leaders and engineers and discuss technical details credibly.
• Comfortable owning the entire sales process from qualification to close.
• Excellent written and verbal communication in executive rooms.

Responsibilities

• Own the full sales cycle from discovery to close and handoff.
• Sell through understanding of teams' planning, building, reviewing, and shipping workflows.
• Create the sales playbook with founders including messaging, process, and forecasting.
• Coordinate people, questions, and steps to move evaluations forward to a confident decision.
• Turn customer objections and feedback into input for product and GTM decisions.
• Stay engaged post-signing to ensure adoption and a successful relationship.

Skills

Consultative selling

Technical B2B software

Stakeholder engagement

Ownership mindset

Clear communication

Building trust with leaders

Handling ambiguity

Tools

GitHub

CI/CD

AI development tools

Go-to-market design

Product feedback loop

Job description

The role

This is LightSprint's founding account executive role. You’ll work directly with the founders to build the sales motion from the ground up and help product and engineering teams understand how LightSprint fits into the way they already build and ship software.

You’ll own relationships from the first conversation through adoption, bring customer feedback back into the company, and help shape a repeatable approach without losing the care and context required at an early-stage company. This is not a role for running a finished playbook. You’ll help create it.

What you’ll do

• Own the full sales cycle. Lead discovery, product demonstrations, evaluation, commercial conversations, and handoff from first meeting through close.
• Sell through understanding. Learn how each team plans, builds, reviews, and ships software, then connect LightSprint to the problems that matter in their workflow.
• Build the playbook with the founders. Develop qualification, messaging, process, forecasting, and the operating rhythm for an early sales function.
• Create momentum during evaluations. Coordinate the people, technical questions, and next steps required to help a team reach a confident decision.
• Bring the market into the company. Turn objections, recurring questions, competitive context, and customer feedback into useful input for product and go-to-market decisions.
• Help customers succeed. Stay close after the contract is signed so expectations carry through to adoption and the relationship starts well.

Requirements

• You have a track record of selling technical B2B software through a consultative, multi-stakeholder sales process.
• You can build trust with product leaders and engineers, ask precise questions, and understand enough technical detail to run a credible conversation.
• You’re comfortable owning the entire process, from generating and qualifying opportunities to navigating evaluation and closing the deal.
• You communicate clearly in writing, in a product demo, and in a room with executives and technical stakeholders.
• You operate with high ownership and low ego. You follow through, keep the details organized, and collaborate closely with the rest of the company.
• You’re excited by ambiguity and can turn early patterns into a repeatable system without becoming rigid too early.

Nice-to-have

• Experience selling developer tools, AI products, infrastructure, collaboration software, or products used by both technical and non-technical teams.
• Experience as a founding or early sales hire at a startup.
• Familiarity with software-development workflows, GitHub, CI, coding agents, and the emerging AI development-tool landscape.
• Experience helping design an initial go-to-market motion, including messaging, qualification, process, and sales enablement.
• A history of working closely with product teams and turning customer conversations into useful product feedback.