Founding Sales Development Representative

Fernstone; New York (NY); On-site; USD 60,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

Fernstone, a NYC-based early-stage insurtech, is building a new kind of insurance company by combining AI with expert advisors. We are seeking a Founding SDR to own demand generation across growth and sales, shaping the go-to-market for a fast-scaling product.

You will lead outbound, qualify inbound prospects, and create scalable processes. This founding role offers high upside and the chance to build something from the ground up in a competitive startup environment.

Qualifications

• 0–2 years of experience in a team with outcome ownership (sales/startups/consulting)
• Proven track record in competitive environments (academic, sports or professional)
• Willingness to own a role, ambiguity, and fast execution

Responsibilities

• Own outbound channel: reach prospects by phone, convert interest into meetings
• Meet with a healthy pipeline of inbound prospects, qualify and close
• Generate and enrich leads, create sequences, and stand up new verticals to expand top of funnel

Skills

Outbound sales

Inbound sales

Growth planning

Tools

CRM familiarity

Job description

Fernstone is building a new kind of insurance company: we combine AI with expert advisors to place insurance faster and at better terms.

Insurance is a $1T category that still runs on pen and paper. We believe AI will fundamentally reshape how insurance is bought, sold, and serviced.

We’ve raised $3M from YCombinator and other notable investors.

Fernstone was founded by James (BCG, Traba, UChicago) and Bryant (Google, SentiLink, Vanderbilt). We work in-person in our NYC office.

Since the start of the year we’ve grown from 0 to 500+ customers – we’ve built a compelling product with an average sales cycle of 15 days, and now we are scaling it up to reach thousands more.

As Founding SDR and our first dedicated sales hire, you will own demand generation across growth and sales:

• Outbound (40%): create and own our outbound channel - reach prospects through phone calls, convert interest into booked meetings
• Inbound (40%): meet with a healthy pipeline of interested customers, qualify them, close them
• Growth (20%): transmit sales execution work into scalable systems – generate and enrich leads, create sequences, and stand up new verticals to expand top of funnel

You are:

• Competitive
• Ambitious
• Gritty
• Intelligent
• A team player

We’ll be most excited if you:

• Have 0 - 2+ years of experience working on a team that requires outcome ownership (sales, high-growth startup, consulting/finance)
• Have accomplished impressive things in a competitive environment – whether professional, academic, athletic, or otherwise
• Have built something before and are excited about ownership, ambiguity, and fast execution

This is a founding role, and that is reflected in scope, compensation, and upside.