First Sales Hire at Modern: AI-Native Commerce Intelligence Platform

The Role

You are the first dedicated seller at Modern. Not the first sales leader managing an existing team, but the first person tasked with defining how this product gets sold and proving it by selling it.

You're stepping into real momentum: warm inbound leads, a customer base already enamored with the product, and a team generating a steady stream of qualified conversations. Your mission is to build a repeatable playbook—identifying who buys, why, how fast, at what price, and through which channel.

Speed is critical. This category is being defined right now, and the AI landscape resets every few months. You must establish a working motion within your first quarter and demonstrate its repeatability in the following quarter. The only way to build this is by selling.

This is a player role first. You’ll carry the number, run deals, and write the playbook from your own wins. A team will follow later, hired alongside growth rather than ahead of it, and you’ll lead reps running a motion you’ve already proven. If you’re looking to manage a team on day one, this isn’t the role. If you want to own a go-to-market from zero, keep reading.

What You’ll Own

Pipeline generation and strategy. You’ll determine where the next hundred customers come from—outbound efforts, partnerships, communities, events, Modern’s network, affiliate and referral channels. You’ll test, measure, and double down on what works.

Selling across four distinct motions. Modern enters the market in multiple ways, and you’ll need to build strategies for all:

• Self-serve / product-led: converting and expanding signups who discovered Modern independently
• Mid-market brands: demo-led sales cycles targeting $5M–$50M+ commerce operators
• Enterprise and strategic accounts: longer cycles, multiple stakeholders, custom scope
• Agencies and partners: selling Modern as infrastructure for other operators

These motions require different approaches. Part of your job is prioritizing where to focus first rather than spreading yourself thin across all four.

Expert-level product fluency is expected. You’ll be trained on the full platform and must understand its entirety—not just the pitch, but the product itself. You should be able to deliver an unscripted demo against a prospect’s real data and address technical objections without relying on a solutions engineer.

Pricing and packaging feedback. You’ll be the closest person to understanding how buyers react to our pricing. This feedback will shape what we charge and inform leadership decisions.

Product feedback loop. Every lost deal has a reason. You’ll bring these insights to the product team with enough specificity to drive actionable improvements.

Building the team. Once the motion is proven, you’ll hire and lead the reps who scale it, using the playbook you’ve built.

What Success Looks Like

First 30 days: You’ll know the platform as well as anyone at the company. You’ll have sat in on Modern’s ai Residency client calls to understand how brands use it. You’ll have spoken to at least 15 existing customers about their purchase reasons and near-misses.

First 90 days: You’ll define the Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) with evidence, not intuition. There will be a documented sales process, a working demo narrative, and a pipeline you’ve built. Your first closed deals will be sourced by you.

First 6 months: A repeatable motion with predictable conversion rates. You’ll be able to articulate the cost to acquire a customer and the time it takes.

First 12 months: Consistent quota attainment, a case for scaling the motion, and a hiring plan you’re ready to execute.

Who You Are

You’ve spent 5+ years in B2B SaaS sales, with a track record you can articulate specifically—numbers, deal sizes, cycle lengths, and how you sourced your pipeline. We’d rather hear about one hard deal you won than a list of logos.

You’re genuinely technical. Not just comfortable with technology—actually technical. You can discuss APIs, data integrations, and attribution methodology without deferring to an engineer. You’ve likely built something yourself, even if it was scrappy.

You live in the AI landscape. You follow what’s shipping, have opinions about its trajectory, and can explain to a non-technical brand owner why any of it matters to their business. This industry re-prices itself every few months; you need to thrive in that environment.

You’ve sold in ambiguity. Early-stage, no playbook, figuring out the ICP while carrying a number. You understand the difference between selling an established product with a full marketing engine and selling something new.

You understand commerce. You know what CAC, MER, LTV, and contribution margin mean to an operator, and why a brand’s answer to “is this working?” is more complex than it seems. Direct DTC or e-commerce experience is a strong plus.

You’re a builder, not a maintainer. You’d rather write the first version of something than optimize the fifth.

Bonus Points

• You’ve been an early or first sales hire before and can describe what you’d do differently
• Experience selling both self-serve/PLG and enterprise motions at the same company
• You’ve sold into agencies, or worked at one
• Background in martech, analytics, attribution, or commerce infrastructure
• You’ve used AI tooling to build your own prospecting or research workflows

Why This Role

A product with proven results. You won’t be selling a roadmap. A portfolio of brands runs on this platform daily, and the results are documented.

Real ownership. You’re defining the go-to-market strategy, not executing someone else’s. Your decisions shape the company’s sales strategy.

Direct access. You’ll work closely with leadership daily. No layers between you and the decisions.

Honest about the stage: this is early. Some months will be messy. The systems you want will often be the systems you have to build. We think that’s the appeal, but it should be an informed choice.

Benefits

Competitive salary

Competitive health benefits

Unlimited PTO

Health and wellness credit

Fully remote

A front-row seat at an AI-native company building the future of how brands and creators work together