Head of Verticals

Head of Verticals

WHAT YOU'LL OWN

You are Lens's first sales leader. Your remit:

• The full revenue number across all four verticals — News ($24K–$75K ACV), Research ($30K– $90K), Legislative ($40K–$120K), Financial Services ($60K–$187K)
• The Vertical AE team — hire, develop, and manage up to four vertical specialists; be the player-coach until headcount justifies otherwise -The sales playbook — there isn't one yet; you will write it by codifying what the first reps learn, then scale it -Pricing and packaging input — four-prong product (IQS Licensing API, Partner Newsroom integration, Labeled-Data Licensing, Dashboard); you will pressure-test the multiplier grid against real buyer resistance and feed it back to Jeff Maxon, our CFO.
• Forecast and pipeline visibility — weekly pipeline reviews with the CEO and CFO; quarterly board-level ARR reporting
• Recruiting — you will identify and close the next wave of vertical AEs as the model scales beyond the first four

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Own the aggregate revenue target; hold the vertical AEs accountable to their individual pilot and conversion numbers
• Run weekly 1:1s and pipeline reviews with each vertical AE; be the escalation path for any deal above $100K ACV
• Build the sales methodology from the ground up: qualification criteria, discovery framework, objection library, pricing guardrails, contract templates
• Partner with our CEO and CTO on product feedback loops — every recurring objection from a buyer is a product signal
• Lead or co-lead enterprise deals where executive presence is required (e.g., bulge-bracket banks, major federal agencies, national mastheads)
• Represent the revenue function in board meetings, investor updates, and fundraise materials
• Hire and onboard the next wave of vertical AEs as the first cohort proves the pattern

WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR

• 7 years in B2B SaaS or information-product sales, with at least 3–4 years managing quota-carrying AEs
• A track record of building the first sales team at a startup — not inheriting a machine, but building one from the first reps up
• Prior experience selling into at least two of our four verticals (media/publishing, research/academic, government/policy, financial services); cross-vertical fluency is the differentiator
• Comfort owning a multi-vertical pipeline simultaneously — you can context-switch from a newsroom CTO to a Senate chief of staff to a hedge fund CDO without losing the thread
• Hiring muscle — you know how to run the Rolodex test, evaluate a 30/60/90-day plan, and close a candidate who has competing offers
• Experience with enterprise procurement cycles — multi-stakeholder approvals, legal and compliance review, multi-year contract structures
• A genuine point of view on IQS — you can explain why the Information Quality Standard is infrastructure, not a feature, and why that distinction matters to buyers