Founding Account Executive

PatternIQ · New York, NY (preferred) / Remote, US · Full-time · Individual Contributor

PatternIQ’s InboxMatch is a machine-learning-driven programmatic ad network for premium email newsletter inventory. We connect advertisers with engaged newsletter audiences they can't reach currently at scale. We have live advertisers and a robust pipeline of prospects.

You are employee #1 in our performance advertiser-sales function — the founding commercial seller on the demand side. You won't inherit a playbook, a CRM full of process, or an SDR team feeding you leads. You'll build the motion, run it yourself, and set the standard the future team will eventually run. This is a senior, fully hands-on individual-contributor role with no direct reports.

You run the entire motion personally, hunter and farmer:

• Convert the existing pipeline. Take warm and semi-warm advertiser prospects through the funnel to signed, spending campaigns. This is your fastest path to revenue and your first priority.
• Originate outbound. Field inbound interest and prospect net-new advertisers and agencies that fit our ICP. Build a repeatable outbound motion from scratch.
• Manage accounts / run touch-bases. Keep active advertisers close — regular check-ins, performance reviews, troubleshooting — so spend renews and compounds instead of lapsing.
• Upsell and expand. Move advertisers from initial test budgets to higher-value, higher-commitment campaigns when the performance data earns it. Done right, this benefits the advertiser and us simultaneously — it's the core of the role.
• Build the foundation. Define the sales process, qualification criteria, pitch, and pricing/packaging conventions that the function will scale on. You're setting the template, not following one.
• Be the market's voice inside the company. Systematically feed pricing, packaging, objection, and ICP signal back to product and leadership so we sell what advertisers actually want to buy. As a senior seller, we expect real strategic read, not just deal updates.

• 2 years of full-cycle digital ad sales, with a strong blend of agency sales and direct-to-brand. We weight a demonstrable record of closing and expanding accounts — and the judgment that comes with seniority — over titles.
• Proven full-cycle ownership. You've personally prospected, pitched, closed, and grown accounts without a supporting cast. You're energized by doing the work, not delegating it.
• Deep performance-marketing fluency. You understand how DTC brands think about CAC, ROAS, attribution, and incrementality — and you sell directly to those metrics, not to vanity reach.
• Light programmatic literacy. You don't need to be a trader, but you should be conversant in DSP/SSP mechanics, eCPM, auction basics, and how programmatic supply is bought and measured. (We run a StackAdapt DSP integration on the buy side.)
• Real, current advertiser/agency relationships in the DTC and performance space — and the ability to speak concretely about which relationships are active and unencumbered.
• Founding-seller temperament. You thrive building from zero with thin tooling and high autonomy, and you want to shape a function rather than inherit one.

• Base salary with uncapped commission. 
• Equity grants.
• Location: New York preferred; remote (US) considered for the right candidate.

• 30 days: Ramped on inventory, positioning, and the live pipeline. First net-new campaigns closed from the existing pipeline and spending.
• 60 days: A repeatable outbound motion running, at least one test-to-scale upsell landed, and the first structured read of market/pricing signal delivered back to the team.

PatternIQ is an early-stage, fast-moving team. This role suits a senior seller who wants to define the demand-side function and remain hands-on in the deals — not manage from a distance. This role is not for slackers.