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I'm always asked what a V1 sales team should look like.
Everyone expects me to say "hire an SDR first" or "get a senior AE who can close."
Wrong.
I think it's two founding AE hires.
Not one. Two.
And not just any AEs. You need founding AEs that can generate their own pipeline, have worked at early stage companies, and can help you figure shit out.
Here's why.
Creating Sales Culture (You Can't Do It With One Person)
You can't build the same culture with one hire. You need to create that competitive culture early on, which is tough to do with one person sitting in a room by themselves.
One rep means:
- No peer accountability
- No internal competition
- No one to challenge their approach
- No calibration on what good looks like
Two reps means you start building team dynamics from day one. They'll push each other. They'll compare notes. They'll naturally start competing on metrics without you having to manufacture motivation.
Sales is a team sport even when everyone owns individual quota. The energy between two high-performers creates momentum that one person alone can't generate, no matter how good they are.
Risk Mitigation (Because First Hires Fail More Than You Think)
The failure rate is high. If it doesn't work out for whatever reason, you're not left with a big black hole. You have someone else who is onboarded and can pick up the rest of the opps.
Let's be honest about the maths:
- 50-60% of early sales hires don't work out
- Average ramp time is 3-4 months
- If your only rep leaves in month five, you're back to zero
- Meanwhile, pipeline has dried up and you've lost momentum
With two founding AEs:
- If one doesn't work out, you still have coverage
- The successful hire can help onboard the replacement
- Pipeline generation continues without total collapse
- You learn twice as fast what good looks like
This isn't pessimism. It's reality. Early stage sales hiring is hard because you're still figuring out your ICP, messaging, and sales process. Not every hire will survive that discovery phase.
Why Founding AEs Specifically (Not SDRs, Not Enterprise Closers)
Notice I didn't say "hire two SDRs" or "hire two senior enterprise AEs."
You need founding AEs. Here's what that means:
AEs that can generate their own pipeline
At your stage, you don't have brand recognition. Inbound is a trickle. Marketing is still being built. Your founding AEs need to prospect, qualify, demo, and close.
If they need someone to feed them meetings, they're not founding AE material.
AEs that have worked at early stage companies
Experience at Google or Salesforce doesn't translate. Those reps had established process, proven messaging, deep enablement, and brand wind at their backs.
Your founding AEs need to have thrived in chaos before. They've built pipeline from scratch. They've refined pitch decks in real time. They've dealt with objections you haven't heard yet.
AEs that can help you figure shit out
This is the most important bit. Your founding AEs aren't just executing your playbook. They're helping you write it.
They should be feeding back:
- Which objections keep coming up
- What messaging resonates in discovery
- Where prospects get stuck in the process
- What competitors are saying
- What features prospects actually care about
If they just want to be told what to do, they're not right for the founding team.
What Founding AE Profiles Actually Look Like
So what do you look for when hiring these two people?
Comfortable with ambiguity
They don't need perfect process. They can build in public. They're energised by figuring things out, not paralysed by lack of structure.
Hypothesis-driven
They test approaches, measure what works, and iterate. They don't just throw shit at the wall. They have a point of view on why something should work, try it, and learn from results.
Self-starting on pipeline generation
They know how to build lists, craft outreach sequences, get creative with prospecting, and turn cold outreach into warm conversations.
Coachable and collaborative
They want feedback. They share what's working. They don't hoard knowledge or compete destructively with their peer. They elevate each other.
Experienced in early stage sales
They've done this before. Ideally at a company in a similar stage, segment, or industry. They know what zero-to-one sales motion looks like.
How to Structure Comp and Territory
With two founding AEs, you need to think carefully about how they split the market and how they're paid.
Territory split options:
- Geographic (if your market allows)
- Vertical/industry (if you have clear segments)
- Named accounts vs open territory
- Round-robin on inbound, free-for-all on outbound
My preference early on: keep it simple. Let them both hunt anywhere, but assign inbound leads round-robin. As you learn your ICP, you can carve territory more precisely.
Comp structure:
Keep base lower than they'd get at a growth stage company, but make OTE compelling with accelerators.
Example:
- £40k base, £80k OTE (UK)
- $60k base, $120k OTE (US)
- Accelerators kick in at 100% of quota
- Equity for founding team members
The lower base selects for people who back themselves. The high OTE rewards performance. The equity aligns them with long-term success.
The Onboarding Reality (Two Is Easier Than It Sounds)
"But Will, isn't it harder to onboard two people at once?"
Not really. In fact, it's often easier.
Why two is manageable:
- They onboard together, so you're not repeating everything twice
- They learn from each other's questions and mistakes
- They can role-play with each other instead of always needing you
- They hold each other accountable to ramp milestones
Your week one priorities:
- ICP and value prop clarity
- CRM and tech stack setup
- Sample outreach and talk tracks
- First 50 target accounts each
- Joint discovery call shadowing
By end of week two, they should be running discovery calls. By end of month one, they should be moving deals through your pipeline.
When This Doesn't Work
This model isn't right for everyone. Here's when you should not hire two founding AEs:
You're pre-product or pre-PMF
If you're still figuring out what you're building and who it's for, you don't need founding AEs yet. You need design partners and a founder-led sales process.
Your ACV is sub-£5k
If you're selling low-ACV transactional product, you might need SDR volume more than AE sophistication. Two founding AEs makes sense when deal complexity and size justify their cost.
You can't afford two salaries
Obvious but important. If you've only got budget for one hire, don't spread it across two. Make one great hire and revisit this model after your seed or Series A.
You have strong inbound already
If you're getting 20+ qualified inbound leads per month, you might be better served by one AE and one SDR to qualify and book meetings. Founding AEs are for when you need to generate pipeline, not just work it.
I've Seen This Work Repeatedly
This isn't theory. I've seen the double founding hire work really effectively in many companies.
The pattern:
- Two strong AEs join within weeks of each other
- They build process together while generating pipeline
- By month three, they've defined what good looks like
- By month six, one has usually pulled ahead (and that's fine)
- By month nine, they're training the next layer of hires
- By month twelve, one often moves into a player-coach or team lead role
The companies that do this well hit revenue targets faster, build stronger culture, and scale more predictably than those that hire one lone wolf and hope for magic.
What to Do Next
If you're a founder preparing to make your first sales hires:
Step one: Get your ICP and pitch tight
Don't hire until you've closed 10+ deals yourself. You need to know what good looks like before you can hire people to replicate it.
Step two: Write the founding AE profile
Not a job description. A profile of the human you need. What's their background? What motivates them? What have they done before that proves they can do this?
Step three: Hire for traits, not just experience
Curiosity, coachability, grit, and communication. These four traits predict success better than years of experience or quota attainment at a different company.
Step four: Make two offers within a month of each other
Don't drag it out. Hire them close together so they onboard as a unit.
Step five: Get them in front of customers immediately
No month-long enablement programme. Get them on discovery calls by week two. They'll learn faster by doing.
Final Thought
Hiring your first sales team is one of the most consequential decisions you'll make as a founder.
One hire feels safer but creates single points of failure.
Two founding AEs creates healthy competition, mitigates risk, and accelerates how fast you learn what works.
If you can afford it and you're at the right stage, hire two.
Your future self will thank you.
Need help finding your founding AEs? That's exactly what we do at meritt. Book a 30-minute call and we'll walk you through how we've helped dozens of founders make these hires with confidence.