Founding Account Executive

Our client, is a venture-backed industrial AI company redefining how manufacturing and supply chain leaders make high-stakes decisions. They transform trillions of external market signals - from trade flows and energy markets to freight, weather, and macroeconomic data - into actionable procurement and production intelligence. Its technology enables industrial companies to reduce raw-material volatility, improve purchase timing, and unlock measurable margin impact through superior forecasting and decision support. Having recently closed its seed round, they are entering a pivotal growth phase. The company is now hiring a Founding Account Executive to build and scale the commercial function from the ground up - owning enterprise sales, shaping go-to-market strategy, and working directly with executive buyers across manufacturing and industrial sectors.

Location: Porto, Portugal

Working model: Hybrid, 3/5 days in the office

About the role:

As a Founding Account Executive, you will be responsible for building the company's enterprise sales engine from zero. You will create and own pipeline, engage senior decision-makers in manufacturing and supply chain organizations (e.g. COO, VP Supply Chain), and close complex, technical deals.

Working closely with the founders, you will help shape the go-to-market strategy, refine positioning, and lay the foundation for future commercial hires as the company scales. This is a high-ownership, high-impact role suited to someone who thrives in early-stage environments.

What you'll do:

• Build and own the full sales pipeline across outbound, LinkedIn, industry events, and network-driven approaches
• Engage and build trusted relationships with senior executives in manufacturing and supply chain
• Lead complex enterprise sales cycles for a technical, analytical solution
• Develop structured account plans and market-entry strategies with limited existing resources
• Contribute to defining sales processes, tooling, and reporting from scratch
• Support future scaling of the commercial team over time

Who you are:

• 3+ years of enterprise B2B sales experience (flexible for exceptional founders/company builders)
• Prior experience selling in a seed-stage or early-stage startup environment, ideally as one of the first commercial hires responsible for building pipeline and establishing early go-to-market traction
• Proven ability to build pipeline and close deals in early-stage or zero-to-one environments
• Experience selling technical, IoT, industrial, or analytical solutions into manufacturing or supply chain organizations
• Structured and analytical in your sales approach, with strong business acumen
• High ownership mentality, energy, and entrepreneurial drive

We are also open to:

• Former founders or early commercial hires with strong ownership track records
• Ex-consultants or management consultants transitioning into business development, with clear commercial motivation and senior stakeholder exposure

What they offer:

• Competitive base salary with uncapped commission
• The opportunity to build and shape the sales function in a venture-backed industrial tech startup