Dear SaaStr: When Should I Hire My First AE?
We’re said this many times over the years at SaaStr, and it’s as true today as then:
You should hire your first AE (Account Executive) once you’ve closed at least 10-20 customers yourself as the founder. Not before.
And even then, you have to stay in founder-led sales mode until you have 1-2 sales execs that are scaled and really hitting quota.
Why? Because you need to have a repeatable sales process in place before bringing someone else in. Founders are uniquely positioned to sell early on—they know the product inside and out, they’re passionate, and customers love talking to the CEO. This is how you refine your pitch, understand objections, and figure out what works.
If you’re at the point where you’re consistently closing deals and you’re starting to feel like you’re the bottleneck to growth, that’s a good sign it’s time to hire. Another key factor is your ACV (Annual Contract Value). If your ACV is at least $5K-$10K, you can justify the cost of an AE. Anything lower than that, and a sales-led model can work, but you have to be very careful hiring folks that can thrive in a low ACV environment.
When you do hire, don’t overthink it—your first AE doesn’t need to be a rockstar with 10 years of experience. Hire someone scrappy, hungry, and willing to learn. And most importantly — that you’d buy from.
Your first reps have to be folks you’d honestly and truly buy your own product from. For real.
Those ones will help you scale what you’ve already proven works. So, hire carefully, but don’t wait too long. If you’re doing all the selling and you’re at capacity, you’re already behind.
