How and When to Make Your First Revenue Hire
Read our practical, no-fluff guide to making the most pivotal hire in your company’s history, without derailing product, cash, or culture.
Who's It For
Seed to Series A SaaS founders running point on sales
Operators helping founders to decide between an IC “closer,” a player-coach, or a true VP
Boards/investors pressure-testing hiring plans and runway
What You'll Learn
When to transition off founder-led sales (clear warning signs + a 3-point readiness check).
Which hire to make first—Founding AE, Player-Coach Director, or VP/CRO—and why.
Market-level comp & equity ranges for first revenue hires so your offers land.
Interview frameworks & red flags that de-risk the decision.
30/60/90 onboarding plan and success metrics tied to your sales cycle length.
Pitfalls to avoid (too junior vs. too senior, tool dependency, culture gaps).
Inside the Guide
The Three Prerequisites
ICP conviction, repeatable motion, and enough weekly demand to keep a seller productive. If you can’t check all three, fix demand/process before hiring.
Pick the Right Archetype
Immediate Closer vs. Foundation Builder vs. Goldilocks (close now, build for scale). Choose based on runway, pipeline, and founder capability.
Titles That Map to Reality
What titles like Founding AE, Director/Player-Coach, and VP/CRO mean. And how to avoid “title inflation” before revenue repeatability.
Comp That Actually Closes
Current market ranges for base/OTE/equity with milestone-based vesting and accelerators.
Interview Like a Pro
A proven process to help identify skills around curiosity, collaboration, analysis/ownership, and reference validation.
Onboarding That Works
Week-by-week plan + cycle-length-aware success metrics (leading indicators, not just quota).
Want a Personalized Hiring Plan?
Get a personalized hiring plan for your first sales hire from the team at Captivate Talent.
We’ll email you the guide and a simple checklist you can use to assess readiness, pick the right archetype, and run a structured interview loop.
FAQs
Your questions answered about making the right first sales hire.
Choosing between an AE, player-coach, or VP depends on your runway and pipeline. If you have a shorter runway or a hot pipeline, an immediate closer is ideal. For longer runway and growth plans, a player-coach can help build for scale.
For a Founding AE, expect a base of $90–120k and an OTE of $180–240k, with equity ranging from 0.25–0.5%. A Player-Coach Director typically commands a base of $165–185k, OTE of $330–370k, and 0.5–0.75% equity. Adjust these figures based on market conditions and your specific business needs.
By week 4, they’re owning pipeline. By day 60, you should see cycle-appropriate leading indicators: qualified pipeline creation, stage conversion lift, multi-threading, pilot/mutual success plans.
Hiring too junior when you need strategy, too senior when you need revenue now, over-indexing on tools, and ignoring cultural/enablement needs.
Yes! We can help provide structured scorecards, panel design, exercises, and reference frameworks to de-risk the decision.
Still have questions?
We're here to help!
Need Help With Your First Sales Hire?
We place founding AEs, player-coach Directors, and first VPs for early-stage SaaS across the US & Canada.
High-touch, fast, and aligned to your runway and growth plan.
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