GTM Advisor · Founder/Sales Leader Coach · Founding AE Recruiter

Most founders don't fail.
They stumble on the
same five mistakes.

I help B2B founders close their first deals, build repeatable revenue, and hire the right founding AE — before the wrong moves compound into real damage.

Work With Me See the mistakes →
100
250+
Founder Conversations
40+
Founder Countries
$500K
to $10M ARR
Weekly on Substack
100founders.ai
→
01

The mistakes I see
every single week.

Patterns from hundreds of founder conversations. If any of these sting a little — good. That's the point.

01
Confusing Curiosity with Purchase Intent
They took the demo. They replied to your follow-up. They even asked about integrations. But curiosity is free — it costs a buyer nothing to be interested. Until there's a problem they're bleeding from, you don't have a deal. You have an audience.
Discovery
02
Hiring a Founding AE Too Soon
You haven't personally closed 10 deals, but you're ready to hand off sales. You're not delegating a function — you're delegating a problem you haven't solved yet. The AE will walk into a motion that doesn't exist and leave six months later with your pipeline and your confidence.
Hiring
03
Selling Features Instead of Creating Tension
A feature list answers "what does it do?" The question that actually closes deals is "what happens if you don't fix this?" Buyers don't move because your product is impressive. They move because staying still finally costs more than changing.
Messaging
04
Hedging on Your ICP
You say you serve "mid-market and enterprise, B2B SaaS, but also some services companies, and we've had success in healthcare too." That's not a market. That's a list of people who once gave you money. The narrower your ICP, the faster your GTM compounds.
GTM
05
Failing to Stand Out When Everyone Looks the Same
Your buyer has 6 tabs open and every vendor says "AI-powered," "seamless," and "easy to use." If you sound like your category, you compete on price. The founders who win create a distinct point of view that makes comparison feel irrelevant.
Positioning
06
Building "One More Feature" Before Focusing on Sales
The product will never be ready enough to sell itself. Every week spent building instead of selling is a week without market signal, without objections, and without the feedback loop that actually shapes the roadmap. Ship. Sell. Learn. In that order.
Product

Thought Leadership

Full archive on Substack →
GTM · Featured

The Founding AE Hiring Framework: What Nobody Tells You Until It's Too Late

After watching dozens of founding AE hires fail the same way, I built a framework for getting this hire right. It starts with a question most founders never ask: are you actually ready?

12 min read · 100founders.ai Sales

Why Founder-Led Sales Is a Feature, Not a Phase

Every founder wants to get out of sales. The best ones learn why they shouldn't — and what that really means for scale.

8 min read · 100founders.ai Pricing

The First Discount Is a Policy Decision

You're not closing a deal. You're setting a precedent for every deal that follows.

6 min read · daverubinstein.com
03 — Work With Me

Two ways I work with founders.

◈

Advisory & Coaching

For founders who are pre-AE or recently hired their first rep and need to build a GTM motion that actually compounds. We work on your ICP, your motion, your messaging, and your metrics — until revenue stops feeling like luck.

  • Founder-led sales playbook
  • ICP sharpening & territory strategy
  • Messaging that converts cold to warm
  • Deal review & pipeline inspection
  • Weekly async + monthly live sessions
Explore Advisory →
◇

Hiring Your Founding AE

The founding AE hire is unlike any other. Wrong profile, wrong timing, wrong comp structure — and you've set your GTM back a year. I help founders define the role correctly, recruit into it deliberately, and onboard for success.

  • Founding AE profile & scorecard
  • Comp structure that attracts & retains
  • Interview process & evaluation framework
  • Onboarding ramp design
  • 30/60/90 day success criteria
Explore Hiring Help →
◉
The Bench
I maintain a vetted network of Founding AEs ready to deploy. When you're ready to hire, the search starts here.
For Founding AEs

Are you built for the zero-to-one sales role?

Founding AE roles are rare, high-stakes, and career-defining — when they're the right fit. I work with founders who need someone who can build, not just run, a sales motion. If that's you, join the community and get on the radar.

Request Access Join LinkedIn Group →
Join the Founding AE Network
Form first — LinkedIn group access follows.

Ready to stop making the expensive mistakes and start building a GTM that compounds?

Let's Talk Read the Substack