Build unicorns. Find unicorns. Scale unicorns.
I find the unicorn companies
for the unicorn AEs.
Four times I've been the founding GTM hire. Once at a company that went from pre-revenue to a $1B valuation in 24 months. Now I find that hire for seed and Series A founders, and I stay for the first 90 days to make sure it works.
- 4xfounding GTM leader. 1x founding AE of a unicorn.
- $0 → $200Min revenue built from nothing
- 200+GTM hires made
- 14 yearscarrying a number. 14 President's Clubs. Never missed a year.
Why this exists
The first sales hire is the one that goes wrong most often. I know. I've been it.
Here's the pattern. A founder closes the first ten deals themselves, gets tired, and hires an AE off a job post. Hands over a quota. Hopes. Six months later the AE is gone, the pipeline is thin, and everybody blames everybody. I've watched it from both chairs.
A founding AE isn't running a sales motion. They're building one. No playbook. No collateral. No brand to hide behind. The first ten deals shape the next thousand, and most recruiters have never closed one of them.
Founders don't need more reps who "can sell." They need operators who can build revenue from nothing. I've done it four times. I'd like to do it with you.
Founders
Hire your founding GTM team. Then don't do it alone.
- Founding AEs, first sales leaders, and early GTM hires who've done zero-to-one before and want to do it again.
- A short list in days, not a résumé dump in weeks. Every candidate briefed on your stage, your ICP, and your weird parts before the first call.
- Comp, equity, and a real 30-60-90 drawn up before the offer, so nobody's surprised in month two.
- Ninety days of me in the room with you and the hire. Pipeline, process, first deals, course corrections.
I only work seed and Series A. When you raise your B, I'll still be your recruiter. I'd rather grow with five great companies than cold-call fifty.
Tell me about the hireAEs
Everyone wants the title. Almost nobody wants the job. If you want the job, read on.
- Founding and early sales seats at seed and Series A companies with real founders, real traction, and real equity.
- A straight read on every opportunity: the product, the founder, the cap table, the risk. I won't sell you a job.
- I stay for your first 90 days, so the role becomes what it was pitched as.
- The playbooks I used to go from AE to founding VP, plus a bench of people who've made the same jump.
Most enterprise AEs aren't elite. They just work at elite logos. The ones who can build from nothing are rare, and I built my whole career on being one and betting equity over cash at the right company. That's the trade I'll help you make. If that's you, I want to know you.
Get on the benchWhat I actually do
Find. Build. Scale.
Find the unicorns
Founding AEs, first sales leaders, early GTM hires. I source from a bench of people I'd hire myself, plus an engine built for this stage. You get a short list, fast, and every person on it already knows your story.
Build the first 90 days
A placement isn't done when the offer is signed. I work with the founder and the hire every week through day 90: comp and territory, pipeline cadence, the first real deals, and the fixes nobody planned for.
Scale with the playbooks
Founder-led sales to first hire. First hire to first team. Every one of my playbooks came from doing it, not reading about it. They live in one place, with a newsletter and a community of people building the same thing.
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Step 1
We talk
Thirty minutes. Your stage, your motion, what's worked, what hasn't. I'll tell you honestly if you're not ready to hire yet.
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Step 2
I write the real job
Not the job post. The actual job: what this person has to build, what good looks like at day 90, and what they get for it.
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Step 3
Short list, pre-briefed
A handful of people, not a pile. Each one already knows your company, your stage, and your weird parts before they meet you.
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Step 4
Offer with a plan
Comp, equity, ramp, and a 30-60-90 everyone has signed off on. Then I stay in the room for the next three months.
Playbooks, newsletter, community
Everything I learn, written down and handed to you.
Every placement and every founder conversation turns into a playbook. They live in one place, next to a newsletter and a community where founders and founding sellers can ask the questions nobody else answers straight.
One rule: if it isn't useful to a founder or an AE, it doesn't get published. No recycled frameworks. No theory without execution. Just stuff that worked.
Get the newsletterAbout Ryan
I'm the guy who talks to strangers on airplanes. It turned into a career.
I'm Ryan Jensen. Utah now, Austin before that. My first sales job was at Progrexion, where people got denied for a loan, got transferred to me, and my only job was to close them. Fourteen years later I've carried a number every single year and never missed one.
Four times I've been the founding GTM hire: CompHealth, Canopy, Dwelo (now Level Home), and Eve. At Eve I was employee number three and the first sales hire at a pre-revenue company nobody had heard of. Twenty-four months later it was worth over a billion dollars. I didn't need certainty. I needed conviction.
Along the way I've hired more than 200 GTM people and built the whole thing on one bet: pick the right founders, take equity over cash, and do the work to make it worth something. Most people get one of those right. Almost nobody gets both. That's the bet I'm now helping founders and AEs make with each other, and I'll tell you the truth even when it's not the thing that gets me a fee.
Currently working with a small number of seed and Series A companies. Logos coming once they let me brag.
Let's talk
Hiring your first seller? Want to be one? This is the part where you tell me.
Founders: your stage, your motion, and the hire you're thinking about. AEs: what you've built, what you want next, and your résumé so I can stop guessing. I read every one of these myself and I reply fast.
I take on a handful of companies at a time, on purpose.
Rather just email? ryan@foundingunicorn.com