Founding AE role vs Salesforce AE — need advice
I'm about to receive an offer for Founder Enterprise AE role at a seed stage startup in San Francisco. Founder & 2 other members live in SF. There are about 10 employees. The company is building a data platform for a niche industry. They have a nice co-working space in downtown SF.
Comp is around $240k OTE with 0.1%–0.5% equity, and expected deal sizes are $60k–$150k ACV enterprise deals. The company has grown organically so far, the founder has been handling most of the sales, and they already have a Demand Gen manager and BizOps. They also get a steady flow of inbound demo requests from the website.
I have 6+ years SaaS B2B sales experience across mid-market, commercial, and enterprise roles, and I already have relationships in this ecosystem. At the same time, I’m currently interviewing with Salesforce in SF at the Tower for Mid-Commercial / Mid-Market AE roles in the Tech & Media segment.
Thoughts?
Posted Mar 4, 2026, 7:22 AM UTC