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Hosted by Justin Dorfman & FollowUp · 🇺🇸 US · EN · 15 episodes
Established thought leaders with verified media credentials.
The Founding AE is a podcast about one of the toughest and most overlooked jobs in startups: the Founding Account Executive. Hosted by Justin Dorfman, Co-Founder & CEO of AssetMule (and a former Founding AE himself), the show dives deep with the first sales hires and early sales leaders at B2B SaaS and AI startups.Each 30-minute episode is a candid conversation from the trenches covering how they built pipeline from scratch, closed the first deals, partnered with founders, and scaled into new markets.
Justin Dorfman & FollowUp hosts The Founding AE, a business show with 15 episodes published.
We’re closing out 2025 with a real Founding AE conversation.In this episode of the Founding AE Podcast, Justin Dorfman sits down with Matthew Smith, a multi-time Founding AE and current early hire at Permit Rockstar—an A
We’re closing out 2025 with a real Founding AE conversation.In this episode of the Founding AE Podcast, Justin Dorfman sits down with Matthew Smith, a multi-time Founding AE and current early hire at Permit Rockstar—an A
What does good founder-led sales actually look like in the AI era - and how do you successfully hand it off to a Founding AE without losing the magic?In this episode of The Founding AE Podcast, Justin Dorfman sits down w
What happens when a writing & PR major becomes an early sales hire at a fractional back-office firm - and 3x’s inbound close rates in under two years?In this episode of The Founding AE Podcast, Justin Dorfman sits down w
Most founders massively underestimate how hard it is to make their first sales hire. The data says ~70% of first sales hires don’t make it to 12 months — and for early-stage startups, that mistake can be fatal.In this ep
What does it really take to be the first sales hire at a startup?In this episode of The Founding AE Podcast, Justin Dorfman sits down with Anda Willett, a seasoned B2B SaaS seller with 15+ years experience selling into l
On this episode of The Founding AE Podcast, host Justin Dorfman sits down with Richie Duignan (Founding AE, Magic, a global digital marketing agency) to unpack how he went from referral-driven sales to launching a repeat
Sales isn’t “Wolf of Wall Street.” In this episode, Chris Taylor (Founding Sales Lead at New Charter Technologies) breaks down how he went from being skeptical about sales to leading zero-to-one teams—plus the big differ
How do you break into an “unsexy” but massive category like HR—and win—when incumbents loom large? In this episode of The Founding AE, host Justin Dorfman sits down with Quentin Le Roy, Founding AE at Zelt, to unpack sel
UK-born, Spain-based David Jones went from guitarist and litigator to Founding AE. In this episode, David unpacks seven years riding Typeform’s PLG rocket (from ~$9M to ~$100M ARR), why he left to get “uncomfortable” aga
Space is hard. Selling it might be harder. 🚀 In this episode of The Founding AE, host Justin Dorfman sits down with Ben Kovacs (ex-Founding AE turned Product Marketer in SpaceTech) to compare go-to-market in SpaceTech v
What does it really take to be a Founding AE? In this episode, Justin Dorfman sits down with Ben Sklar (Founding AE, Pivotly) to unpack his winding path from school teacher & golf pro to tech sales, why “founding” means
What does it really take to be the first seller at a startup? In this episode of The Founding AE Pod, Justin Dorfman sits down with Mike Jank (Founding AE @ StackPack) to dig into the real playbook:- His path from nonpro
On this episode of The Founding AE, host Justin Dorfman sits down with Justin Silsbee - fresh off a stint as a Founding AE and now leading Business Development at a drone light-show company - to unpack what he learned on
Meet Ross Miller, Founding Account Executive at TJM Labs, where AI “digital techs” run 24/7 to automate pharmacy workflows. Ross went from enterprise/strategic AE roles (e.g., scale-ups like monday.com) to owning the ent
Early-stage selling is a different sport. In this episode of The Founding AE, host Justin Dorman sits down with multi-time founding AE Sean Donnelly of CloneOps.ai (ex-restaurant tech & logistics) to unpack the builder’s
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The Founding AE is hosted by Justin Dorfman & FollowUp. The show is categorised under business and has published 15 episodes.
The Founding AE has published 15 episodes.
The Founding AE regularly covers business. It sits in the business category.
The Founding AE is accessible for guests with genuine business expertise. A personalised, episode-aware pitch will still outperform a generic one every time.
The Founding AE hasn't explicitly signalled guest openness in recent episodes. That doesn't rule out pitching. your hook just needs to be especially compelling and relevant to their recent content.
Episodes of The Founding AE average 33 minutes. a focused format where a clear narrative arc and tight preparation matter most.
Our data rates The Founding AE's guest bar at 80/100 (Premium tier). Established thought leaders with verified media credentials. Sign in to PitchCentric to see how your own Pod Score compares against this show.
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