Founding Account Executive

About this role

Founding Account Executive

Build relationships with the executives who run America's largest distributors, and turn founder led sales into a repeatable motion.

LocationSan Francisco, CA · In-office

Experience5+ years

Compensation$150K base, $300K OTE + equity

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The role

We're hiring our first two founding go to market team members to sell directly to the executives who run America's largest distributors. Lantern guides purchasing for $1 billion of distribution inventory today, and this team will take us toward $1 trillion. The work happens in person, largely at industry conferences, in front of the people running some of the most critical companies in the country. You'll source, build relationships, sell, and close alongside our founders, and help turn founder led sales into a repeatable motion. The playbook and the culture of the team that follows will be shaped by the people we hire now.

What you'll do

• Represent Lantern at national and regional trade association conferences, building genuine relationships with distributor decision makers before ever introducing the product.
• Identify and prioritize the right prospects in a room, backed by real research on who they are and what matters to them.
• Run the full sales cycle for distributors doing $50M+ in revenue: from first personal connection, through proof of concept, to signed contract.
• Build and manage your own pipeline in a market with no existing outbound playbook.
• Partner with our founders to turn founder led sales into a repeatable, scalable sales process.
• Travel extensively. This is largely an in person, on the road role.

What you bring

• 5+ years in sales, ideally full cycle, with a track record of success in highly relationship driven deals. No industry experience required: we'll teach you the industry and the product.
• A natural ability to build personal relationships with people you've just met, and real enjoyment in doing it.
• Comfort walking up to someone you don't know at a professional event and building rapport without leading with a pitch.
• The homework habit. You know who you're meeting and what will resonate with them before the conversation starts.
• Credibility in the room with the executives of some of the largest private companies in the world.
• Energized by heavy travel, including multi day national and regional conferences.
• Comfort operating without an established playbook, as one of Lantern's first go to market hires.
• Based in or willing to relocate to San Francisco, working in office alongside the founding team.

Nice to have

• Experience in supply chain, wholesale distribution, or industrial and B2B sales.
• Existing relationships or a network within the distribution or supply chain industry.
• Early stage startup experience.

What you'll get

• A founding GTM seat at the fastest growing software company in the $9T distribution market.
• The chance to write the sales playbook and shape the culture of the team that follows.
• Time in front of the executives who run America's most critical distributors, not a desk full of cold calls.
• Competitive compensation: $150K base, $300K OTE + equity.
• An office in San Francisco with a tight knit founding team.

What we value

We hire operators who own outcomes, combining sharp judgment with pragmatic execution and a willingness to do the unglamorous work. Hard work, humility, customer obsession, and pride in a job well done: the values our customers live by, and the values we hire for.

About Lantern

Lantern is building the AI-native operating system for the $9T wholesale distribution industry. Billions of dollars sit tied up in stock, yet most distributors still buy on gut feel and spreadsheets. We partner with leading distributors to deliver precise, AI-powered purchasing recommendations that drive 30% leaner inventory, 10% higher sales, and 20+ hours saved per week per user. We've gone from $0 to $5M ARR in 8 months, raised $7M from top VCs, and are hitting hypergrowth.

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