Garden (gardenintel.com) accelerates global technological development by fixing the patent system. We build AI-powered search and analysis tools for R&D orgs, inventors, prosecutors, and litigators. Our core platform helps companies file strategic IP and enforce their portfolios. We monetized within weeks of launching, have hundreds of users, a growing enterprise waitlist, and raised a seed from top Silicon Valley VCs, that include Spark Capital, Craft Ventures (David Sacks's fund), Ken Howery (co-founder of PayPal and Founders Fund), Zach Perret (founder of Plaid), Julius Genachowski (former FCC Chairman, former GC of IAC), Chad Byers (founder of Susa Ventures), and more.
We’re a tight-knit NYC team that’s customer-obsessed, ships fast, and works in-person 5–6 days/week. If you want to help reinvent how innovation decisions get made—and you like owning outcomes—come build with us.
Why this role
You’ll be our first/one of the first AEs, owning the full enterprise sales motion and shaping our go-to-market from the ground up. You’ll partner directly with the CEO and founding team, sell a highly technical product to sophisticated buyers, and help define the sales playbook, ICP, and pricing strategy.
What you’ll do
- Own the full cycle: outbound, prospecting, discovery, multi-threading, pilots/POCs, negotiation, and close for mid-market and enterprise accounts (AmLaw firms, litigation boutiques, Fortune 1000 in-house/IP, and R&D-heavy companies).
- Become a domain expert: learn patent workflows (102/103, IPRs, claim charting, prosecution vs. litigation) and credibly demo platform to partners, GCs, heads of IP, and technical stakeholders.
- Build trust with skeptics: handle objections to automation/AI by diving into details—how we source prior art, chart accuracy, explainability, validation, and risk.
- Create the playbook: codify messaging, sequences, qualification, proof frameworks, and deal reviews; help stand up repeatable pipeline generation.
- Forecast with discipline: maintain clean pipeline/CRM hygiene, deliver dependable forecasts, and consistently hit/exceed targets.
- Close the loop with product: translate customer pain into roadmap input; influence experiments on pricing, packaging, and pilots.
- Partner on deployment: ensure smooth handoffs to Customer Success; stay involved through value realization in the first 90 days.
- Represent Garden at industry events (AIPLA, IPO, INTA, IPBC, litigation conferences) and targeted field marketing.
Who you are
- 3–5 years closing new business in B2B SaaS with complex, consultative deals; consistent success against $1M+ new ARR or equivalent new-business quotas.
- Enterprise seller DNA: skilled at discovery, value mapping, multi-threading, navigating procurement/legal, and building executive champions.
- Technical curiosity: comfortable demoing AI/analytics products and getting into the weeds on workflows, data sources, and evaluation.
- Builder mentality: scrappy prospector, crisp writer, strong presenter; thrives with ambiguity and low process; eager to write the first version of “how we sell.”
- High integrity forecaster with rigorous pipeline management.
- Domain plus: experience selling to legal/IP, R&D, life sciences, or data/AI platforms is a bonus—not a requirement.
- Location: In-person, NYC (required). Willing to travel for customers and conferences.
What success looks like
- 30 days: clear ICP/hypothesis, active outbound, qualified meetings on calendar, confident product demo.
- 90 days: opportunities past solution validation/pilot stage; early wins in core segments; first version of messaging + talk track documented.
- 6–12 months: repeatable motion with reference customers, predictable forecasts, and material contribution to new ARR.
Compensation & benefits
- OTE: $200,000–$300,000 (base + variable) with meaningful early equity; accelerators for over-performance.
- Competitive health benefits and standard startup perks.
- Tools, budget, and support to win (events, sequences, content, and product access).
How we work
- Fast feedback loops, founder-led sales, and tight alignment between sales, product, and engineering.
- We bias to in-person collaboration and rapid iteration. We write things down, measure what matters, and keep promises to customers.