Account Executive

About FirstPrinciples

At FirstPrinciples, we're building Theo, the AI platform for R&D teams. By bringing together an organization's data, the world's research, and their choice of AI models and tools, we're creating a unified platform designed for verifiable scientific work.

We're a small, ambitious team at an early stage of growth, tackling complex technical challenges and building something with the potential to meaningfully change how R&D teams work.

We're looking for people who thrive in fast-paced environments, take ownership, adapt quickly, and aren't afraid to experiment. You'll have the opportunity to make a meaningful impact, work closely with talented people across disciplines, and help shape both our technology and the company as we grow.

Why This Role Exists:

We’re building products to accelerate progress in physics - but that only matters if the right researchers discover them, understand how they work, and make the decision to adopt them. Besides building the technology, the challenge is earning the trust of researchers and institutions, and translating it into active usage and commercial relationships.

This role exists to lead that journey. You’ll work across the full sales lifecycle: from identifying and reaching out to researchers and organizations, to discovery, demos, evaluations, and close. You’ll help prospective users move from curiosity, to confidence that the platform can advance their research.

Your impact will directly shape who we serve, how we bring the product to market, and how quickly we build a repeatable path to adoption and revenue.

What You’ll Do:

• Own the full sales cycle, from outbound prospecting and pipeline generation through discovery, product demonstrations, negotiation, and closing.

• Build and execute targeted outbound strategies to identify, engage, and convert prospective customers across R&D-intensive organizations.

• Develop a strong understanding of our ideal customer profile (ICP), buyer personas, and customer pain points to deliver compelling, value-driven sales conversations.

• Lead discovery conversations that uncover business challenges, qualify opportunities, and clearly demonstrate how Theo can deliver value.

• Deliver compelling product demonstrations and proposals tailored to customer needs, connecting technical capabilities to measurable business outcomes.

• Build relationships with key decision-makers and navigate complex, multi-stakeholder sales cycles involving technical teams, business leaders, and procurement.

• Drive customer evaluations and pilots forward by establishing clear success criteria, managing stakeholders, and converting successful evaluations into paying customers.

• Own pipeline management, deal progression, forecasting, and revenue targets, maintaining accurate and actionable CRM data.

• Collaborate with Research Partners, Product, and Engineering to address customer needs, overcome technical objections, and move opportunities toward close.

• Continuously experiment with prospecting strategies, messaging, and sales approaches to improve conversion rates and accelerate revenue growth.

• Help build and refine our early sales playbook, establishing repeatable processes that will support the growth of our commercial organization.

Who You Are:

• Exceptionally curious and analytical, with the ability to rapidly develop fluency in unfamiliar technical and scientific domains

• High agency and learning velocity; you’re comfortable being dropped into a complex topic, figuring it out quickly, and operating without an established playbook

• Able to form strong, testable points of view from incomplete information, grounded in first-principles reasoning rather than defaulting to established frameworks

• Commercially minded and excited by turning complex technology into customer relationships, adoption, and revenue

• Strong communicator who asks sharp questions, listens carefully, leads credible discovery conversations, and can move an opportunity toward a decision

• Comfortable initiating conversations, prospecting into new organizations, and building relationships from the ground up

• Persistent and highly organized; you follow through, maintain momentum, and are comfortable being accountable for measurable commercial outcomes

• You may come from sales, investing, consulting, banking, data/analytics, a technical startup, scientific commercialization, or another highly analytical environment. Traditional enterprise sales experience is not required
  

What You’ll Get:

• The opportunity to work on foundational problems at the intersection of AI and physics

• A high-trust, low-bureaucracy environment with real ownership

• Remote-first work with flexibility in how you structure your day

• Exposure to cutting-edge ideas across AI, scientific discovery, and emerging technologies

• A culture that values curiosity, depth of thinking, and first-principles reasoning

• The chance to contribute to work aimed at advancing fundamental science