Founding Account Executive

The Internal Audit Collective (IAC) is the #1 private community for high-performing internal audit and internal control practitioners and leaders. We grew from about 100 founding members to 1,500+ members in under two years, with a renewal rate exceeding 80% and and 23,000+ professionals subscribe to our newsletter.
Our members choose us over traditional associations and research firms because we provide real how-to resources, peer benchmarking, training, and candid conversations between people who do the work. Our offerings include team memberships, the CAE Leadership Forum (our premium tier for audit leaders), and in-person events like APEX and SOX Summit.
The role You'll be our founding Account Executive, owning the full sales cycle to bring new companies into the Collective. You'll sell three things to organizations that aren't yet IAC customers:
Team memberships for internal audit and SOX departments
CAE Leadership Forum seats for Chief Audit Executives and audit leaders
Event tickets for APEX, SOX Summit, and other IAC events
You'll create and close your own outbound opportunities, and you'll close the inbound leads our brand and content generate. Renewals and expansion within existing member companies are handled separately; your focus is net-new logos.
You'll be selling a product many people already want to buy. What they often need is help justifying the expense: building the business case, answering finance's questions, and getting budget approved. Guiding them through that is the heart of this job.
This is a builder role. You'll be the first person in the seat, working directly with our founder, and you'll shape how IAC sells for years to come.
What you'll do Build pipeline from scratch. Research target companies, identify audit leaders and SOX owners, and run multi-channel outbound (email, LinkedIn, phone, events).
Close inbound demand. Respond quickly to leads from our newsletter, LinkedIn, website, and events, and convert them into paying customers.
Run the full cycle. Discovery, demos of the community and resources, helping buyers build the business case to justify the expense, proposals, procurement, and close.
Sell multiple products. Match each buyer to the right mix of team membership, CAE Leadership Forum, and event tickets.
Sell at events. Represent IAC at APEX, SOX Summit, and industry conferences to generate and advance opportunities.
Own your forecast. Follow up relentlessly, keep detailed deal notes in HubSpot, and deliver a forecast leadership can rely on every week.
Build the playbook. Document what works: ICP, messaging, objection handling, sequences, and qualification. This becomes the foundation for the team you'll help build.
Feed the business. Share what you hear from buyers with our founder, community, and content teams to sharpen our offerings.
Quota and growth path You'll carry an annual new-logo quota across team memberships, CAE Leadership Forum, and event tickets. You'll be fully ramped within your first four months. We'll walk through the quota and deal economics in our first conversation.
As our founding AE, you'll have a clear path to leadership. With a successful first year, you'll have the opportunity to manage and mentor 1-2 additional Account Executives and lead the further build-out of the IAC sales motion.
What success looks like First 30 days: You know our members, products, and buyers. You've sat in on community events, learned our story, and started working inbound leads.
First 4 months: You're fully ramped, with a healthy outbound pipeline, your first new-logo deals closed, and a first version of the sales playbook drafted.
First 6 months: You're at full quota pace, forecasting reliably, and selling across all three products, including events.
First year: The playbook is proven, and you're ready to help hire and mentor the next AEs.
Who you are This isn't a handshake-and-golf sales role. We're looking for a process-oriented sales professional whose superpower is follow-up: you never let a prospect go cold, your deal notes are thorough, and your forecast is one we can count on.
Must-haves 4-7 years of full-cycle B2B closing experience in a mid-market or commercial role, with a consistent track record of meeting or beating quota
Proven ability to self-source pipeline through outbound, not just close inbound
Comfortable selling to senior buyers like CAEs, Controllers, and CFOs, and to their team leads
Energized by a high volume of shorter sales cycles, from a single event ticket to a department-wide team membership
Thrives in early-stage environments with little structure, and enjoys building process
Strong written communication; you can write an outreach email a busy CAE actually answers
Meticulous about follow-up, deal notes, and CRM hygiene, with a track record of accurate forecasting (HubSpot experience a plus)
Experience using AI to drive efficiency while managing 20+ active deals at a time
Nice-to-haves Experience selling to internal audit, internal controls, or risk buyers (preferred, but not required)
Background selling memberships, communities, training, events, or subscriptions
Experience as an early or founding AE at a startup
Prior internal audit, accounting, or advisory experience
Interest in leading and coaching a team
Compensation, location and how to apply Compensation: $140,000 on-target earnings (OTE), with uncapped commission and accelerators above quota.
Location: Remote, US-based. Based in the Eastern or Central time zone. Travel to IAC events such as APEX and SOX Summit.
Reports to: Tom O'Reilly, Founder and President

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