Pre-seed through Series A · B2B software · Miami

Founding sales hires for early-stage B2B software.

I have built the function three times. I recruit for the role I have actually done.

Talk about the search See the pricing
Founding GTM builds
3x
Zero to $10M ARR
2x
Largest personal close
$3M
Enterprise B2B SaaS
10+ yrs

01 · The problem

Same title.
Different job.

Every founder at your stage is chasing the same person, and that person knows it. The best sellers do not answer cold recruiter DMs from someone who has never sold software.

So you go to a generalist agency and pay $50,000 for five résumés belonging to people who hit quota with marketing, case studies, a working playbook and a manager behind them. That is not this job. Six months later the hire is gone and the quarter is gone with it.

A founding AE builds pipeline with no marketing, sells a product that changes every six weeks, and writes the playbook instead of asking for it. Most recruiters cannot tell that apart from an enterprise AE, because they have never done either.

02 · Why me

I have been the first seller three times.

Yossi Piekarski, founder of Piekarski Search

Yossi Piekarski

Founder, Piekarski Search · Miami, FL

Ten years carrying an enterprise number at Unomy, Panaya, WeWork and Substrata. Three of those years as the first commercial hire, building the motion before there was one. You are not hiring a recruiter who read about this role. You are hiring someone who has held it.

3x

Founding GTM

First commercial hire three separate times. Built the motion, the ICP, the qualification process and the outbound engine from nothing.

$0 → $10M

ARR, twice

Took the same CEO from zero to $10M ARR at two different companies. He hired me back, which is the only reference that matters.

$3M

Largest close

Enterprise deals carried end to end, with the deal cycles, procurement fights and multi-stakeholder maps that come with them.

Both sides

Hired for this role

I have hired into founding sales seats and watched founders get sold the wrong profile at full price. That is the entire reason this firm exists.

What I actually screen for

  • Can they build pipeline with no marketing, no SDR and no case studies.
  • Can they sell a product that ships weekly and breaks occasionally.
  • Can they take a real objection with no manager in the room.
  • Will they write the playbook, or wait to be handed one.
  • Do they want to be somebody's first, or do they want a safe number.

03 · Process

Every step is built to de-risk the hire.

  1. 01

    Scope and scorecard

    Week one. Product, traction and materials reviewed. Role defined, comp and level benchmarked, interview process agreed before a single candidate is approached. You keep those documents either way.

  2. 02

    Network first, outbound second

    The first slate comes from people I have sold next to, hired, or been hired by. Cold sourcing happens after that, not instead of it. No LinkedIn filter dressed up as a search.

  3. 03

    A process you agreed to

    Good candidates fall out of bad processes. We settle the steps, the evaluation at each stage and who owns each conversation up front. How you run the process tells them what working here is like.

  4. 04

    Through the first 90 days

    The work does not end at the offer letter. I stay in the conversation with you and with the hire through the early ramp, flagging what is not working while it is still cheap to fix.

04 · Pricing

Published, because most of this category will not.

The category charges 20 to 25% of first-year OTE. I charge 20% of first-year base. Same rigor, roughly half the invoice, and you can do the math before we ever speak.

Swipe the table sideways to compare

Fee comparison between typical agency pricing and Piekarski Search
Founding AE search Typical agency Piekarski Search
Fee basis % of first-year OTE % of first-year base
Rate 20 to 25% 20%
$110K base / $220K OTE $44,000 to $55,000 $22,000
$120K base / $240K OTE $48,000 to $60,000 $24,000
Replacement guarantee Rarely published 90 days, one free search

Founding AE

20%

of first-year base salary

Floor of $18,000. Billed on start date, net 15.

SDR

$8,000

flat per hire

$14,000 for two placed in the same search.

Engagement fee

$2,500

credited in full against the placement fee

Buys the role scope, the comp and leveling read, the scorecard and the interview design. Yours whether or not the search closes.

Terms, in plain language

  • Guarantee One free replacement search if the hire leaves or is terminated inside 90 days.
  • Payment Placement fee net 15 from the start date. Not on 90-day survival.
  • Ownership 12-month candidate ownership window, stated in writing before the first submission.
  • Fit Seed and Series A, roughly $500K to $10M ARR. If the timing is wrong I will say so on the first call.

Founding client pricing: engagement fee waived for the first two clients, in exchange for a testimonial and a logo on this page. Expires when they are signed.

Hiring your first or second seller?

Fifteen minutes on what you actually need. If a search is the wrong move right now, I will tell you on that call.

yossi@piekarskisearch.com

Feel free to reach out directly. Founders only, no gatekeeping.