Account Executive/ Sr Account Executive (MM)

About Starboard

Starboard is an AI-native freight quoting, rate management and marketplace platform for mid-market freight forwarders (20–200 employees). Forwarders run a trillion-dollar industry on spreadsheets, email threads and gut feel; we replace the quoting and rate workflow that eats their day and turn it into a competitive edge.

We are an early-stage team with live customers, a growing pipeline and a new office in New York City. The founder sells alongside the sales team and sits in on deals. The next 12 months are about turning a repeatable sales motion into a scalable one, and this hire is central to that.

The role

You own the full mid-market sales cycle end to end: you build your own pipeline, run discovery and demos, negotiate, close, and hand a clean deal to our implementation team. There is no SDR team feeding you meetings. The pipeline you close is the pipeline you built.

Who you sell to: owners, GMs, VPs of Operations and pricing leads at freight forwarders with 20–200 employees, mostly in North America. They are practical, busy, skeptical of software and used to doing things the way they always have. Winning them takes persistence and credibility, not slick demos.

What the deals look like: $25–50K annual contracts, typically a 2-week or 3-month paid proof of concept before the full agreement. Sales cycles are measured in weeks, not quarters, when the prospecting is relentless.

What you are measured on

• Annual quota of $1M ARR, with a reduced ramp quota in your first quarter. Quota includes upsells in year one of each account.
• Weekly outbound activity: dials, emails, LinkedIn touches and in-person meetings.
• Qualified discovery calls and demos booked from your own outreach.
• Deals closed and successfully paid through the POC.

What we are looking for

Pure hunter. You have closed new-business deals with buyers who are not tech-oriented and do not wake up wanting to buy software. We prefer experience in industries going through transformation: logistics, freight, insurance, home care, construction, field services. Your track record is self-sourced closed-won, not inbound or account management.

Prospecting at volume. You can sustain 75–100 dials a day alongside email and LinkedIn outreach, and you build pipeline at conferences and in the field. You treat the top of the funnel as your job, not someone else's, and you have the numbers to prove it.

Fast learner. You have a demonstrated history of getting up to speed quickly in a new product, industry or sales motion and being productive within weeks. Freight is a domain with its own language; you will learn it fast and speak it credibly to operators.

Hustle. You stretch, experiment and iterate to make the sales process smoother and more standardized. You test new messaging, pick up what works and share it. You see an unscripted early-stage environment as an opportunity, not a gap.

Bonus (not required): experience selling to freight forwarders, 3PLs or logistics operators, or selling a product that replaces a spreadsheet-and-email workflow.

This role is not for you if

• You want warm inbound leads or an SDR to book your meetings. You are expected to build your entire pipeline, and Starboard's brand, in your local market from scratch.
• You would rather manage and grow existing accounts than open new ones. This is net-new business.
• You need a fully built sales playbook before you can sell. You will help write it.
• Cold calling is something you tolerate rather than something you are good at and willing to do every day.

We would rather say this plainly up front than have you discover it in month two.

Compensation, location and support

Compensation: top-percentile for a mid-market AE. Base plus uncapped commission, with a year-end retention bonus, a healthcare allowance and fully diluted equity. Commission is paid when customer payment lands, with a payout floor at 50% attainment and no cap. First-year OTE: USD 75–110K in Tier 1 US cities; USD 75–100K in Tier 2 US cities.

Location: New York City, Atlanta, Houston, Oakland or Los Angeles. Four days a week in market with customers, or in our NYC office if you are based there; paid office lunches in NYC.

How we set you up to win

• A handed-over pipeline in your first quarter so you are not starting from zero.
• Starboard's discovery and demo certification programs in your first 90 days.
• A first-quarter Management Incentive Plan paid on top of base and commission, tied to certification, pipeline build and your first deals in contracting.
• The founder in the room on your early deals, and a dedicated implementation team that owns onboarding once you close.

How to apply

Send a short note with three things: the biggest self-sourced deal you have closed and how you found it, your typical weekly outbound numbers, and why you want to sell to freight forwarders. A résumé is fine but the note matters more

sumeet@starboard.biz