So...then what?

Welcome back to First Meeting Set.

First and foremost, huge congratulations to the FOUR TopSDR candidates who have landed roles at tier-1 startups in NYC since our last newsletter.

Now into today’s topic.

As a refresher, we’re currently on installment three of our “All Things SDR” series, where the goal is to share more info about the SDR seat for people who are thinking about startups or sales but don’t know exactly what the role entails. Three weeks ago we kicked things off with “What is the SDR role?” (the assistant-coach analogy). Two weeks ago we covered the four core responsibilities of the seat: prospecting, outreach, follow-ups, and learning from your AEs. If you missed either, scroll back. They’re the foundation for today.

With that said, today’s question: What does the career path of an SDR actually look like?

Let’s get into it.

The most common path: Becoming an AE

The most common next step after the SDR seat is being promoted to Account Executive, or “AE.”

If you read the first installment of this series, you’ll remember we used the analogy of an assistant coach finding college recruits. The SDR is the assistant coach. The AE is the head coach.

In practical terms, the AE is the closer. Their job is to take the meetings the SDR books and turn them into signed contracts. They run discovery, demo the product, handle objections, negotiate pricing, and close the deal. If the SDR sits at the top of the funnel, the AE sits at the bottom.

So how long does it actually take to get there?

Based on what we see at our tier-1 partner startups, the realistic window is 10-12 months in the SDR seat before there are real conversations about AE. You’ll spend ~3 months ramping. By month 6 you should be a real producer. By month 10-12, if you’re crushing your number, you’ll start to get the AE conversation.

You’ll occasionally see “6-month promotion to AE” mentioned in job postings or interviews. Honest answer based on the placements we’ve seen: that’s rare. The math at a Series A or B just doesn’t usually work that way. AE territory is finite, existing AEs need to be hitting their quotas, and most companies with open AE seats are filling them with people who’ve already done the job somewhere else.

10-12 months is the honest version.

The AE step is also where the comp really starts to move. AE OTE at a hot Series A AI startup is around $150K base, $300K OTE. At the next step up (Senior AE, Enterprise AE), top performers are clearing $500-700K, and the very best are clearing seven figures.

But AE Isn’t Your Only Option

The AE path is the most common, but it’s not the only thing the SDR seat opens up.

After 10-12 months in a real SDR seat, you’ve spent every day talking directly to potential customers. You understand the product, the buyer, the objections, the competitive landscape, and the whole motion. That kind of context is valuable to a LOT of teams across the company, not just the sales team.

A few other paths we’ve seen with the candidates we’ve placed:

1. Product. Some have moved into product roles. If you find yourself more interested in shaping what gets built than selling it, this is a door.

2. Biz ops / GTM strategy. If you discover you love thinking about the systems more than running them, this is the door. Building the playbooks, the dashboards, the territory models, the comp plans.

3. Recruiting/talent. Some have ended up helping their startup hire the next wave of SDRs and AEs. (Obviously biased coming from me, since this is the path I ended up walking myself.)

4. Founding something of your own (eventually). This is a longer one. You don’t go straight from SDR to founder, and I wouldn’t pretend otherwise. But the SDR seat gives you one of the better foundations out there for one day doing something entrepreneurial. Stuff like storytelling, pitching, cold outreach, and handling rejection are muscles every founder eventually has to build. If you’ve got any inkling that you might want to start something down the road, a year or two as an SDR is a pretty awesome way to start building those reps.

One last thing: You don’t necessarily need to know which one of these you want when you take the SDR job. Part of the reason this role is such a great move is that you end up in close proximity to every other function in the business. You learn as you go what’s actually interesting to you.

So when you’re interviewing for the SDR role, don’t just optimize for “fastest path to AE.” Optimize for which company is going to give you the deepest learning curve over the next 12 months. That’s the asset you’re building.

Next week I’ll keep the series going. Going to try to get some quotes from placed candidates on what their actual day-to-day looks like (carrying over what I teased last week). Should be the most concrete installment yet.

Until then have a great rest of the week!

-Andrew