Founding AE pay report, October 2026

What we found

1. Among the 17 postings that state on-target earnings, the median is $275K. Among the 16 that state base pay, the median is $132.5K.
2. 29 of 36 postings mention equity. The 16 that give a range have a median of 0.59%.
3. 9 of 36 say the hire can work remotely anywhere in the US, and 6 more allow some remote work with limits. 20 ask the hire to work from an office.

The medians

Each number is the median of the midpoints of the ranges that postings state. A posting counts only for the figures it states. n is the number of postings behind each figure.

Ranges with no label. 15 postings give a pay range without saying if it is base pay or on-target earnings. Leaving out Closure (see below), their median midpoint is $155K, with midpoints from $80K to $275K. We keep these apart. They are not base pay and not on-target earnings, so they are not in the rows above.

Two high on-target numbers. Two postings state on-target earnings far above the rest: $630K (Foresight Health, with a $150K base) and $500K (Hedge Specialty, with a $110K to $150K base). Both are in the median. A median moves little when the top values change, which is why we use it.

Where the job is

9 of the 36 postings say the hire can work remotely anywhere in the US. 6 more allow some remote work with limits, such as one city or region, or say remote will be considered. 20 ask the hire to work from an office, full time or part of the week, and 1 does not say.

What else the postings say

33 of 36 state pay in some form. 3 state no pay at all. 7 state a deal size or a sales target, too few to group pay by deal size.

Where the numbers come from

We read each live posting as of October 18, 2026, and recorded the title, base, on-target earnings, any pay range without a label, equity, deal size, remote policy, location and posted date exactly as written. Where a posting does not say, we wrote "not stated".

Who is included. US roles at startups where the posting calls the job founding, first, or the first sales or go-to-market hire. Most are account executive roles. The sample also includes three first sales or go-to-market leader roles, one go-to-market role covering sales and marketing, one field sales rep and one business development role with full go-to-market scope, because each is the company's first seller. Sources: our First Sales Hire Tracker (weeks of October 6, 15 and 19, 2026), YC Work at a Startup, Wellfound, and company job boards on Ashby, Lever and others.

Posted dates. 15 dates come straight from the posting or job board. The rest are worked out from "posted N days ago" or "N months" on the page, or from when the job first appeared on a board, and are marked "about".

Open status. 35 of 36 postings were live on October 18, 2026. One (Toolhouse AI) is a forum post with no job page, so we could not confirm it is still open. Its numbers are included.

Left out of the medians.

• Accend: the posting may be stale. Its page says it went up 8 months ago, and it gives two different base ranges.
• Freebuff: the posting is titled Founding Account Executive, but the role it describes sells advertising campaigns.
• Closure's listed range of $50K to $1M spans more than 5 times its low end, so it is not in the unlabeled median. Its stated base of $90K to $150K is in the base median.

Both left-out postings stay in the source list below, marked *.

Rejected after checking. Postings that had closed, roles outside the US, roles that were not a first seller (for example a second sales hire, or a new office of a large company), and an unpaid equity-only contract.

How the math works. For a range we use its midpoint. For a single number we use that number. Where a posting gives two levels, we use the first level it lists. Two bases (Avallon AI, Docflow Labs) come from the posting's stated 50/50 or about 50/50 split of on-target earnings. Equity is a percent only. Postings do not give share counts or company value, so we put no dollar value on equity.

Every posting, with its source

All 38 postings in the sample, as of October 18, 2026. Each company name links to the posting.

* Left out of the medians. See "Left out of the medians" above.

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