Role: Founding Account/Customer Success Manager

tl;dr: Join a profitable, $Xm ARR startup (YC W22, Accel-backed) as the first dedicated customer success hire. You'll own retention, expansion, customer success strategy, process building, AND cross-functional product input. You will report directly to our CEO to grow and retain Agave's customer base from $Xm ARR to $XXm ARR+. Ideally, you are a hungry, scrappy, and energetic account manager, pumped to bet on a career-defining role at a fast-growing, early-stage startup. Min. 2+ YoE managing customer accounts at a b2b SaaS company, ideally with experience in construction tech.

This role has clear renewal and expansion targets, but no formal quota/OTE. Comp shown is salary.

Why are we hiring this role?

We've made a ton of progress (4XX+ customers, $Xm ARR, profitable & cash-flow positive for 2yr+). Now, we're seeking a Founding Account Manager to help us keep customers happy, maximize the value we deliver to existing customers, and unlock growth from within our base.

You'll own customer retention and expansion while working with our CEO/co-founder on all aspects of customer success and revenue expansion - from defining expansion plays and pricing strategies, to identifying upsell opportunities and optimizing customer health metrics. You'll be the expert on our customers' evolving needs - our CTO will ask for your input when planning sprints and new features.

We expect you to ramp fast since you're stepping into a customer base that's growing and engaged.

To do all of this, you will need to be unique. While typical AMs execute existing playbooks, you will need to write a better one. You are not a coin-operated account manager looking for a 9-to-5. You are a hungry, scrappy, and energetic AM, pumped to bet on a career-defining role at a fast-growing, early-stage startup. Your potential for impact will extend far beyond the ARR you retain and expand.

Responsibilities

Your core role is to ensure construction general/trade contractors continue to get massive value from automating work through software integration and automation. To do this, you will own our customer lifecycle, including:

• Retention + renewal: build deep relationships with customer champions and economic buyers by driving on-time renewals at high rates. Monitor account health, identify churn risks early, and execute retention strategies. Ensure customers renew at high rates.
• Customer escalations: act as the front line of defense for unhappy customers. Navigate difficult conversations and coordinate with Engineering and Product to resolve issues quickly. Turn detractors into promoters through exceptional service recovery.
• Expansion + growth: identify and close expansion opportunities (new use cases, new products, etc.) with our existing customers. Directly manage and build processes to ensure success for a portfolio of 475+ accounts.
• Customer advocacy: run QBRs with key accounts to review ROI, identify opportunities, and strengthen relationships. Gather product feedback and advocate for customer needs with Engineering and Product teams.
• Process improvement: improve our customer success processes (playbooks, health scoring, QBR templates, renewal workflows, CRM hygiene, expansion dashboards, etc.).
• Cross-team work: Join weekly sprint planning with Engineering to represent customer priorities.

Requirements

Hard requirements:

• 3+ years of account management experience: 2+ YoE managing customer accounts at a b2b SaaS company. You understand the relationship-building, process, and tenacity required to retain and expand 5-6 figure b2B SaaS contracts.
  • Previously managed a book of $1M+ ARR involving B2B SaaS accounts.
• Prior customer success + expansion success: strong record evidenced by retention rates, NRR/GRR metrics, and manager feedback. Be prepared to share specific numbers in interviews.

Soft requirements:

• Hands-on: you have been a successful IC and want to continue being one. You must love operating in the messy weeds of customer relationships and driving expansion. You do not want to be an armchair expert.
• Owner mindset: you are self-directed and able to work with minimal supervision. We can trust you to flag at-risk customers early and fight to save them. Where there's a gap, you fill it without asking.
• Strong EQ: you know when to listen and when to sell. You are attuned to customer sentiment and early warning signs of churn.
• Uncanny ability to deliver results: you get the job done consistently, doing any task needed to deliver on time. You're gritty and not easily discouraged.

Nice to have:

• Experience managing customer accounts in the construction tech industry.
• Experience at a startup, ideally Series B/C or earlier.
• Comfortable operating without established processes; you've built from scratch before
• Familiarity with accounting concepts and nuances.

Benefits

Healthcare: we cover 90% of your healthcare costs with several plan options.

401k: we match 100% of your contributions, up to 4% of annual salary.

Performance Bonuses: we offer annual performance bonuses when we hit company growth goals, which are a % of your base salary. These are large, meaningful rewards that scale with the amount we grow in a particular year.

Relocation: sizable relocation bonus for folks currently located outside of the Bay Area, and a bonus for anyone (even within the Bay Area) who moves within a 15-minute walk of our office.

Gym: on-site gym with Zwift bike + Peloton, squat rack, Tempo, Yoga setup, and more.

Visa: we sponsor Visas (H1B, TN, etc.) for candidates who are a good fit!

About the interview

At each stage, we decide and update you within 24hrs:

Intro Screen (15min.) [Virtual]: informal chat for you to learn more about the role. We'll ask for details on your past roles and what you're looking for next. We want to know that you meet our basic requirements and can speak about your work clearly. You're welcome to ask lots of questions about whether working at Agave makes sense for you.

Writing Exercise (30min.) [Virtual]: quick exercise where you draft a mock expansion proposal to maximize renewal and upsell conversion. We'll ask you to share as much detail as possible about your approach and tools. Our goal is to confirm your written communication skills.

Experience Screen (45min.) [Virtual]: deeper dive into your account management experience with another Agave co-founder. We'll ask for details on your customer success history and dig into 1-2 of your most challenging accounts/save situations to learn more about your background. You'll have 5-10min at the end to ask us any questions you'd like.

Case Study: longer form, written exercise that will assess your ability to build processes, assess tradeoffs, and drive a conclusion.

On-site (60min. x 5 people) [In-Person in SF, we pay for the trip]: you'll interview with each co-founder and a few other team members. This will be a deeper dive into your experience, customer success fluency, and overall fit. Each interview is 1hr: 45min for our questions and 15min for yours.

At each stage, we decide and update you within 24hrs:

Intro Screen (15min.) [Virtual]: informal chat for you to learn more about the role. We'll ask for details on your past roles and what you're looking for next. We want to know that you meet our basic requirements and can speak about your work clearly. You're welcome to ask lots of questions about whether working at Agave makes sense for you.

Writing Exercise (30min.) [Virtual]: quick exercise where you draft a mock expansion proposal to maximize renewal and upsell conversion. We'll ask you to share as much detail as possible about your approach and tools. Our goal is to confirm your written communication skills.

Experience Screen (45min.) [Virtual]: deeper dive into your account management experience with another Agave co-founder. We'll ask for details on your customer success history and dig into 1-2 of your most challenging accounts/save situations to learn more about your background. You'll have 5-10min at the end to ask us any questions you'd like.

Case Study: longer form, written exercise that will assess your ability to build processes, assess tradeoffs, and drive a conclusion.

On-site (60min. x 5 people) [In-Person in SF, we pay for the trip]: you'll interview with each co-founder and a few other team members. This will be a deeper dive into your experience, customer success fluency, and overall fit. Each interview is 1hr: 45min for our questions and 15min for yours.