Account Executive (Chicago)

Account Executive, Focused Labs

Who We Are:

Focused is a boutique software consultancy that builds custom AI agents that integrate with existing systems and actually work in production. When Focused first started, we partnered with enterprises like Hertz and PODS to modernize backend systems. Today, we’re all in on AI. We strategically partner with our clients, acting as an extension of their teams to build scalable, maintainable solutions.

We have two key partners: LangChain and Honeycomb. We are LangChain’s official boutique implementation partner. As a strategic partner, we augment customer teams, upskill them, create experts, and then move on. We want customers to own their agentic efforts.

Focused has two co-founders. They are technical, opinionated and deeply involved in sales and delivery.

You’ll love this role if:

• You understand relationship based selling. You’ve sold professional services before and enjoy the long sales cycles and relationship building.
• You have built or scaled channel partnerships and can think strategically about co-selling. You know how to build relationships with partner teams, getting them to understand how to position Focused.
• You are energized by building something from scratch, rather than executing a proven playbook.
• You have experience working as a sales team of one, and thrive in ambiguity.
• You have experience working closely with founders and c-suite executives to get ideas in motion.

You won’t love this role if:

• You need structure, process, and a detailed playbook before you can operate
• You want a buffer between you and the effort it takes to build meaningful pipeline
• You get defensive when someone challenges your ideas (we challenge each other kindly and often)
• You're used to SDRs feeding you qualified leads (you'll be generating most of your own pipeline)

Why Join Focused?

• Strategy: You get to own strategy for the different sales motions at Focused. You will shape how Focused grows and expands.
• Founder Access: You get to work directly with our CEO and founder. If you want to influence strategy, you actually can.
• Ownership: you’re not AE 120 out of 250. You're the person building our partnership strategy. Your ideas actually shape company direction. When something works or doesn’t, you own it.

What you’ll do

• Generate net new revenue from outbound and/or partnerships motions
• Find creative, practical, and flexible ways to solve difficult problems by using available resources, adapting to changing circumstances, and thinking outside the box when straightforward solutions aren’t available
• Meticulous communication skills with customers and internal teams, including updating slack channels and Hubspot with key information
• Own and manage the full sales lifecycle, from lead stage to close
• Own partnership strategy, building a repeatable playbook
• Understand prospect need and fit. Coordinate technical scoping or discovery sessions with the Solutions Engineer and engineering team
• Create proposals and statements of work
• Work with marketing to drive top of funnel activity for new logo acquisition and existing customer expansion 

Base salary may vary depending on location and previous experience. The base range for this role is $120,000 - $150,000, with uncapped commission