Build the category with us.

This is a technical co-founder seat, not employee number one with a fancy title. You join the founding team as an equal, take the CAPM platform from working prototype to the system a category gets built on, and make the architecture, hiring, and roadmap calls that come with that. Equity-only until revenue, co-founder grade, eyes open.

Remote · Equity-only compensation · Co-founder seat

About Aethon AI

Aethon AI is building the first Contextual AI Presence Mapping (CAPM) platform. We help brands understand and influence how they appear in AI-generated answers across Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity, before purchase intent forms and before AI defaults harden against them. We operate upstream, at the life-moment conversations that shape what AI models recommend in the first place. Our platform includes a Life Moment Engine© and Continuous Monitoring engine with visibility trending, competitor alerts, and citation source chain analysis.

The Opportunity

We are looking for a technical co-founder to own the product end to end. This is a true co-founder role with meaningful equity, not a salaried CTO position. You will work alongside the CEO (growth, marketing, GTM) and COO (operations, partnerships) to build the company from the ground up.

The window is narrow. AI search behavior is being shaped right now, and the brands that establish presence in the next 12-24 months will compound advantage as defaults harden. We need a builder who can move fast, ship product, and grow into a long-term technical leader as we scale.

What You'll Own

• Technical vision and architecture for the entire CAPM platform
• Building and leading our in-house engineering team from day one, including hiring, setting culture, and establishing engineering standards
• Hands-on development across the core platform, shipping features alongside the team you build
• Shaping the future product roadmap alongside the CEO and COO, balancing customer signal, technical feasibility, and market timing
• Core engineering across the Life Moment Engine©, Continuous Monitoring engine, citation source chain analysis, and competitor alerting systems
• Multi-model orchestration across Claude, OpenAI, Gemini, and Perplexity APIs
• Data infrastructure for tracking AI presence trends across thousands of life-moment queries
• Technical input on product strategy, pricing architecture, and go-to-market positioning

What We're Looking For

• Senior engineering experience, ideally with time spent as a tech lead, staff engineer, principal, or prior CTO
• Hands-on builder who can write code and ship features, not just manage
• Experience hiring and leading engineering teams, with a track record of shipping quality product
• Strong background in one or more of: LLM application development, data pipelines, full-stack web applications, or AI/ML infrastructure
• Experience with cloud infrastructure (AWS, GCP, or similar) and modern web stacks
• Comfort with ambiguity and an appetite for the zero-to-one phase
• Founder mentality: equity-motivated, long-term oriented, willing to bet on the company

Nice to Have

• Prior startup experience, especially as a founder or early engineer
• Background in B2B SaaS, martech, or search/SEO infrastructure
• Network of engineering talent you could recruit as we build out the team
• Familiarity with the GEO/AEO landscape

Compensation

• Meaningful co-founder equity (specific allocation negotiable based on stage of contribution and prior experience)
• Standard 4-year vest with 1-year cliff
• Full executive title (CTO & Co-Founder)
• Equity-only to start, with a market-rate cash salary kicking in upon the close of our pre-seed round (active conversations underway with multiple funds)

You are the first commercial hire. You take a category story that already resonates with CMOs and turn it into a repeatable sales motion: pipeline, pitch, close, and the feedback loop back into product. Comp is built for someone who wants real early equity and knows how to earn the commission half.

Remote (US-based) · Part-time or full-time to start · Base + commission + equity

Build the category with us

Aethon is defining Contextual AI Presence Mapping, the layer brands use to understand and shape how AI recommends them. When someone asks Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, or Perplexity who to hire, buy from, or call, most companies have no idea whether they get named. We make that visible, then ship the work that gets them into the answer.

The category is forming right now, and so is the team. This is the first revenue seat at Aethon. You will not inherit a sales motion. You will build it.

The Role

You are employee number one on the revenue side, working directly with the founders. A founder is on every call today. Your job is to change that: take the demos, close the deals, and turn what works into a motion the next hires can run.

You are equal parts closer, builder, and evangelist. Some weeks you live in demos. Other weeks you are writing the objection-handling doc that does not exist yet or testing a new outbound angle. Because we are early, this can start part-time or full-time, and the scope, base, and reward all grow as the company does. We would rather be straight about that than dress it up.

What You Will Own

• The full cycle. Prospecting, discovery, demos, and close for SMB and mid-market accounts, from first touch to signed annual contract.
• The pitch for a new category. Explain in plain language why AI visibility matters, and show buyers the gap between how they think they show up and how they actually do.
• The playbook. Turn what works into sequences, call scripts, objection handling, and a demo flow the next AEs inherit.
• The demo. Use live Share of Recommendation data to show a prospect exactly where they stand, then connect it to a reason to buy now.
• The feedback loop. Bring what you hear on every call back to product and marketing, from pricing signals to the language that lands.
• The pipeline. Keep a healthy book moving and forecast honestly. "Everything's fine" is the most expensive sentence you can say here.

Who We Hire

Aethon is early and small, and the bar is sharp. No sheep. No politics. Ship fast.

• Tell us we're wrong. If a founder has a bad idea, say so, with data and the better answer. Nodding gets a polite thank-you and a closed door.
• Move at uncomfortable speed. Decisions in days, not weeks. Ship the ugly version, learn from it, ship a better one.
• No red tape. No memo, no meeting, no three approvals. See it, do it, own it.
• No politics, no managing up. We reward shipping, not the performance of shipping.
• Customers, not abstractions. Every operator talks to customers. Every operator can read the data.
• Honest about what's broken. "Everything's fine" is the most expensive sentence anyone can say here.

Who You Are

• 3 to 5 years closing SaaS in martech, SEO, reputation, or local marketing, to both SMB and mid-market buyers. Backgrounds at Podium, Birdeye, Vendasta, BrightLocal, SEMrush, Moz, Yext, or the SMB segment of HubSpot fit well.
• A volume closer, not enterprise-only. You have closed annual contracts in the low-to-mid four figures at a steady clip, roughly 8 to 15 a month, not one big deal a quarter.
• Marketing-literate. You can riff on the difference between SEO and the new AI-answer landscape without a script. Bonus if you have already been posting about it.
• A builder. You hear "no CRM configured, no final deck" and say "great, I'll build it," not "what do I get on day one."
• Fluent with both buyers. Comfortable across the table from a practice owner or home-services operator and from a marketing lead at a multi-location brand.

Your Stack

• Apollo. Sourcing, list building, and multi-step outbound sequences across our target verticals.
• Claude. Your everyday co-worker for research, prospect prep, drafting, and turning call notes into follow-up.
• HubSpot. The CRM of record: pipeline, deal stages, and reporting.

Compensation and Equity

We will be straight with you about where we are. Aethon is pre-seed, and we are still finalizing how this role is funded. That shapes the offer: compensation combines a base, uncapped commission, and meaningful equity, with the biggest upside in equity and in what you close.

• Structure: Founding-level equity plus uncapped commission, with base defined as our funding comes together.
• Equity: Meaningful founding equity, four-year vest with a one-year cliff.
• Commission: Uncapped, a strong share of the first-year value of every deal you close.
• Base: Being defined now. May start lean or part-time and grow as funding lands.
• Commitment: Part-time or full-time to start, with room to expand into a full leadership seat.
• The path: As we close our raise and you prove the motion, the role grows in scope, base, and reward.

Plainly: if you need a large guaranteed salary from day one, this is not the moment to join. If you want founding equity, uncapped earning on what you close, and a seat that grows as you and the company do, this is the kind of role that rewards taking it early.

How to Apply

Goes straight to the founders. No recruiters, no resume black hole. Send a short note on why this role fits you, your resume or LinkedIn, and one deal you are proud of and why.

P.S. We said no sheep. So tell us: what animal are you, and why? Not a trick question. We just like people who know themselves well enough to pick one and defend it.

Aethon AI is an equal opportunity employer. We welcome applicants of all backgrounds.