Founding GTM Associate | San Francisco (On-site, Full Time) | US$100,000 to US$150,000 + Equity
Most GTM jobs hand you a playbook. This one hands you a blank page.
Big Wave Digital is partnering with a fast-growing AI startup in San Francisco that is building software for a large, complex and highly manual B2B market. The company has strong early traction, experienced founders, a lean team and ambitious plans for its next stage of growth.
They are now hiring a Founding GTM Associate to work directly with the CEO and help build the company’s go-to-market function from the ground up.
This is not a traditional marketing coordinator role. It is also not a senior VP-level revenue role. This is for someone early in their career who writes exceptionally well, moves quickly, has strong commercial instincts and wants to learn how GTM is built inside a high-intensity startup.
About the role
This is an early-career GTM role with unusually high ownership. You will work across GTM strategy, narrative, positioning, founder-led content, outbound, account research, paid acquisition experiments, lifecycle campaigns, launch activity, events, partnerships and GTM operations.
Your job will be to help sharpen how the company explains itself, reaches the right audiences, tests new channels and turns early traction into a repeatable GTM motion.
This is a hands-on role. You will be writing, researching, testing, coordinating, launching, measuring and improving. One day you might be drafting founder-led content or rewriting website copy. The next you might be building outbound messaging, researching target accounts, analysing campaign performance, helping with an event, or testing a new acquisition channel.
There will not be a perfect playbook waiting for you. You will help create it.
Academic background
A strong academic background is highly valued for this role. Given the company is based in San Francisco, candidates from Stanford, UC Berkeley, UCLA and USC are especially relevant, alongside Ivy League schools such as Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Penn, Columbia, Brown, Dartmouth and Cornell. Other elite schools such as MIT, Duke, University of Chicago, Northwestern, Carnegie Mellon, Caltech, Harvey Mudd, NYU, Georgetown and Vanderbilt will also be highly regarded.
Key responsibilities
- Shape the company’s messaging, narrative and tone across founder content, website copy, outbound messaging, campaign copy and customer-facing materials
- Support GTM programs across acquisition, activation, referrals, reactivation, lifecycle campaigns and early commercial experiments
- Help design and execute outbound campaigns, including research, targeting, messaging, sequencing, testing and reporting
- Contribute to paid acquisition experiments across relevant digital channels, helping the team understand what converts and where to focus
- Support product launches, events and GTM campaign rollouts from positioning and copy through to coordination and follow-up
- Help build simple systems and processes so GTM activity becomes more repeatable over time
What we are looking for
We are looking for someone sharp, hungry, highly self-directed and unusually strong at written communication.
You might have 0 to 3 years of experience across GTM, startup operations, founder support, sales, content, growth, marketing, community, partnerships, marketplaces or another high-ownership environment. You may have been a founder, an early startup GTM hire, a founder’s associate, a content-led operator, or someone who has built something scrappy from zero.
You may also have built something yourself, such as a newsletter, community, student venture, side project, content channel, small business, campaign, event series or startup project. The exact background matters less than your ability to think clearly, write well and execute quickly.
The strongest candidates will likely have:
- Founder or early startup GTM experience
- Excellent writing ability, especially content, narrative, positioning, founder-led content or campaign copy
- Evidence of grit, originality and unconventional thinking
- Experience building something from scratch, even if it was small, messy or scrappy
- Exposure to marketplace, SaaS, AI, platform, community or network-driven businesses
- Hands-on experience with GTM tools, outbound systems or modern commercial workflows
- Experience with tools such as Attio, RB2B, Clay, Instantly, Apollo, HubSpot, Webflow, LinkedIn Sales Navigator, Notion, Airtable or similar GTM systems
You will be a strong fit if you
- Write clearly, commercially and with good taste
- Can draft founder content, website copy, outbound messages and campaign copy
- Understand how to build a narrative, not just produce generic marketing copy
- Move quickly without needing constant direction
- Enjoy turning vague ideas into live GTM experiments
- Are excited by startups, AI and B2B software
- Care about both creative messaging and measurable commercial outcomes
- Are comfortable working close to founders, customers and commercial teams
- Have the energy to build from scratch rather than maintain an existing machine
- Can handle ambiguity, speed and changing priorities
Nice to have
- Early-stage startup experience
- Founder, founder’s associate, GTM, growth, marketing or early commercial experience
- Strong academic background from an Ivy League or top-tier school
- Experience writing content or campaigns that generated real engagement
- Hands-on exposure to paid acquisition platforms
- Outbound, lifecycle, referral, marketplace or demand generation experience
- Experience with Attio, RB2B or other modern marketplace or GTM tools
- Exposure to marketplace, platform, SaaS, community or network-driven businesses
- Experience in a relationship-heavy or operationally complex industry
- Evidence that you have built something scrappy and made it work
Why this role matters
The company has already proven early demand. The next challenge is building a GTM function that is sharper, more repeatable and more scalable. You will be joining at the stage where your work can have an outsized impact.
You will work closely with the CEO, get real exposure to company-building, and learn how narrative, outbound, acquisition, campaigns, product launches and commercial strategy come together inside a fast-moving startup. This role will suit someone who wants responsibility early, is willing to work hard, and is excited by the idea of helping build something from the ground up.
Location
San Francisco, in person.
Compensation
US$100,000 to US$150,000 base salary plus equity, depending on experience.
Benefits
- Healthcare support
- Regular team events and offsites
- Meals and office perks
- Wellness support
- Flexible PTO
