Unusual

Market to AI agents

Founding GTM Lead

$80K - $170K0.05% - 0.25%San Francisco, CA, US
Job type
Full-time
Role
Sales
Experience
Any (new grads ok)
Visa
US citizen/visa only
Connect directly with founders of the best YC-funded startups.
Apply to role ›
Keller Maloney
Keller Maloney
Founder

About the role

Founding GTM Lead

What we do

We help brands position themselves to appeal to their growing AI audience.

More and more buying starts with AI. Buyers ask AI assistants what to buy, and increasingly those assistants research, compare, and even purchase on a person's behalf. That makes the way AI describes a company to a buyer almost as important as the company's own website. Most brands have no idea what AI says about them, and no way to change it. We give them both: we measure what AI models actually believe about a brand, and we help reshape those beliefs through the proof points the company puts into the world.

Why this role exists now

We've grown fast with essentially one person running marketing and sales part-time. That's already proven that companies—from Fortune 100 to “Big Five” marketing agencies”—want this and that they will pay real money for it. The outbound we run today gets reply rates in the double digits (a recent campaign ran around 13%) because every company is thinking and worrying about this and many have carte blanche buying mandates.

Now we need someone to take the demand we've created and the motion that already works, land and expand it, systematize it so it scales, and then experiment in new directions to find the next channels and segments.

What you'll own

Outbound pipeline creation, from where we are today to scale. Three jobs:

  • Land and expand. Convert the demand we're already generating, and grow the accounts you win.
  • Systematize. Turn the outbound that works today into a repeatable engine.
  • Experiment. Open new channels, messaging, and segments, and instrument it so it’s measurable.

The work is as much building as selling. You'll design the systems, workflows, and automations that make pipeline compound, with Claude Code (or another agent) as your force multiplier so one person can produce what used to take a team.

Who you are

  • You've carried a number and beaten it, and you also want to build the machine behind it.
  • You think in systems and workflows. You're fine doing the manual, repetitive work when it's needed, and you're always looking for the system that makes it unnecessary next time.
  • You're AI-native or moving there fast. You already use Claude Code, or you're excited to.
  • You create structure where none exists, and you don't need to be managed closely to perform.

Bonus points for automated outbound flows you've built with AI tools, experience selling complex technology to non-technical buyers, an engineering background, or a competitive sport.

Compensation

Base of $80–100k (early career, former SDR / junior AE / growth IC) or $100–130k (mid-career, you've built an impressive outbound system before), plus uncapped commission and meaningful founding equity.

Who we are

We're backed by Y Combinator and the first investors in SpaceX, Uber, Stripe, Clay, and Notion.

Our values:

  • Character comes first. We only work with people we deeply trust and respect. It makes the work more fun, more freeing, and more effective.
  • Stay in touch with customer pain. Everyone at Unusual works in the customer service department.
  • Whatever it takes. When we know what we must do, we don't take shortcuts or shy away from huge, ugly challenges. We work hard, and now and then we sprint.

Will Jack (cofounder and CEO) has worked in AI research since 2014 and is the technical force behind our approach. He previously founded Khosla- and Greylock-backed Remedy Health, and worked at SpaceX after studying at MIT.

Keller Maloney (cofounder) was head of growth at 8VC-backed Gatsby and has built AI applications since 2019.

Sarah Xu (Head of GTM) is a repeat GTM builder with deep empathy for heads of growth and agencies. She drove 10X growth at Circle Medical (YC W17), built Ambience Healthcare's GTM from pre-revenue (which went on to raise $350M from Oak HC/FT, Kleiner Perkins, OpenAI, and a16z), and designed growth engines at Google.

About Unusual

AI agents are the newest audience brands need to speak to, but go-to-market teams don't have the tools to understand how they form opinions or make decisions.

Unusual helps brands in the Fortune 100 and scale-ups like Change.org and Astronomer drive more sales and win more market share by shifting how AI models perceive their offerings.

We work closely with every brand to (1) identify the root cause of AI misperception, (2) align on marketing, sales, and product strategies that appeal to agents, and (3) build infrastructure and content that makes their strongest proof more legible to agents.

Our methodology centers on applying black-box interpretability techniques to AI agents like ChatGPT and Claude to understand how they form opinions about a brand and its competitors. Seeing the why behind each opinion gives us the ability to create targeted interventions that change them.

Our team is ex- MIT, Princeton, and SpaceX

Why work at Unusual?

  • You have a chance to help define an entire new technical field and market. We're essentially doing applied psychology on LLMs, and we think that's pretty cool, and extremely valuable.
  • We're riding a huge tailwind. While many AI companies may be threatened by a bubble, we think the usage of tools like ChatGPT and Claude Code is only going to increase. The need for our product is only going to get greater.
  • We aim to be the premium solution in the space -- we pull no punches when it comes to providing a better service, which means you won't be constrained from doing your best work. Culture and Values
  • Character comes first. We only work with people we deeply trust and respect. We think this makes work more fun, freeing, and effective.
  • We try to remain down to earth and in touch with customer's real pains. Everyone at Unusual works in the customer service department.
  • We do whatever it takes. When we know what we must do, we don't take shortcuts or shy away from huge ugly challenges. That means we usually work pretty hard, and occasionally have to do some big sprints.
Unusual
Founded:2024
Batch:F24
Team Size:4
Status:
Active
Location:San Francisco
Founders
Will Jack
Will Jack
Founder
Keller Maloney
Keller Maloney
Founder