Founder-First BDR Readiness & Rescue

Your first BDR is an $80k bet. Most founders lose it.

I help early-stage B2B SaaS and AI founders hire, ramp, and de-risk their first sales hire. I build the system your BDR walks into, with AI-enabled outbound baked in from day one, so the bet pays off instead of blowing up at month three.

150%
of quota in Q1 as a founding BDR
0→1
outbound playbooks built from scratch
Month 2
where most first BDR hires start breaking
The Problem

Hiring the rep is the easy part. The system is what fails.

Most founders hire a junior rep, hand them a login and a slide deck, and hope. Three months later the pipeline is empty, the rep is demoralized, and the founder is back to doing outbound at midnight.

The rep was never the problem. The missing system was: no real ICP, no tested sequences, no comp plan tied to the right behavior, no ramp milestones, and no one coaching week to week.

A first BDR doesn't fail because they're junior. They fail because they walked into nothing.

01

The ICP lives in the founder's head

The rep burns weeks prospecting accounts that were never going to buy, because nobody wrote down who actually does.

02

Tools without a playbook

An Apollo seat and an AI writing assistant are not a sales motion. Without sequencing, messaging, and qualification rules, they just generate noise faster.

03

No ramp plan, no coaching

Founders manage the rep like a senior hire. By the time the dashboard shows the problem, you're at month four and out $25k+.

04

Fire and restart

The default fix is replacing the person and repeating the cycle. The second hire inherits the same empty system.

Engagements

Productized, fixed-scope, built around the moment you're in.

Every engagement is impact-based with a defined deliverable and timeline. No hourly billing, no open-ended retainers you can't explain to your board. Pricing is shared on our first call once I understand your stage and scope.

ENGAGEMENT I

BDR Readiness Audit

Before you hire

A two-week diagnostic of whether you're actually ready for a first sales hire, and exactly what to fix if you're not.

  • Hiring rubric and candidate profile
  • Written ICP definition
  • Comp structure recommendation
  • Audit of any existing outbound
Most Popular
ENGAGEMENT II

First BDR Launch

Hire + system + ramp

The full system your first BDR walks into on day one, with options that run from playbook-only through hiring support and 60 days of hands-on optimization.

  • Outbound playbook and tested sequences
  • AI-enabled tooling, configured and documented
  • Comp model and ramp milestones
  • Hiring panel and candidate evaluation
  • Weekly coaching through ramp
ENGAGEMENT III

BDR Rescue

When it's already breaking

Your first BDR is six weeks in and the pipeline isn't moving. I diagnose whether it's the person or the system before you make an expensive call.

  • Full diagnostic of rep, message, and motion
  • Rebuilt sequences and targeting
  • Clear fix-or-restart recommendation
  • 30-day turnaround plan

Ongoing advisory, after the launch

Once the system is live, most clients keep me in the loop as a fractional sales brain. Three levels, from async-only access to an embedded partner who personally sources qualified meetings every month.

On-Call

Async access for quick questions, message reviews, and monthly check-ins. A safety net, not a seat.

Fractional

Weekly working sessions, direct Slack access, and continuous playbook iteration as your motion matures.

Embedded

A fractional Head of Sales Development: weekly strategy, hiring panels, network intros, and qualified meetings sourced for you every month.

How It Works

Four steps from "we should hire a BDR" to a rep who's actually ramping.

Diagnose

A 30-minute call plus a short audit of your current motion. You leave with a clear read on readiness, whether or not we work together.

Design

ICP, messaging, sequences, comp plan, ramp milestones, and an AI-enabled tool stack sized for your stage and budget.

Launch

I run the system live, help you hire if you haven't, and put your rep into a motion that's already producing signal.

Ramp

Weekly coaching against defined milestones. We measure what's working, kill what isn't, and hand you a machine that runs without me.

Results

The track record behind the system.

Client names are kept confidential. Happy to walk through specifics on a call.

We were three weeks from letting our first BDR go. Jimmy diagnosed the real problem in one session: the rep was fine, the targeting wasn't. Pipeline doubled within six weeks of the rebuild.

Founder & CEOSeed-stage B2B SaaS, 12 employees
150%

As the founding BDR at a Series A B2B SaaS company, I walked into no playbook, no sequences, no ICP doc. I built all of it from scratch and hit 150% of quota in my first quarter. That exact system is what I install.

Jimmy Jean-BaptisteFounding BDR, Series A B2B SaaS
0→1

ICP definition, messaging, sequences, comp design, ramp milestones, and daily rep workflow, built and run live on real pipeline. Not theory from a slide deck. Every play I install is one I have personally run and hit quota with.

The playbookBuilt from the front line, not the boardroom
About

I've been the first BDR. That's the whole point.

I'm Jimmy Jean-Baptiste, founder and principal of Jean-Baptiste Sales Advisory, based in Jersey City, NJ.

As the founding BDR at a venture-backed B2B SaaS company, I walked into exactly the situation your first hire will: no playbook, no sequences, no ICP doc, no ramp plan. I built all of it from scratch and hit 150% of quota in my first quarter doing it.

That experience is the entire premise of this practice. I know what breaks at month two because I lived it, fixed it, and turned it into a repeatable system. Now I build that system for founders before the hire, or rescue it after, with modern AI-enabled tooling doing the heavy lifting it should.

I work with a small number of clients at a time. You get me, not a junior associate.

150%
of Q1 quota as a founding BDR
1st
sales hire experience, lived firsthand
NJ/NYC
based, working with US founders remotely
Questions

The things founders ask first.

Who is this for?

Seed-to-Series-A B2B SaaS and AI founders, and anyone hiring their first BDR or standing up their first SDR team. If you have a VP of Sales and a full SDR team, you're past the moment I'm built for.

How is pricing structured?

Fixed-scope, impact-based engagements with defined deliverables and timelines. Never hourly. I share exact pricing on our first call once I understand your stage and what you actually need, so you're not paying for scope you don't.

Where does AI fit in?

Everywhere it earns its keep. I configure AI-assisted research, personalization, and sequencing into the outbound motion from day one, sized to an early-stage budget. The goal is a one-rep team that produces like three, not a tool stack that produces noise.

What if I haven't hired anyone yet?

Even better. The Readiness Audit and First BDR Launch are designed to run before the hire, so your rep walks into a working system on day one instead of building one while learning the job.

Do you guarantee results?

Where engagements include sourced meetings, every qualified meeting is defined in writing before we start: ICP-fit title, live call held, real engagement. No-shows and misfit meetings get replaced. You'll never argue with me about what "qualified" means.

How do we start?

Book a 30-minute call. You'll leave with an honest read on your BDR readiness either way. If there's a fit, I'll send a one-page scope within 48 hours.

Next Step

Make the $80k bet with the odds on your side.

Book a 30-minute call. We'll pressure-test your BDR plan, and you'll leave with something useful whether or not we work together.

Book Your Call

Prefer email? jimmy@jeanbaptistesalesadvisory.com