Sales manager, AI SaaS travel marketing Application

Sales Manager
Early-traction commercial role · base + commission + equity
Company: TypeHero.ai (by Neural Banana LLC) — Eden Prairie, Minnesota
Reports to: Founder & CEO
Structure: Pre-revenue, in beta. Founding sales seat with a modest base salary, performance commission on closed revenue, and meaningful early equity.
About TypeHero
TypeHero is a Travel Visibility Engine for independent and mid-market travel businesses. We help boutique hotel groups, regional tour operators, and DMCs get found across Google, the OTAs, metasearch, and the new AI answer engines (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Gemini, Copilot) — and we turn that visibility into direct bookings and less dependence on OTA commissions.
The platform runs a closed loop — Scan → Strategize → Create → Publish → Rescan — building demand, content, reviews, and entity authority on the channels a hotel actually owns. Our line to customers: “We don’t hack the OTA algorithm — we feed it.”
The Role
This is the first dedicated sales hire at TypeHero. You will personally close our earliest paying customers, then build the repeatable motion the company scales on. It is hands-on and build-from-zero: there is no inherited pipeline, no existing playbook, and no team beneath you on day one. Over time, as revenue grows, this seat leads and hires the sales team.
It suits an operator who is comfortable carrying a number and building the system that produces it — someone who can sell, structure a pipeline, and codify what works, not only manage people.
Who You'll Be Selling To
Our beachhead is intentionally narrow, which makes the sale learnable and repeatable:
Independent hotel groups and small chains — roughly 3–20 properties
Regional tour operators and DMCs — destination-focused, growth-minded
Not pure single-property boutiques (too small) or enterprise chains (too slow) — the middle tier wins on both speed and economics
What You'll Own
1 · Close the first customers
Run the full cycle end to end: prospect, qualify, demo, negotiate, and close.
Convert warm travel-industry contacts (including introductions from advisors and events such as ITB Berlin and GBTA) into paying accounts.
Hit early revenue milestones that prove the motion is real.
2 · Build the sales system
Turn what works into a repeatable playbook by segment — hotels, tour operators, DMCs.
Keep a disciplined, accurate pipeline in the CRM; report honestly on stage, forecast, and conversion.
Move the company from founder-led selling to a process a team can run.
3 · Partnerships and channels
Open scalable routes to market: host networks, agency and DMC relationships, and travel-tech platforms.
Test channel-partner and reseller angles (e.g. alliances and franchise HQs) alongside direct selling.
4 · Close the loop with product and success
Feed real objections, use cases, and win/loss patterns back to the founder and product so the offering sharpens.
Hand off closed customers cleanly and help ensure they reach measurable ROI — the source of renewals, expansion, and case studies.
What We're Looking For
Background
Has personally sourced and closed new-logo business selling technology or marketing services into travel businesses — hotels, tour operators, or travel advisors — or has closed comparable SMB / vertical-SaaS deals and can learn the space fast. Managing an existing book, renewals, or inbound-only pipeline does not meet this bar — we need evidence of net-new hunting.
Ideal signal: current or recent sales experience at an adjacent hospitality-tech vendor selling into this same buyer — e.g. Cloudbeds, SiteMinder, Duetto, Mews, Revinate, Sertifi, Lighthouse (OTA Insight), Fornova, ThinkReservations, WebRezPro, or Boostly. That background means no vertical ramp-up and an existing feel for OTA commission economics.
Understands marketing as a revenue driver (SEO / content, acquisition funnels, conversion) well enough to sell the value credibly.
Has carried and hit a quota, ideally at an early-stage or zero-to-one company.
Mindset
Thinks like an owner: comfortable with ambiguity and building where nothing exists yet.
Both a closer and a systems-builder — happy to do the reps and to write the playbook.
Motivated by upside and by building something, not by a large guaranteed salary on day one.
Compensation
This is a founding-stage seat, so the package leans toward performance and ownership:
Base: a modest cash salary from day one.
Commission: performance-based on closed revenue — the more you sell, the more you earn.
Equity: meaningful early ownership, so you share in the upside you help create.
Step-up: base and target earnings are reviewed and increased when the company reaches $500K+ ARR or secures outside funding.
Who This Is Not For
Someone who needs a large guaranteed salary immediately.
Someone who wants an existing team, pipeline, and playbook handed to them.
Someone whose closing experience is mostly farming warm, already-interested, or inbound accounts rather than sourcing net-new business.
Someone who prefers a structured corporate environment over building from zero.

Work arrangement
Yes