Head of Sales — SMB Shopify

About the role

X9Elysium has been founder-sold since 2022. 30+ shipped engagements, no outbound team, and a referral pipeline that has carried us this far. You'll be the first leadership hire in this function — designing the SMB sales motion from scratch, hiring the AEs and Sales Manager who report to you, and owning the number alongside the founders. We're not looking for a quota-carrier with a manager title. We want an operator who has built a sales engine for a services or commerce-platform business serving SMB merchants ($500K – $10M GMV) and can do it again here.

What you’ll do

• Own the SMB pipeline target — generation, conversion, average deal size, and forecast accuracy.
• Design the playbook end-to-end: ICP, discovery, scoping, proposal, close. Codify what's in the founders' heads.
• Hire and lead the team: 2–4 Account Executives plus a Sales Manager within 12 months.
• Build the outbound motion — source-list strategy, sequencing, attribution, suppression discipline.
• Set commercial pricing with the founders — retainer floors, project pricing, discount discipline.
• Run the weekly forecast cadence: pipeline review, board-ready commit, quarterly capacity planning.
• Partner with delivery so every signed deal is one we can ship without melting the team.

What you bring

• 6+ years selling services, software, or platforms to SMB ecommerce — Shopify, BigCommerce, Klaviyo, Recharge, or adjacent.
• 2+ years leading sales managers or running a 3+ rep org with a documented pipeline methodology.
• A track record of building $0 → $3M+ ARR or net-new bookings in a services or platform-adjacent business.
• Founder-comfort — sit across from a Plus operator, debate migration ROI, disagree with a CFO without losing the room.
• Excellent written craft: forecasts, account plans, post-mortems, and exec recaps are part of the job, not delegated.

Nice to have

• Prior Shopify Partner ecosystem experience (agency, app, or Shopify enterprise team).
• Operated as a player-coach — happy to take the founder calls when the team needs cover.
• Built or rebuilt a CRM (HubSpot or Pipedrive preferred) and tied it to delivery handoff cleanly.

Why this might not be for you

• You want to inherit a fully built playbook. We have notes, not a system — you're the person who builds it.
• You want a corporate brand to lean on. We're founder-led; the wedge is "no juniors, no handoffs", not pedigree.
• You expect a BDR team handing you SQLs in week one. The first quarter is you, the founders, and a list.
• You want to skip past SMB right away. The wedge stays $500K – $10M GMV until we've earned the right to move up.

What you get

• Founders-direct: report to Darshan and Adhvait, no shadow leadership layer.
• Real upside — base, uncapped variable, and profit-share on the book of business you build.
• First-hire authority: you pick the AEs, you pick the Sales Manager, you pick the stack.
• Remote-first across Canada with quarterly in-person founder + leadership offsites.
• Education + conference budget (Shopify Editions, Pavilion, Sales Hacker, Winning by Design).