AINAD is looking for a Chief Revenue Officer-in-Residence to design, test and scale the revenue engines of our AI-native, tech-enabled ventures, while shaping the commercial playbook for the studio as a whole.
About AINAD
AINAD is a UK-based venture studio that builds and scales AI and SaaS companies across sectors like health, education, fintech and productivity. We act as a hands-on co‑founder to our ventures, providing product, engineering, growth, capital and operating support so they can move from concept to scale faster and with more structure.
The Role
As CRO-in-Residence, you are the senior commercial leader across the studio. You will:
- Act as fractional/embedded CRO for selected early-stage ventures, designing their GTM and revenue engines from 0 → 1 and 1 → early scale.
- Define and refine the “AINAD way” of building revenue, shared frameworks, metrics and playbooks that can be used across the portfolio.
This is not a traditional single-company CRO role. It’s a strategist–operator position for someone who loves building commercial systems from first principles, working closely with founders across multiple startups.
What You’ll Do
- Define target segments, ICPs and initial wedges into the market for selected ventures.
- Design founder-led sales motions (who to sell to, how, with what narrative and proof) and evolve them toward repeatable playbooks.
- Build sales processes and revenue ops foundations: pipeline stages, qualification criteria, CRM setup, reporting and forecasting.
- Shape pricing, packaging and commercial models (subscriptions, usage-based, seat-based, pilots/POCs) appropriate to buyer and product.
- Run or oversee early revenue activities: discovery calls, demos, pilots, deal structuring and post-mortems.
- Work with marketing leadership and founders to align ICPs, messaging, lead definitions and handoffs between marketing and sales.
- Support hiring and onboarding of the first commercial hires (AEs, AMs, SDRs, RevOps) when ventures are ready.
- Coach founders to become confident commercial leaders – pipeline reviews, target setting, deal reviews and performance management.
- Define and track core commercial metrics (pipeline coverage, win rates, cycle times, CAC/payback, ARR/NRR) and use them to inform decisions.
- Contribute to investor narratives and fundraising materials by articulating GTM strategy, traction and scale plans.
What We’re Looking For
- Senior commercial experience in roles such as CRO, VP Sales, VP Revenue, Head of Commercial or similar in B2B SaaS and/or AI-led products.
- Proven track record of taking revenue from 0 → 1 and 1 → early scale, including building founder-led sales and then professionalising the function.
- Strong understanding of B2B GTM models (enterprise, mid-market, PLG/hybrid, partner/channel) and when to use which.
- Deep familiarity with sales process design, CRM usage, forecasting, compensation design and revenue reporting.
- Commercially sharp and data-literate – comfortable with ARR, NRR, CAC, LTV, payback and pipeline metrics.
- Excellent communication and storytelling skills with customers, founders and investors.
- Comfortable working across multiple ventures, context-switching while maintaining strategic depth.
- High ownership, low ego, and a genuine enjoyment of early-stage ambiguity and hands-on building.
What We Offer
- A “CRO with leverage” role: apply your commercial expertise across multiple AI and SaaS ventures rather than a single company.
- Significant autonomy to define how revenue is designed and scaled at both studio and portfolio level.
- Close collaboration with founders, product leaders, marketers and investors on ambitious, early-stage ideas.
- Flexible structure (full-time or high-commitment fractional, to be agreed) with competitive compensation and meaningful upside aligned to impact.
- The opportunity to shape the commercial DNA of a venture studio and help multiple startups avoid common GTM and revenue pitfalls.
Location
Hybrid / flexible, with a preference for candidates who can spend meaningful time in the UK (especially London) and occasionally join in-person sessions with founders and the studio team.
If you’re a senior commercial leader who enjoys building revenue engines from scratch and wants to do that across several AI-native ventures, we’d love to hear from you. Please apply with your CV/LinkedIn and a short note on why this CRO-in-Residence role at AINAD appeals to you.
