Account Executive, Partnerships
Description
Account Executive, Partnerships
Harper is an AI-native commercial insurance company in San Francisco. We're not bolting AI onto insurance — we're rebuilding the entire business as software, on a simple bet: turning expert human judgment into compute is one of the largest transitions left to make, and a trillion-dollar industry still run 90% by hand is the place to prove it. We've grown ~100x in the last year and we move at that speed — on-site, in person, long days, very high standards. Almost no one joins Harper for insurance; they join to build the company that replaces how it works.
Role in one line: Turn partner and referral demand into closed insurance business while giving every partner a clear view of what happened to their customers.
A partner sends Harper a business owner because they trust Harper to handle the need well. You own the commercial path from that introduction through decision, and you protect the relationship by keeping the partner informed without compromising the customer.
Harper's systems organize referral context and keep the history intact. You turn that context into a real customer conversation, own the close, and show the partnership team what happened after the introduction.
Why now
Harper is building partner-sourced demand alongside direct new business. Partnership leads have a different origin, expectation, and feedback obligation from paid inbound demand. They need a dedicated sales motion, not a generic queue.
The Head of Partnerships owns which relationships Harper builds and how the portfolio grows. The Account Executive, Partnerships owns converting referred opportunities and returning useful account-level outcomes to that function.
What you own
Respond to referred customers quickly. Make the handoff feel continuous rather than forcing the customer to start over.
Understand the partner promise. Know what the partner told the customer and what Harper is expected to deliver.
Run the commercial process. Carry qualified opportunities through intake, quote, recommendation, objection handling, and close.
Protect customer consent and trust. Share only the status and information appropriate to the partner relationship.
Keep the partner informed. Return clear outcome, timing, blocker, and next-step information through the approved channel.
Find the repeatable play. Learn which partner segments, introductions, customer types, and handoffs produce durable value.
Work across functions. Coordinate with intake, placement, markets, service, and the partnership owner without losing one accountable sales owner.
Feed portfolio decisions. Give the Head of Partnerships real conversion, quality, and service evidence.
The partnership outcomes you own
Referred customers receive a timely first touch and a clear commercial path without having to repeat their story.
Partners receive accurate updates that respect customer permission and match the real account state.
Wins and losses produce useful feedback about the customer, handoff, timing, and market fit.
The partnership team can see which relationships create durable revenue and which only create volume.
Partner-sourced conversion, booked revenue, response time, and partner retention improve without weakening customer trust.
Who thrives here
You have closed referral, channel, partnership, franchise, marketplace, or relationship-sourced business.
You can serve two relationships at once without confusing whose interest you represent.
You communicate clearly with business owners and professional partners.
You are comfortable with high-volume phone work and visible conversion measurement.
You can earn and maintain the required commercial insurance licenses.
You are based in Atlanta or San Francisco, or ready to relocate.
Who should not apply
You want to manage partnerships without carrying customer opportunities to a close.
You treat referred customers like anonymous inbound leads.
You over-share customer information to satisfy a partner.
You avoid follow-up, direct asks, or difficult outcome conversations.
You need a remote or hybrid default.
Compensation & logistics
Salary: $150,000–$200,000 OTE. Top performers earn more.
Equity: Yes.
Location: San Francisco or New York, on-site.
Schedule: Monday–Friday, very early morning start, in-office 5 days a week.
Licensing: Commercial insurance producer license required within ~30 days of start; Harper pays for training and licensing.
Benefits
Harper offers health, dental, and vision insurance. Office-specific benefits will be set by working location.
How to apply
Send your resume and a short partnership-sales example. Explain how the opportunity reached you, how you managed the customer and partner expectations, and the commercial result.
Skills
As published by ashby · 7 questions · 4 written answers
Basics
Name, Email, Resume
Short answers (1)
- LinkedIn URL
Pick from a list (2)
- Harper is on-site, full-time, in our San Francisco office, and the sales floor runs long, high-intensity days (our AEs are on roughly a 5am–7pm schedule, Mon–Fri). You'll also need to obtain an insurance producer license within ~30 days of starting (we pay for the training and exam). Can you do all of this? (Yes / No)
- Are you legally authorized to work in the United States optional
Written answers (4)
- Why Harper? What attracted you to this role?
- Almost nobody comes to Harper for insurance — what pulls people here is the mission and the AI-native rebuild of a broken, human-led industry, done at startup intensity. In 2–3 sentences: what specifically about Harper's bet (not "AI" or "startups" in general) makes you want to carry a revenue number here, and why phone-first, in-the-trenches selling over a strategy, partnerships, or back-office seat?
- Tell us about the best stretch of selling you personally did — your highest-volume or highest-conversion period. Give the real numbers (dials or live conversations per day, your quota attainment or close rate, where you ranked on the team) and name the single hardest part you had to push through. (2–3 sentences. Tell us what you did, not what your team did.)
- This is 100+ calls a day to small-business owners — transactional, short-cycle, high-velocity, not enterprise cycles, decks, or partnerships — and the "build the system / write the playbook" part happens on top of a full close sheet, not instead of it. What's your honest reaction to that day, and what was your most recent quota attainment (the actual %) at that kind of volume?
Y Combinator 

