Location Remote (US) — ~20% travel for retailer meetings, trade shows, and demos

Reports to Founder & CEO

Compensation Base salary + performance bonus + equity + health insurance

About The Cycle

Mainstream beverage has spent decades ignoring half the population. Not half a niche — half of everyone.

The Cycle is the first functional beverage brand built around women's hormonal cycles: four phase-specific RTD SKUs (Pre-Period, Period, Peri, Meno) on a sea buckthorn Omega-7 base. We were named Beverage Forum 2026 Most Innovative Beverage Brand. We're scaling fast across natural retail — and we're just getting started.

We're not treating women's cycles as a niche. We're treating them as the next functional beverage frontier. Because that's exactly what they are.

The Role

The founder has run sales to date. Your job is to take it over and grow it.

You'll work directly with our broker partners and distributors, pitch buyers, run retailer reviews, manage trade spend, and close accounts across natural and conventional channels. This isn't a management role yet — you'll still be making the calls, building the decks, running the meetings, and closing the business, with the experience and judgment to do it well.

We're early-stage. There's no big team behind you, no established playbook, and no corporate infrastructure to fall back on. If that slows you down, this isn't the right role. If that's exactly what you've been looking for — keep reading.

What You'll Do

• Own the retailer pipeline end-to-end: prospect, pitch, close, and manage accounts across natural chains and select conventional retailers.

• Manage broker and distributor relationships. Set targets, run cadence, hold them accountable as extensions of our team.

• Lead retailer review cycles — prep, pitch, follow-up, close. Own velocity analysis and retailer reporting. Translate weekly syndicated data into action.

• Set and enforce placement policy, free-fill rules, and trade spend guardrails.

• Build the sales infrastructure: pitch decks, one-pagers, deal sheets, broker briefs, review materials.

• Coordinate on the demo program, sampling, and field activation. Represent The Cycle at trade shows.

What We're Looking For

5+ years in CPG sales and account management. Beverage experience is a plus — not a requirement.

• You've taken a brand through a retailer review and grown an account year over year. We don't need someone who's specifically done Target or Sprouts — we need someone who's done the work and can do it again.

• Fluent in retail data: velocity, $/store/week, ACV, sell-through, forecasting. You can look at a syndicated report and tell us exactly where to push and where to cut.

• Sharp instincts on pricing, trade spend, free fills, and promo planning at premium price points.

• Excellent written communication. You'll be drafting buyer emails and broker briefs constantly.

• Self-directed. "Give me a deck and I'll go find the business" is the energy. You don't wait for a playbook — you build one.

• Bought in on the brand. You actually care about women's health as a category. This isn't another functional beverage gig.

This Role Is a Fit If...

• Your background is natural and specialty retail — Sprouts, Whole Foods, co-ops, independents. You know how those buyers think, what they need in a review, and how to build velocity in that channel before expanding anywhere else.

• You've worked with natural distributors like KeHE or UNFI and understand how to manage DC footprint, chargebacks, and the mechanics of scaling distribution responsibly.

• You've sold a functional, better-for-you, or mission-driven brand — something where the story and the science both have to land with the buyer, not just the price point.

• You're energized by being the first dedicated sales hire. You want to build the function, own the wins, and have equity in what you're creating.

• You genuinely care about women's health. Not as a talking point — as a reason to do this particular job at this particular brand.

This Role Isn't a Fit If...

• Your experience is primarily in alcohol, wine, or spirits. The channel relationships, buyer expectations, and distributor dynamics don't translate here — and we'd be setting you up to relearn from scratch.

• Your background is foodservice or hospitality sales. On-premise relationship management is a completely different muscle from retail shelf placement and syndicated data fluency.

• You've spent most of your career in supplements, vitamins, or pharmacy channels. Different shelf, different buyer, different sell cycle — the category instincts don't map to natural beverage retail.

• You need infrastructure to operate. If you're used to handing off to a trade marketing team, a dedicated analyst, or a large sales org — that team doesn't exist here yet. You're building it.

• You're looking for a brand that's already figured it out. We have strong early proof points and real momentum, but this is still a zero-to-one role in a category that's never existed before.

What Success Looks Like in Your First 90 Days

1,000 new doors. That's the number. Everything else — the relationships, the infrastructure, the cadence — should be built in service of that goal.

Here's what you're inheriting from day one:

• Sprouts Portfolio — ~494 stores via KeHE

• KeHE Distribution — 8 active DCs; scaling to 100 accounts before expanding the DC footprint

• LA Libations broker partnership — newly awarded; yours to run from day one

• 60+ independent retailers, Thrive Market, and immediate June launches (Down to Earth, New Leaf)

How We Hire

We keep the process tight and respect your time.

• Recruiter screen (45 min) — your background, what you've sold, what draws you to this role

• Founder conversation (45 min) — brand fit, strategic instincts, building a sales function from here

• Sales craft interview (45 min) — retail data fluency, broker management, complex account situations

• Case study — a short brief; you'll build a 90-day account plan for a priority retail target and present it live

• Reference calls — three references, at least one from a broker or distributor

• Final conversation + offer

We move fast when we find the right person.

How We Work

We're a team of parents building a brand for women, and we mean it when we say family comes first. School pickups, nap schedules, calls from the carpool line — that's the reality of life, and we're not pretending otherwise. Kids on calls are welcome. We trust you to get your work done, and you will never have to choose between being present at work and being present for your family.

"I'm building the environment I wish I'd had. I've spent too many years scheduling my life around someone else's corporate mold of what 'professional' means. We're throwing that mold out." — Anastasia Sartan, Founder & CEO