Programs
Introducing First Rung
July 7, 2026 · The Exec Team
Today we are opening First Rung, a free program that will teach 100,000 people how to sell. Some of the best companies in the world already use Exec to train their sales teams to sell better, faster. Starting today, we're opening that same platform up to thousands of people to learn the basics.
First Run is a cohort based program for approved applicants. The application is quick and used to filter for people who are serious about learning.
If you have finished school in the last couple of years, you know how challenging job searches can feel. You fire off application after application and then hear nothing back. Many “entry-level” postings ask for three years of experience you don't have yet. And, increasingly, companies are taking down their entry level roles because LLMs can handle the lower-level work at inhuman speeds.
The bottom rung of the career ladder serves a critically important role. So much of work is learned by doing. Through exposure, apprenticeship, and repetition. By doing the basic things that more senior teammates don't want to do to. In those roles you learn how to do the work and, perhaps more importantly, you learn how to be a professional in the workplace.
But what do you do if the work that used to be done by juniors is automated? If every job demands expertise you don't learn in school? If AI is going to do so much of the entry-level work, what is left that is actually worth learning? Which skill that gets more valuable the better these models get?
These are important questions, and as a society we will find multiple great answers. Our team at Exec has formed our own strong opinion.
We think sales skills are only going to grow in importance. We work with leading enterprises and all them need more sales people. Adaptable sales people, with increasingly nuanced human-oriented skills.
Why sales, of all things
Sales is a dirty word for many people. It conjures images of a sleazy used-car salesman trying to slick-talk you into a warranty you don't need.
And certainly there are jobs in sales where the salesman and the target are pitted against each other in a high-pressure, zero-sum negotiation. But this is not how sales in most contexts works, and it's not the type of sales that defines the future.
Sales in it's ideal form is the art of partnering with a customer to solve their problems. It's about working out what someone needs, even if they can't quite put their own needs into words. It's helping a customer navigate their own internal bureaucracies, build consensus, and help their company make high ROI decisions. There's a hard-won craft in interpreting mixed signals and ambiguity to get a deal done.
Think about what that takes. You have to read the room and assess the psychology of key decision-makers you've never met. You have to earn the trust of someone who picked up the phone assuming you would waste their time. You have to stay curious instead of defensive when a buyer pushes back. A model can write you a lovely follow-up email. But it can't do the hard-human work of relationship building.
That is why we would put our money on sales over almost anything else right now. It is one of the few careers left where you don't need a diploma to make big money, where one good year can change your life, and where the thing between you and success is lots of practice. The trouble has always been getting the practice.
Scaling practice
You learn to sell by selling badly many times. You show up, try your best, review the game tape, figure out what to try next time, and do it again. Day after day, year after year.
But if you're just getting started, how do you get in those reps? Companies increasingly want to hire people who can hit the ground running. If you have no experience you're locked out.
There are other high-stakes careers where this is also true. Fighter pilots, the CIA, fire fighters, athletes. They practice, sometimes for years, in simulated environments before going out into the real world. The trouble with things like sales is that, until recently, getting in simulated reps meant finding somebody to roleplay with you. That's time consuming, somewhat contrived, and you can't get that much practice.
Over the past couple years the situation has changed. AI can now realistically simulate an infinite variety of scenarios. Through AI Roleplays, it's possible to get in as many reps as it takes to master the technique. For the first time ever, we have a scalable way to credibly build deeply human-oriented skills.
And great companies like Ramp, Pendo, ServiceNow, Infosys, and many others already use Exec to train their internal teams. Their reps practice with simulated buyers who argue, stalls, goes quiet, warms up, and throws curve ball objections. And when it is over reps get detailed coaching on what worked and where to improve next time.
Through First Rung, we're opening that platform up to entry-level talent to build a strong foundation in sales skills. With experience that is impossible to get otherwise.
What First Rung scholars get
Everyone we accept gets the platform our customers pay for:
- Unlimited roleplays across the moments that actually decide deals: cold calls, discovery conversations, objection handling, and demos.
- A guided path that takes you from “I have never done this” to closing, in lessons and short video you can fit around a job or classes.
- The First Rung Certified credential at the end, which you can put on your resume and defend in an interview, because you will have earned it.
You move at your own pace. Some people will sprint through in a few focused weeks; others will chip away on nights and weekends around a job they are trying to leave.
How to apply
The application only takes about 10 minutes. The most important part is a short, recorded video where you make your case: why you, why this, and what you will do with it. This is a sales program, so the application is the first rep. If you can sell us on handing you one of these seats, that is most of the proof we need that you can sell.
We review every application. And to be clear, we aren't looking for a spotless resume or elite pedigree. We are looking for someone who plainly wants it. The first cohort is capped at 1,000 people. Admission is rolling, so if you do not make this round your pitch stays on file and you are in the running for the next cohort.
You do not need a degree. You do not need to have sold anything before. You need to be willing to be bad at something on the way to getting good at it. If that is you, apply here.
Open to partnership
Plenty of organizations are on the other side of this problem, and we want to hear from you. If you run a community college, a workforce program, or anything that helps people find their footing, partner with us and we will get the people you serve into First Rung for free. And if you are a company that needs people who can pick up the phone and sell, our graduates will have logged more live practice than most candidates you interview. Either way, write to us at [email protected].
Our vision is to train and certify 100,000 new sellers over the next few years. We build sales training for a living, the tools work, and we were not willing to watch a generation get locked out of work. The first rung of the career ladders look imperiled. But we believe technology enables us to build an incredible on ramp to work, and we are starting with you.
