Company: Passion Labs

:receipt: LOGISTICS

Fee and Agreement: Contingent — 18% on base only. 1 month exclusive. Payable 30 days from start date. Replacement period: 90 days.

Role: GTM Lead (Founding Commercial Hire, Australia)

Compensation: AUD $130,000–160,000 base + Super + Uncapped Commission + Equity Opportunity (Tom initially floated $130k; James pushed for $140–160k given the seniority required — Tom agreed he can flex up for the right person)

Location: Sydney, Australia (Hybrid)

:factory: ABOUT THE COMPANY

Founder/Business story: Founded by Tom Lorimer (CEO), who previously ran a machine learning lab for a VC (research-scientist-led, consultancy-style model). Launched Passion Labs in Sept 2024, largely bootstrapped, no VC funding yet (may raise institutional capital end of 2026/early 2027). ~15 people currently, based in West London with bases in Spain and Greece. Clients include the BBC and the FT (AI partner to both).

Industry: AI research & development lab — not a generic AI agency/consultancy

Product: Design and deploy custom multi-agent AI/ML systems for mid-market/enterprise clients (typically 100–1,000 employees, £30–500M turnover). Productizing core IP into "PassionOS," an orchestration framework for multi-agent deployments. Also has a fine-tuned open-weight model ("PassionLM") for highly sensitive/air-gapped data cases.

Skilled-services model: ~4–5 week discovery/design phase → 8–12 week build → ongoing monthly/annual license or deployment retainer. Typical initial engagement ~AUD $200k. Exploring an MSP channel/partner model (gold/silver/bronze tiers).

Size and functions of local team:



No local delivery team yet — this is the first Australian commercial hire. James Bagley (Passion Labs co-founder for the AU entity, senior director at TAL, based in Rose Bay, Sydney) will be part-time executive director of the territory initially (still has his full-time job) and will jointly manage this hire alongside Tom. Delivery/engineering capability currently sits in Europe (forward-deployed engineer on the ground in AU is an aspiration, not yet in place).

:dart: ABOUT THE ROLE

Role description: Founding GTM Lead building the AU pipeline from scratch — end-to-end consultative selling (chemistry call → scoping session → proposal → 4–5 week paid discovery). Deal sizes are large and variable (UK comparables: ~£100k in 3 weeks up to ~£400k over 9–12 months); nothing delivered under roughly £50–60k. Leads currently come mostly from LinkedIn outbound/inbound (~10–12 leads/week, 40–50% reply rate) plus events and partnerships.

Selling into mid-market/enterprise, increasingly focused on consultancies and service firms (not hospitality-type orgs) — the "buy vs. build" pitch matters more to firms competing on differentiation. Tom and co-founder Nadine (Chief Scientific Officer) will help close; research scientists support technical scoping. Not a technical role,



but candidate needs credibility discussing the AI landscape.

Employee Value Proposition: Founding commercial hire in Australia for a UK AI lab with blue-chip case studies (BBC, FT); direct access to founders; genuinely cutting-edge project exposure; scope to build/lead the AU commercial function as it scales; uncapped commission, super, and future equity.

:bust_in_silhouette: ABOUT THE CANDIDATE

Must haves

4–8 years' B2B technology sales or business development experience

Experience selling complex technology, consulting, or digital transformation projects (consultative/"challenger" style seller — not a demo-driven product seller)

Confident engaging C-suite and senior decision-makers

Entrepreneurial, autonomous, comfortable operating without an established local team or playbook to inherit

Nice to have

Experience selling AI or AI/tech services specifically (vs. just tech product/SaaS)

Background in MSP/managed-services selling or exposure to the services/consulting sector

Prior startup environment experience

Red flags

Company is bootstrapped/self-funded — budget conscious on salary, so candidates purely chasing top-of-market base may not be a fit

No dedicated AU delivery/engineering resource yet; local leadership (James Bagley) is part-time initially — candidate needs to be comfortable with real ambiguity, not "handholding"

Tom is speaking to two other recruiters and wants to decide on a hiring partner within days — signals a fast, possibly compressed process

Hiring Process

TBD — not explicitly covered in call (Tom's focus was recruiter selection, not the candidate interview stages)

📌 GTM Lead (Sydney)
🏢 Bluebird Recruitment
📍 Sydney