My Experience as a Toast AE - Territory Account Executive Toast Inc Employee Review

1.0
Oct 7, 2022
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The Product is awesome, the best POS in hospitality. The things it enables small businesses to do are great. If you are lucky to be given a good territory, the money is good.

Cons

The quota does not align for the market in your territory and territories are not equal. Don’t expect any free time for the first 6 months or vacation. My story: When I started at Toast I was extremely excited about the company and the opportunity to represent them. My number one goal was to make the people that hired me look incredible. I was hired despite having no AE experience, no B2B sales experience, and no SAAS experience. My restaurant experience, my hospitality background, and passion for the industry are what landed me the job. I was hired by a team lead that was in the process of trying to switch to manager, and declined a great offer to take the position at Toast. I was told that the team was incredible, and that I would be positioned in a large territory in the outskirts of a growing part of town. The team-lead/manager that hired me told me they would be there every step of the way and that they would be involved in my training and demos to help me get acclimated to the new role. Well none of that happened. Shortly before training began, they asked if I was interested in working another area instead, saying it was closer to me and really trying to sell this territory, even shared an outdated picture to sell me on the idea. It was half the size of the picture I was given, it was the the smallest territory in the city, it was 1/3 a park, and low income areas. I mentioned the struggles I was experiencing to my Manager since they said I could come to them for advice, they told me I could go back to my first territory I was originally assigned. Well that never happened. They were out when I was completing training, then went on a retreat after that, during which time they didn’t respond to messages or phone calls. So I was on my own. When they came back they said they would attend my first demo. A couple of days prior to my demo they told me to bring a new hire along and I agreed though I wasn’t comfortable with the idea seeing how I was a new hire myself (1 week removed from training). Then the night before my manager backed out, but requested I bring the new hire. In fact my manager didn’t show up to anything. The team finally met in person 3 weeks after training started. At the meeting I tried to discuss the switch discussed prior regarding the territory. They got angry and overly emotional then to cap things off made a promise that I would not be fired if I struggled to hit quota. That night my manager got incredibly intoxicated. 8 days later I was fired for not hitting goals (I suspect, I was never told nor did I get the coaching I was promised.). This was 1 month out of training, I was told in training that we didn’t need to have a close in the first 3 months, The only metrics we had were demos. I hit my demo goals, with no help or guidance. There is also a pilot program called “RainMaker” designed to weed out newly hired AEs. It was pitched to help us network. It would be a program that all newly hired AEs would go through. If we didn’t meet with multiple different reps of other companies each week, it would effect a GPA that was measured over 3 periods of 3 months. The requirements of each period went up as you progressed, if you fell short of the required gpa you would have to repeat the period, and if missed it twice you’d be fired. Your overall meetings and closes had little to no effect on the GPA.

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Toast Inc Response
3y
Thank you for sharing this detailed feedback. This was a disappointing review to read, and I'm sorry to hear that this was your Toast experience. There is a lot to unpack here - I'd welcome the opportunity to discuss your feedback further so I can better understand what happened and take steps to address it. Please feel free to reach out to me directly and we can find a time to connect. - Joe Starzec, VP of Sales

Explore other reviews about Toast Inc

5.0
May 28, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Flexible hybrid work, great culture working for the company, benefits and pay is pretty good as well

Cons

Can feel hard to move within the company as opportunities don't open up often for specialist to move upwards

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Toast Inc Response
1w
We appreciate you sharing a candid review with us. We’re delighted that the culture and benefits are resonating with you. We'd recommend reaching out to your People Success Partner to discuss your feedback further.
4.0
Jun 8, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

-Strong pay (if you hit your numbers) -Ambitious goals that challenge you -Competitive landscape that will force you to get better beyond exclusively selling -Founders still very involved and very visible to the company and employees -Team cultures are always strong -For sales, you always get in touch with prospects, which is an underrated pro -When leadership promotes internal mobility and career development they mean it and support it

Cons

-Numerous Sales teams that share the same markets/TAMs. Customers and prospects get exhausted of outreach - Since going public, the goal posts keep moving forward even if 60% of the org hit goal. -A number of core leaders have left, new ones still learning the ropes which was hindering the orgs and teams

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