What's the real difference between an AI SDR and AI BDR?
Simplest lens: SDR works inbound (leads who raised their hand), BDR works outbound (finding new accounts). The tooling, metrics, and mental model are different. SDR success is speed-to-lead, qualification accuracy, and conversion to meeting. BDR success is account selection, reply rate, and sourced pipeline. Most solo founders start with the SDR because inbound is cheaper to work than outbound and the ROI shows faster. Once inbound saturates you add the BDR to open outbound channels. Running both is standard in mature go-to-market.