Title

Chief revenue officer at Launch Darkly and former revenue leader with Forter, Heptio (acquired by VMWare), and Cloudera.

Founders Should Call Me When

They’re debating sales hiring profiles, pressure testing pitch decks/positioning, contemplating appropriate processes as they scale, customer segmentation models, and compensation models.

Background

I’ve led VC-backed sales organizations with diverse starting points over the past 15+ years — ranging from sub $1M to $200M+ ARR. Joining at various funding stages has granted me broad exposure to a wide range of GTM activities — from initial pitch deck creation to implementing rigorous process and enablement strategies as part of pre-IPO ramp up. With sales leadership roles at Cloudera, Heptio, Forter, and now Launch Darkly, I’ve been fortunate to witness explosive growth across data, infrastructure, and now AI/ML domains.

Superpower

Product/competitive positioning, inspiring, and scaling (high-velocity recruiting & process improvement).

Lessons Learned

In the beginning, it’s about customer acquisition (even if it means for free or at low prices) and establishing an effective feedback loop between them and your product organization. Once you’ve demonstrated value and effectively published it, you’re better positioned to replicate that success with credibility. Pay close attention to why you win and lose so you can canonize the learnings across the organization and drive continuous improvement. Lastly, while “Field of Dreams” was a great movie, you can rarely expect that “if you build it, they will come.” It’s critical to devise a balanced inbound/outbound demand generation strategy that you can, ideally, augment with PLG to lessen the inertia of trying your product and self-subscribing.