Catalyze Growth Partners

Founding Head of Business Development

Pilot

Investor

Upgraded

Advisor

Founding Head of Partnerships and Revenue

I head up revenue for Upgraded, a profitability operations consultancy for Canadian SME tech companies. We help unlock hundreds of thousands of dollars in working capital for each client through four pillars:

1. Government Programs/Financing (the average mid-sized company leaves $86k/employee on the table)
2. AI Solutions/Automations (47% of white collar work is automatable)
3. Tech Savings/Rewards (we can help our average company save 20 to 50% on their tech spend)
4. Financing (~50% of founders regret their VC financing)

We are completely performance based. So:
1. If we don't think we can help unlock more than $100k, we don't take on a client. It's not worth our time.
2. We only make money if you do. 
3. Our interests are closely aligned because of this.

Founding Head of Revenue

Planswell

-Promoted to Sales Manager in May 2022
-Promoted to Interim Head of Sales from July to November 2022
-Met daily in leadership team meetings from July to November 2022
-Scaled team from 11 to 32 AEs in Q3 2022
-Led team to an EBITDA-positive monthly revenue record in September 2022
-Granted 5x my existing stock options for high performance in September 2022
-Oversaw 64% growth in revenues in under 3 months (~ >$500k to ~$800k MRR)
-Guided fully-ramped AEs to 108% attainment

Stepped away from role in November 2022 due to kidney cancer prognosis and treatment.

Sales Manager / Co-Head of Sales

Trained, coached, and managed 4 SDRs while continuing to maintain the same quota as the rest of the AE team.

Achievements:
-Top AE on team in sales for all 5 months of 2022 until next promotion.
-143% to quota in first half of 2022.
-113% to quota of SDRs on my team. 
-3 of 4 of my direct report SDRs promoted to AE.
-Won 4 of 5 monthly sales spiffs.
-Only AE on team to achieve President's Club in 2022 (120% to quota over >6 months).
-Promoted to Sales Manager in May 2022.

Senior Account Executive / Business Development Manager

Achievements:
-#1 on sales leaderboard in 7 of last 8 months as AE (of 15 AEs)
-118% to quota in 2021
-2nd on team (of 15 AEs) in sales for 2021
-Granted 20% more stock options for high performance in 2021
-1st on team with 10% more dials than next closest AE in 2021
-1st on team with 21% more talk time than next closest AE in 2021
-1st on team with 23% more demos booked than next closest AE in 2021
-1st on team with 11% more demos held than next closest AE in 2021

Account Executive

CIBC

Product lead on the Strategy, Projects, and Delivery team in Digital Business Banking at CIBC. 

I have been responsible for strategy and/or project delivery on digital business banking projects related to:
-Platform analytics
-Onboarding improvement
-Client outreach 
-Market research
-Marketing and sales enablement
-Workflow improvement
-Client feedback and net promoter score
-App decommissioning

Some of the accolades we have earned as a team while I have been with the bank include: 
-Bank Innovator of the Year from the Digital Finance Institute's Canadian Fintech and AI Awards 
-Best Bank for Cash Management (North America-wide in 2019) and Best Treasury and Cash Management Bank (Canada-wide, and winner for 6 of the past 7 years, including 2019, 2020, and 2021) from Global Finance Magazine

Senior Product Manager, Digital Business Banking

Citi

Consulted for Citi Ventures with a small team of Rotman MBA students.
Created a prototype of a marketplace enabling organizations to transact anonymized, corporate IoT data from smart cities projects. 
Heavy focus on data risk management, tech strategy and infrastructure, and data compliance. 
Earned top grades on project from panel of Citi Ventures employees and other fintech professionals and executives.

MBA Innovation Consultant

Oracle

Created and validated enterprise blockchain use cases for Oracle in the telecom industry.
Final product was hyperledger blockchain-enabled C2C and B2C marketplace allowing for mobile data trading, exchange, and payments.  

In an innovation case competition judged by a panel of industry experts and senior Oracle management, my team was awarded first place in the telco sector, and second place overall.

We were invited to author a White Paper on our use case for Oracle.

MBA Blockchain Consultant

Allegheny Holdings Ltd, A Real Estate Corporation

Analyzed, reported on, and consulted on entry and exit of real estate markets and properties, including analysis of: tenancy, rental, and leasing statistics; interest and mortgage rates; market pricing trends; and socio-political, zoning, taxation, and regulatory factors in the acquisition and sale of real estate (roughly 70% commercial; 20% land; 10% residential).
Responsible for sales enablement efforts in organization: liaised with brokers to set sale prices; provided value prop and market-related collateral to support property sales.
Led organizational change initiative aimed at reducing errors leading to suboptimal investments, and instituted new investment framework within organization.
Responsible for contracts and relationship management with construction contractors, facilities contractors, real estate brokers, and others.
A family corporation.

 Director, Operations and Research

Western University

Graduate Student Teaching Assistant

Global Affairs Canada | Affaires mondiales Canada

Based in Arequipa, Peru, while working on a business development consulting grant from the Canadian International Development Agency (now Global Affairs Canada), administered through Niagara College.

Directed and consulted on 4 projects: 
-Led change initiative to improve fundraising and related digital capabilities for a welfare provision charity; 
-Developed and project-managed a cultural tourism marketing plan and implementation for a large municipality;
-Created a multimedia educational partnership program for an underprivileged school, procuring donations of seed money, computers, and digital cameras; 
-Developed a home-stay tourism model and marketing plan for a rural community tourism not-for-profit organization.

Economic Development Consultant

Growth 📈 @ category-defining orgs | Working on a top-secret project 🤐 | MBA @ iE | Lean 6σ Green Belt | Cancer Survivor | Girldad | Per aspera ad astra 🌌

I am the Founding Head of Revenue at Upgraded, a tech-enabled working capital advisory for Canadian SME tech companies. We help our clients access hundreds of thousands of dollars in working capital through four pillars: government programs, AI solutions, tech savings, and financing. We are performance-based, meaning we only make money if our clients do.

I have over six years of experience in SaaS revenue generation, with a track record of exceeding quotas, driving growth, and leading high-performing teams. I have an MBA from IE Business School and a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt certification. I am passionate about helping tech entrepreneurs scale their businesses, avoid layoffs, and achieve their goals. I am also a cancer survivor, a girldad, and a lifelong learner.

👹Daniel Schloss

AE @ Gong | Closed Won 🦙 | 5x President's Club

Creating raving fans @ Gong. Founder of Closed Won. Dad to Monty 🐾 

Brian LaManna

Most painful (lost) deals I remember.

-One that had a DocuSign out for signature around March 15th, 2020. The team took a few extra days to look it over... COVID hit... and they never ended up signing.

-6 month evaluation, decided they were going to move to us from a larger competitor, and then not realizing they had an auto-renewal. I take fault for not pressing harder on this.

-21 month deal cycle that continued to push quarter after quarter for a variety of excuses, despite promising interest. Nothing as painful as a super long deal cycle with twists and turns. Eventually turned it Closed Lost.

-Running a successful evaluation with someone who told me "I am the decision maker and signer on this" ... when it came to sign, someone else blocked it from happening. Lesson learned... if someone blurts out "I am the decision maker" .... they are most definitely not the decision maker 🤣


Quickly learned to never celebrate a deal until it's signed.

Time really does kill deals sometimes.


P.S. Redesigned the website around Closed Won Club at https://closedwon.xyz/ ... how do we like it?

AE @ Gong | Closed Won 🦙 | 7x President’s Club

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