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

Executive coach helping professionals who love gaming achieve their dream careers.

Let me level up your career game! I'm all about helping you turn your career dreams into reality. Let's take a pit stop to refuel and retune your career ambitions. Upon this journey, we'll come across:

- Your personal compass, syncing your career with what truly matters to you
- Our game map, plotting a course from your current position all the way to your dream level
- And the booster - the actions and energy that'll speed your career advancement. 

Let's power up and start levelling!

My own personal experience
* Video Game and Esports Leader - 6 Years
* Digital Advertising Agency Head and Entrepreneur - 10 years
* Senior Consultant - 10 years

Selected  Speaking Engagements, Panels and Interviews
* "Metaverse Opportunities for Esports and Music" - All That Matters
* "Esports - Future in Smart Cities and Blockchain" - SPECTRUM Global 
* "How to build a career in esports" - Singapore Games Association 
* "Beyond Gaming" - Yahoo Finance Singapore 
* "Future of Esports" - The Drum "Can Do" Festival 2020
* "Living the Gamer Dream" - Phillippines Youth Esports Program  
* "Mobile Games Takeover" Asian Pacific Broadcasters Tech Summit 2018 (APOS Tech 2018) 
* "Building an Esports Platform" - All that Matters 2018 

Selected Media Mentions
* "Why Singapore is important to the games industry" - NME.com - 
* "SEA Games features female-division Wild Rift Esports" - Yahoo News Singapore 
* "Marrying Esports and Music" - Marketing Interactive 
* "VALORANT Colleges and Cybercafes in the Phillippines" -SPIN Magazine
* "Riot Games and CTBC Partner Up for the Pacific Championship Series" - TechBeat
* "Esports - A growing digital playing field" - Singapore Sports Hub

Coach

Riot Games

* Launched and managed iconic esports across eight countries to serve 8M esports fans
* Led Esports for League of Legends, VALORANT, and Wild Rift Esports across Southeast Asia, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau
* Created the three largest esports products in SEA, the League of Legends Pacific Championship Series, the VALORANT Championship Tour, and the Wild Rift Icon Series
* Executed global and regional esports events including Hyperplay, Rift Rivals, Mid-Season International 2019, and Wild Rift Horizon Cup 2021
* Sold Riot’s largest IP Licensing and Esports Sponsorship in Southeast Asia
* Managed relationship with Garena to publish League of Legends

Head of SEA Esports

Country Manager SEA

Country Manager Vietnam

Daybreak Digital

* Bootstrapped Daybreak Digital into one of Vietnam’s leading digital advertising agencies
* Build fun-loving, results-oriented and learning oriented work environment
* Recruit and develop talent in business culture, ethics and pro-active, open-communication management
* Manage all business development activities, including RFP responses, business pitches and conferences 
* Develop multi-channel marketing strategies utilizing events, PR, digital and social media for clients to introduce new services, sales promotions and generate deeper brand affinity
* Lead team to develop marketing strategies, design creative collateral, program microsites and Facebook applications and plan, book and manage cross-channel digital media
* Manage and partnered with event and advertising agencies including Grey Group, Saatchi&Saatchi, Hakuhodo, DatViet Media Group, Omnicom Media Group to deliver fully integrated campaigns via TV, print, PR and online channels
* Deliver mobile game installs on a CPI basis for VNG games via DSP partners
* Introduce new technologies, media products and platforms from region to Vietnam market

Managing Director

Edge Marketing Vietnam Ltd

Director of CRM and Digital

Admax Network

At Admax Network, we have built Vietnam's premier advertising network.  We partner up with the best websites in Vietnam and provide adserving to ensure great ROI, reaching your target market with the efficiency required to survive this economic downturn.

MD Vietnam

EXO Travel

*      Manage Marketing department for Exotissimo across Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand consisting of expatriates, locals and freelance writers to produce marketing and advertising materials
    *      Create, write and edit all B2B marketing materials, including Professional’s Guide, Tariff, Responsible Travel Guide, Destinations Newsletter, eBlog and monthly electronic newsletters
    *      Develop, manage and implement strategies for Internet and other emerging markets
    *      Coordinate and oversee development of Exotissimo print and on-line advertising across all five countries
    *      Issue press releases and liaise with journalists to establish Exotissimo’s leadership across the industry
    *      Develop and maintain strong relations with partners, including foreign tour operators, corporate clientele and local hoteliers
    *      Provide website content regarding industry news, hotel information, product updates and promotions

Marketing Manager

Lockheed Martin

*      Led and trained team of four engineers for the United States Air Force Global Combat Support System website, supporting over 1 million users using BroadVision and IBM WebSphere
    *      Implemented and wrote training materials for all Air Force content managers and staff
    *      Designed content management system between Air Force divisions and centralized portal operations

Framework Operations Manager

Deloitte Consulting

Clients – UBS, London, UK, Basel, Switzerland; Bayer AG, New York City, NY; Holcim Ltd, Toronto, Canada, Sprint Communications, Kansas City, Kansas
•	Coordinated and managed team of systems administrators, focused on change and project management to develop e-hosting platform for Sprint Telecommunications
•	Implemented and maintained configuration management and testing tools including ClearCase, ClearQuest, CVS and Microsoft Visual SourceSafe		
•	Designed and implemented web production environments for Sprint Telecommunications and Holcim Ltd at Genuity Webhosting 
•	Led systems management team performing builds, tracking changes and managing various environments 
•	Trained developers and testers in using automated testing tools from Mercury Interactive
•	Implemented and designed picking, packing and shipping processes using SAP R/3 Warehouse Management and Sales and Distribution

Consultant

SEA Esports and Gaming Expert | Launched League of Legends and VALORANT Esports | I help gaming professionals get career fulfillment with coaching

I help Gaming Professionals level up their careers and secure higher-paying roles.

Most of my clients are struggling with:

- Not getting recognized for their achievements
- Getting underpaid compared to their skills and market value
- Not knowing how to get a raise (but want one)
- Being unable to progress their career forward

And so, I take them through a process to land them at a higher salary role:

1. Understand your personal impact on the business
2. Define what you want in a new role
4. Create your own growth plan
5. Design a business case for your own growth/promotion
6. Build strategic alliances with stakeholders and decision makers
7. Execute and iterate

Using this process, I've helped 30+ gaming professionals level up:

- Helped David secure a 20% salary increase with 3 job offers in 2 months
- Guided Jeff to a senior producer role with a 15% raise in 4 months
- Assisted Zach in landing a director position at a studio 2 months post-layoff

If you’re a professional in the Gaming Industry who wants to land a higher-salary role,

Click “Book a Discovery Call” at the top of my profile to see how I can help you.

taplio

The Battle

👹Daniel Schloss

Chris T.

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