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

Elmerlopez.tech@gmail.com for influencer partnerships (anything else will get marked spam)

In 2021, I got into Dominican University for Physician Assistant (PA) school. I quit my EMT job, and took a break for 3 months. During this break, I realized all I was doing was fulfilling my immigrant parents "American Dream". 

I decided to reject my acceptance to find my own version of the "American Dream" and broke into tech sales as a first gen Latino-American. 

Since then I've surpassed my quotas (>100%), brought in over 4M ACV Closed Won deals, spear-headed the company-wide implementation of an auto-dialing tool, & mentored aspiring SDR's. 

I plan to empower non-traditional backgrounds in tech sales by talking about my own challenges, successes, & learnings.

This is my story📚

Elmer Lopez

Clay, Aligned, & AskElephant.

What do they all have in common?

Their SDRs, AEs, and executives are all posting on LinkedIn.

And by the time a prospect books a demo with them, the trust is already built.

They’ve seen content from 3 or 4 people at the company. 

They know the culture. They know how the team thinks. They know the product solves their problem.

That’s the compounding effect most founders aren’t talking about.

1 person posting does nothing. An entire team posting is a lead generation strategy.

Your competitors can copy your product. They can copy your pricing. They cannot copy the trust your team has already built in a prospect’s mind before they ever get on a call.

If you’re a founder reading this:

Your SDRs posting = warmer outbound

Your AEs posting = faster closes

Your executives posting = credibility at every level of the deal

Posting on Linkedin is no longer optional.

It’s your most underleveraged sales tool.

And the companies who figure that out first are winning deals before they even start.

Shout out to these companies absolutely crushing the Linkedin game.

What linkedin “influencer” automatically makes you think of a specific company?

Elmer Lopez 🏆

Account Executive @ Popl | 1x Presidents Club

I booked 34 meetings from LinkedIn last month.

(Steal my system)

We all know that LinkedIn’s inbox is absolute trash.

When you get 10+ DMs per day, it’s easy to lose sight of the prospects you actually need to follow up with.

So I started tagging every conversation by deal stage, setting follow-up reminders, and filtering my inbox so my hottest leads are always at the top.

The tool I use to do all of that? 

Kondo: Superhuman for LinkedIn DMs . 

Want my exact setup?

Everyone who comments “Kondo” gets 1 month free to try it themselves + a video of my setup.

We’ll also be choosing 2 raffle winners to get 6 months free!

To enter:
	1.	Like this post
	2.	Connect with me
	3.	Comment “Kondo”

I’ll DM every single person that follows the steps above.

Brand partnership • Account Executive @ Popl | 1x Presidents Club

My ex-coworker just lost out on the opportunity to have $240K in equity. 

Not because the company failed.

But because he couldn’t afford to exercise his options when he left.

He’d been at the startup for 4 years. 

Grinded through the early days. Watched the company grow from 12 people to 200+.

Then he got an offer he couldn’t refuse at a bigger company.

The problem?

His exercise cost was $85K + another $60K in taxes.

$145K just to keep the equity he’d already earned.

He had 90 days to decide.

90 days to come up with six figures or walk away from everything.

Most people don’t realize this is how stock options work.

You don’t actually own your equity until you buy it.

And when you leave, the clock starts ticking.

He tried multiple avenues:

- Asked family for a loan (uncomfortable)
- Looked into personal loans (interest rates were brutal)
- Considered letting it all go (kept him up at night)

The company’s doing well. Could go public in 18-24 months.

But he couldn’t take the risk.

So he walked away from 4 years of potential upside.

This happens more than you think.

According to Carta, in recent years nearly 70% of startup employees never exercise their options.

Not because they don’t believe in the company.

Because the system only works if you have cash sitting around.

I learned about Equitybee after talking to him about this. 

They help startup employees fund exercise costs and taxes, so employees can keep their equity without paying everything upfront.

You only share proceeds if there’s an exit.

Wish he’d known about it sooner.

If you work at a startup, plan your financing NOW. Not when you are leaving.

*Stats according to Carta 2025 H1 State of Startup Compensation report
Equitybee is FINRA/SIPC member

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The Battle

👹Daniel Schloss

Elmer Lopez

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The Battle

👹Daniel Schloss

Elmer Lopez

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Elmer Lopez's LinkedIn Performance

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