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

Will Richman, Upgrade the Network ✌️

Upgraded helps you earn more.

We help unlock working capital for each client through four pillars:

1. Government Programs/Grants: average mid-sized company leaves $86k/employee
2. Ai & Automations: 27% of white collar work is automatable
3. Tech Savings: save 10% to 50% on tech spend
4. Financing: VC IRR is ~40%, their IRR is your cost of capital

We are completely performance based:
1. Only work together if >$75k savings likely
2. We only make money if you do
3. Our interests are closely aligned

Founder, Head of Client Earnings

Launch Academy HQ

Mentor

Openstock

Advisor, Investor

GrowthGenius

+$135 million in revenue generated for Doordash, Clearco, Xero, HelloFresh, Q4, #paid, TWG, Influx, Abacus, Fundsquire, Hum Capital, and others by building out or improving their outbound sales motions

+$10 million arr booked over 4 years at an average of +$50,000 ARR per account executive per month

Managed product creation, validation, strategy, design, and roadmap of our all-in-one sales automation product

Co-ran marketing to acquire over 3,500 B2B users

Grew the team from few to over 45 in 24 months

Co-founder, COO

Believe that founders and salespeople shouldn't have to worry about prospecting through the 2020s. 

We help B2B companies book more sales meetings with their ideal customers. 

At 2.2x the output, and 40% the cost of an SDR/BDR, GrowthGenius drives ROI over incremental headcount, with performance guarantees that minimize downside risk. 

There’s no disruption to your process. We find your ideal prospects, craft highly personalized emails, and drive qualified interest to your inbox. You step in to close the deal.

Co-founder, CEO

Sabbatical

Spent a year traveling and working on projects. Highlights: running with the bulls in Spain, scuba diving in Thailand, meeting entrepreneurs in Saigon, prototyping and testing new ideas

Bitmaker

Bitmaker is Canada's leading technology career accelerator. 

Bitmaker was acquired by General Assembly and subsequently acquired by Adecco for $413mm in 2018. General Assembly is the largest technology bootcamp in the world backed by Jeff Bezos, Yuri Milner, and Maveron

- Created and directed the curriculum development for a 3-month intensive web development bootcamp that trained the intellectually curious to become junior web developers and helped place them at companies across North America including Shopify, Telus and IBM.

- Managed partnerships with over 80 companies including Shopify, Microsoft and HootSuite; 30 companies attended Bitmaker Labs’ Hiring Week at the end of each cohort to recruit graduates.

- Led the technical education of over 250 students; one month after graduation, 85% of students found employment or launched businesses of their own.

- Managed the Bitmaker speaker series that featured prominent industry leaders including David Heinemeier Hansson (Creator of Ruby on Rails, Partner at 37signals), Jon Lax (Co-Founder at Teehan+Lax) and Haroon Mirza (EIR of OMERS Ventures).

- Navigated government regulation and garnered community support; company featured in major publications including Wired, ReadWrite, The Globe and Mail and Ivey Intouch Magazine.

Co-founder, Head of Curriculum

BNY Mellon

Investment counseling firm with over $5.3 billion in Institutional & Private Client assets under advisory.

Responsible for the benchmarking and analysis of ~$250 million in client assets
Performed market research and analysis as part of portfolio strategic asset allocation and re-balancing
Prepared monthly, quarterly, and ad-hoc performance reports

Performance Measurement Associate

Investment Account Associate

Ventures North Financial Group LP

Analyst

Founder & CEO, Upgraded (we're hiring); ~$137m+ Generated for Clients w/ Grants, Automation & AI

Slowly working to be the most impactful person in your network.

Favourite quotes and passages:
"How much are you supposed to like what you do? Unless you know that, you don't know when to stop searching. And if, like most people, you underestimate it, you'll tend to stop searching too early. You'll end up doing something chosen for you by your parents, or the desire to make money, or prestige—or sheer inertia." -Paul Graham

"Brilliant thinking is rare, but courage is in even shorter supply than genius." - Peter Thiel

"Startups are as impersonal as physics. You have to make something people want." -Paul Graham

"Whenever I interview someone for a job, I like to ask this question: What important truth do very few people agree with you on? This question sounds easy because it's straightforward. Actually, it's very hard to answer. It's intellectually difficult because the knowledge that everyone is taught in school is by definition agreed upon." -Peter Thiel

Enjoys: Creative Problem Solving, Strategy, Product Management, Customer Acquisition, Sales Development, Software Development, Customer Development, Operations, Curriculum Development

taplio

The Battle

👹Daniel Schloss

Will Richman

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