Think & Grow

Director Growth & Partnerships APJ

At Think & Grow, we are your global growth partners 🚀 We empower founders, leaders and executives across the globe to develop their businesses.

How we help founders of fast-growth tech companies: 

Workshops: Identify and close the gaps in your business to gain clarity on your leadership, team and strategy.

Growth: Have the support and expertise to scale sustainably and successfully locally and overseas.

Hire: Attract the change-leaders and advisors you need to accelerate your business.

Advisory: Create a scalable culture to empower your people to push boundaries and propel growth.

Head of Sales APAC

River City Labs

Startup Mentor

Startupbootcamp

SCALERR

As the Global Head of Consulting, I hold a dual role in driving the development and execution of global growth strategies for startups and scaleups, while also leading the consulting practice and strategic partnerships on a global scale. With a comprehensive understanding of sales, partnerships, business development, and strategic planning, I provide expert guidance and innovative solutions to startups worldwide, empowering them to navigate the complexities of scaling and achieve sustainable growth.


Key focusses of my role:

•	Drive Revenue Growth and Market Expansion: Identify new business opportunities and strategic partnerships globally, enhancing client revenue and market reach.
•	Expand Strategic Partnerships: Build and leverage a network of C-suite executives, venture capital funds, ecosystem builders, and government entities to drive growth.
•	Execute Go-to-Market Strategies: Orchestrate global go-to-market strategies for clients, to achieve significant revenue growth, market share expansion, and customer acquisition.
•	Develop and Lead Sale Functions: Built end-to-end sales functions for clients, providing strategic sales advice.
•	Implement Scalable Sales Playbooks: Create tailored sales playbooks, optimize resource allocation, increasing efficiency, and accelerating time-to-market.
•	Advise on Capital Raising: Guide clients on capital raising strategies, offering pitch coaching, deal guidance, and investor outreach strategies

Global Head of Consulting

Scale Facilitation® 

Access New York™ facilitates global revenue stage, small to medium size companies to access the US market. Our core mission is to commercialize and scale the latest technology and innovations into the market.

This means we provide a comprehensive ecosystem to our portfolio companies, far beyond just sourcing capital in exchange for equity. Our experienced team, located in Australia and the United States, provide targeted guidance and management across all aspects of commercialization and scaling.

Role Overview:
Conceptualized and Launched 'Access New York': Established a leading investment program for
tech businesses expanding to the US, with investment sizes of $1M-$10M USD.
• Pioneered Tailored Investment Strategies: Developed customized approaches that maximized
global entrepreneurial opportunities, resulting in a diverse, high-performing portfolio.
• Identified High-Potential Tech Companies: Conducted market assessments, competitor analysis,
financial analysis, and due diligence to evaluate companies for US market success.
• Led High-Performing Investment Team: Directed a team in strategic investment decisions and
provided guidance to the investment committee.
• Expanded Strategic Relationships: Cultivated new and existing relationships, driving revenue
growth and business expansion with government partners, enterprises, venture capital firms, and
community organizations.
• Developed Partner Strategy: Implemented strategies to identify new partners, generate revenue,
and align with business goals.
• Mentored Portfolio Companies: Advised on global go-to-market strategies with a focus on US
expansion, enhancing market entry and growth.
• Streamlined Investment Lifecycle Management: Built scalable workflows supporting internal
teams, founders, and stakeholders throughout the investment lifecycle.

Investment Fund Lead Australia & New Zealand - Access New York

RunwayHQ

Runway is a regional not-for-profit startup ecosystem aimed at supporting entrepreneurs in their entire startup journey. From coming up with a business idea through to launching and scaling their business.

OVERVIEW
•	Cultivated Key Relationships: Built strong working relationships with stakeholders, mentors, coaches, and partners within the Runway and Australian startup ecosystems.
•	Identified Partnership Opportunities: Strategically targeted prospective organizations and government departments to establish valuable partnerships.
•	Led Corporate Opportunity Discovery: Unearthed corporate opportunities and managed the tender process for relevant government-focused applications. Successfully winning a $300k government tender.
•	Drove Business Development: Identified and pursued new business development opportunities, leading initiatives that expanded market reach and increased revenue.
•	Managed Sales Pipeline: Oversaw the sales pipeline process, converting opportunities to ensure a robust and continuous revenue stream.
•	Acted as Brand Ambassador: Represented Runway at local and national levels, enhancing brand presence and engagement within the ecosystem.
•	Directed Marketing Strategy: Managed and executed marketing strategies in alignment with overall business goals, driving brand visibility and growth.
•	Senior Leadership: Managed team performance and behaviours to optimize their contributions towards achieving business objectives.
•	Advised and Mentored Startups: Acted as a strategic advisor and mentor, focusing on sales, business development, and go-to-market strategies for startups and businesses within the Runway ecosystem.

Head Of Sales & Partnerships

Trigger Group

Trigger Group are a go-to-market sales acquisition start up specialising in B2B SaaS. We're a start up representing scaleups in the technology SMB space! We represent some of the biggest global hospitality and logistics businesses: DoorDash, Wish.com, Lightspeed, and Hubster/Otter.

OVERVIEW
•	Managed International Sales Operations: Led and executed inbound and outbound sales strategies for SMB and enterprise SaaS clients in hospitality and logistics, including DoorDash, Wish.com, and Lightspeed Commerce.
•	Built Organizational Structure: Played a key role in scaling the business from 20 to 150+ employees, developing internal structures and processes for effective growth.
•	Scaled and Deployed Sales Teams: Aligned sales teams with business priorities and objectives, ensuring optimal deployment and performance.
•	Advised on Go-to-Market Strategies: Collaborated closely with clients to develop and implement successful go-to-market strategies for new markets.
•	Implemented Sales Planning and Performance Management: Directed planning, target setting, performance management, and execution of key sales activities.
•	Provided Senior Leadership: Led and coached a global workforce of 150+ staff, directly managing 4 Regional Sales Managers, a Learning & Development Manager, and 3 Sales Operations Executives.
•	Fostered High-Performance Culture: Cultivated a positive and high-performing workplace environment.
•	Managed Financials and KPIs: Oversaw P&L, KPIs, sales budgets, and forecasting, collaborating with internal stakeholders to drive profitable growth.
•	Nurtured Executive Relationships: Built and maintained executive-level relationships with clients, navigating pre-sales processes and conducting needs analysis.
•	Led Market Development and Negotiations: Identified new market opportunities and spearheaded commercial negotiations with prospective clients.

Imperium Tourism Holdings

Imperium Group are a private equity group that own a number of youth focused tourism brands. The umbrella company is Travel Freedom Group, which has over 50 retail locations in ANZ operating under the brands PeterPans, Backpackers World Travel, StudentUni Travel, Travel Freedom, and The Travel Project

The role included:

•	Design and implement effective customer-centric Sales, Product, and Business Development Strategies across five separate retail (55 retail locations), Contact Centre, and online businesses 
•	Plan, implement, and control the marketing strategy for key AU & NZ markets, in-line with sales, marketing, business plan objectives and targets for increased revenue and market-share position
•	Actively provide leadership, mentorship, and guidance to Regional Sales Managers, eCommerce Manager, Contact Centre Manager, and Training & Development Manager on direct sales strategy, people management, marketing activity, and performance management
•	Create and maintain strong relationships with key stakeholders
•	Recruit, coach, and develop high performing sales and customer service teams across the organization
•	Enhance team performance through incentives, rewards, and recognition
•	Use data to forecast sales and manage budgeting process and expenditure 
•	Report weekly on business performance to the Group General Manager, Managing Director, and Board, in line with company guidelines and expectations 
•	Lead and develop people and people strategy working in partnership with HR to ensure continuous improvement, talent development, and staff engagement initiatives are in place and actioned 
•	Monitor competitors’ products and sales strategy
•	Business Development - Manage key partner relationships, contract negotiations, sales, and logistics with current and prospective partners to collaborate on healthy growth initiatives to deliver strong commercials

Head Of Sales Australia & New Zealand

STA Travel

•	Oversee the operations and sales of every retail site within the Region
•	Provide leadership, guidance, and coaching to sales management team
•	Develop Regional and retail site business strategies to protect revenue and hold sales teams accountable to deliver expected results. 
•	Lead and influence sales team to conceptualize, plan, drive, and manage all Regional sales initiatives to achieve the targeted sales growth
•	Recruit, coach, and develop high performing sales and customer service teams across the Region
•	Build a strong sales and staff culture that creates winning mentality along with staff loyalty
•	Collaborate with, and influence the Product and Marketing teams to help support regional initiatives especially surrounding local market activities
•	Building and maintaining strong relationships with key stakeholders 
•	Deliver weekly reports on Region results to Senior Leadership as well as deliver presentations at key product events

Regional Sales Manager - Victoria & South Australia

•	Provide leadership, guidance, and coaching to 6 sales consultants 
•	Managing all aspects of retail stores business environment and operations
•	Maintaining customer service quality and standards of the team 
•	Implementing and adhering to daily, weekly, and monthly activities
•	Develop and implement local marketing strategies 
•	Driving financial results and KPI’s and holding team accountable

Retail Store Manager

•	Mastered service and sales processes to maximise productivity and profitability 
•	Developed loyal clientele base due to in-depth knowledge and ability to match customers’ needs
•	Be an integral part of the team to help achieve store objectives
•	Customer service and sales to consistently achieve expected company KPI’s
•	Recognised top 10% performing sales consultant in United Kingdom

Senior Sales Consultant

Travel Consultant

Experienced Senior Sales Leader, Growth Strategist, Mentor, and Advisor

Extensive background in tech startups/Scaleups, B2B SaaS, travel, ecomm, and retail, spanning UK, APAC, and US markets.

I help some of the world's most innovative tech companies scale, both locally, and globally.

With a extensive career in sales, business development, and consulting, I have a proven track record of delivering remarkable go-to-market success and capital raising outcomes for startups and scaleups across various domains and regions. I leverage my deep expertise in global markets, sales, partnerships, and people-focused strategies to empower and inspire my clients and teams to achieve their full potential.

Paul Mitchinson

Valkore

Providing strategic investing and advisory services to cybersecurity startups and offering cybersecurity strategic advising to C-level executives for their organizational cybersecurity strategy

Founder, CISO

The Generalists Podcast

Co Host

Cyber Sierra

We use AI to make security compliance easy for enterprises.

Strategic CISO Advisory 

AxisNow

Unleash Productivity and Reshaping Non-Human Access

CISO Advisory Board

Private investment, leveraging domain expertise and connections to assess and contribute to the success of early-stage cybersecurity ventures.

Member

PayPal

Director of Cyber Security Oversight

* Assume the role of Business Ethical Officer, supporting the local community in understanding the code of conduct and promoting ethical practices.
* Assist employees in speaking up and providing guidance to support their personal needs while fostering inclusivity within the organization.

TLV Business Ethical Officer

* Spearhead the innovation spirit across the TLV site by fostering a like-minded community and promoting training and facilitation.
* Drive conferences, meet-ups, and various types of Hackathons locally and globally to enable innovation.
* Collaborate with teams to bring new innovative ideas into PayPal's current and future products, contributing to business growth.

TLV Innovation Leader

XM Cyber

{Acquired for $700 million} Experienced executive with a demonstrated history of leading complex Cyber Security operations in conjunction with Sales Leadership, Product Management, Field Marketing, Customer Success and HR. Proven track record in managing cross functional business units.  

----------
XM Cyber high growth cybersecurity company focus on the next generation of breach and attack
simulation (BAS) solutions. XM Cyber provides a fully automated APT Simulation Platform to continuously expose all attack vectors, above and below the surface, from breach point to any organizational critical asset.

CISO & VP Sales Engineering 

Discount Bank

Head Of Security Operations & Engineering 

Deep Instinct

Deep Instinct is a cybersecurity company that applies deep learning to cybersecurity. The company implements advanced artificial intelligence to the task of preventing and detecting malware

VP Customer Operations & CISO

Check Point Software Technologies, Ltd.

Team Leader, Escalation Support Group

Support Engineer

Creating value for the cybersecurity ecosystem.

Innovative Cyber Security Leader and Entrepreneur with Proven Success in Startups and Corporate Strategy

I am an accomplished entrepreneur and seasoned cyber security expert, recognized for pioneering advanced strategies in technology and risk management. With over 15 years of experience, my career encapsulates the essence of innovation and operational excellence, demonstrated through my leadership roles in startup environments and Fortune 100 companies. I excel in navigating complex business challenges, driving product-market fit, and executing Go-To-Market strategies, underscored by a significant startup acquisition success.

I am excited to see how the cyber security industry is evolving and to play a role in developing innovative solutions to influence a better cyber security echo system. I am also committed to sharing my knowledge and experience with others through writing, speaking, and mentoring.

Raz Kotler

Half Marathon 21.1K Done ✅ 
It was tough and I believe that if it doesn’t kill you it makes you stronger 

Alex Dwek its the earliest time we ever met 4am - it was fun running together although you beat me 😅

Until next year

Creating value for the cybersecurity ecosystem | The Generalists 🎙️

No alternative text description for this image

Great listen, my main outcomes are:

1. Listen better to sell better
2. Love what you are doing on every single day 
3. Good planning leading to never missing your numbers
4. Consistent exercise always leads to a clear mind 

John McMahon, you are a legend, thank you!

Open article: 20Sales: John McMahon on How to Hire, Train & Retain the Best Sales Reps | How Sales Changes in a World of AI | Sales Lessons from Snowflake and MongoDB | How to Create and Drive a Sales Process with Urgency by open.spotify.com

20Sales: John McMahon on How to Hire, Train & Retain the Best Sales Reps | How Sales Changes in a World of AI | Sales Lessons from Snowflake and MongoDB | How to Create and Drive a Sales Process with Urgency

3 days to my 3rd SG half-marathon 

Race sequence: 

Saturday Dec 6th  
3:00 am  alarm clock 
3:30 am out for cycling 7 km to the starting point 
4:00 am meeting on mid-way running buddy 
4:30 am F1 bicycle drop off 
5:00 am race kick-off

Building, preparing, and executing.
Life sequence

#CyberRunClub #Singapore

AI is a bubble, it is not a bubble. 

What I do know is that in 8 days I will run the #Singapore Half Marathon for the 3 time.

It will be hot
It will be humid
It will be in the middle of the night
But
It will be fun

That is not a bubble.

Konnor, go #CyberRunClub, I will try to match your time

Anthony Sochan came to our show today; we had a good debate on why and when Startups would need good board members.

Can’t wait to see the full episode

Anthony, thanks for coming!  

P.S. Michael Smith Jr. I think we need an advisory board for our PMF 😎

Think & Grow

Each time Michael Smith Jr.  and I meet an entrepreneur in Singapore we get excited, what was more exciting is that I was able to test the product before the show!

Tiago, you broke a pattern, it's unique. 

Now it's the time for our production department 

TheLibrarian.io  #ai #business #executive

Everyone is shouting “AI IS A BUBBLE!”

But inside real companies, this is what is already happening today:

—>Your Salesforce , monday.com , Workday , GitHub  all quietly ship AI features.

—>Your data lake is plugged into open source models to speed up internal workflows.

—>Your employees run BYOA, Bring Your Own AI, to hit targets faster.

This is not a bubble. This is production.
And AI #security is not part of the “bubble”, it is part of survival.

So if you already use #AI and want to scale it, here is a simple readiness checklist I would do:

1. #DLP for AI
Risk: People paste secrets into prompts. Models remember. Data leaks.

Action: Decide what data is “never for AI”, then enforce it at browser, API, and chat level. Not in a PDF, in the workflow.

2. #Threat intelligence for AI
Risk:Prompt injection and model abuse are new attack paths, your old TI feeds do not see them.

Action: Track AI specific indicators, jailbreak patterns, and tool abuse, and plug them into SOC playbooks and detections.

3. Supply chain and #models
Risk: You rely on vendors, plugins, open source models, and datasets you barely review.

Action: Treat every model and AI vendor as third party risk, run a review, keep versions and SBOM where you can, block “shadow AI tools”.

4. #Privacy
Risk: PII flows into training, logs, and analytics without clear rules.

Action: Map where personal data touches AI, set strict retention and minimization, and design prompts and systems to avoid PII by default.

5. #Identity and access in an agentic world
Risk: Agents act on behalf of users with over privileged keys, no clear “who did what”.

Action: Give agents their own scoped identities, least privilege per tool, full audit trail, and approvals for high risk steps.

6. AI operations and #governance
Risk: Every team experiments; nobody owns the risk. Until something breaks.

Action: Create a small AI security and governance group, keep an AI risk register, and review new AI use cases before they hit production.

You do not need a 100 page framework to start.

Pick one line from this list, fix it this quarter, then move to the next.

What is an AI Agent, really? 🤔

To a consumer, it's a helpful assistant. 
To a Security/IT leader, it is Software.
And like any software, it has a "cost" beyond the license fee.

It needs installation (Backend or #API).
It consumes network packets.
It eats up battery and processing #power.

In our new Academy Series, Michael Smith Jr. and myself explore why the next bottleneck for #AI isn't the model, it's your #legacy infrastructure.

Don't let your hardware be the reason your AI strategy fails.
Watch the clip - link in the comments 

 #AIReadiness #CIO #CISO

I didn’t think anyone could challenge my workout routine until yesterday.

Huge kudos to Jing Zhi Chua for the insightful research he has put into building his new health and fitness startup in Singapore. The work he is doing is a game-changer.

Michael Smith Jr., let’s lock in a date after the New Year. We need to test these gadgets at ALLWIN ASAP!

#HealthTech #FitnessTech #SGTech

New day, new guest an incredible entrepreneur Shavit N. Clein CEO of Thrixen, The Medtech boom is in #Singapore.

The full Ep will launch soon.

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Paul Mitchinson

Raz Kotler

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The Battle

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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);}Raz Kotler's LinkedIn Performance

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