Get an effective Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) job description template you can use to attract candidates. Find out what a CRO does, salary, how to hire one, and more.
David Salinger
Early GTM leader at Tableau, Parallels, and Paxata; Founded EyeLevel and Eleventeen
I'm a previous founder and experienced senior sales leader with a well-established record of building and leading go-to-market teams in the technology industry.
I've been through 2 IPOs, 5 mergers or acquisitions, as well as learned valuable lessons from 2 company shut-downs (one as a founder). Very few scenarios would be unfamiliar to me!
My primary GTM focus has been on taking disruptive products and services to market that are sold directly to business users in a land/expand model with consiste…
Work
B2B SaaS Revenue Generation
Throughout my career, I've been dedicated to one key outcome: driving remarkable revenue growth.
Here are the results that I've achieved across a variety of software sectors:
- Led Glue.co's go-to-market transformation, growing ARR from $40K to $930K in just 11 months.
- From pilots to repeatable ARR growth at Paxata, scaling it from $250K to $2.9M in just 2 years.
- Scaled commercial segment revenue from $150K to over $110M in 5 years leading up to our successful IPO.
- Transformed Parallels' B2B revenue from $300K to $18M in just 2 years.
- Launching SaaS at OnRequest, generating the first $1.9M in ARR and transitioning from pure agency services to SaaS plus creative services.
- Led the growth of Onvia's customer revenue from $8.5M ARR to $36M ARR over 3 years, with a transformational 400% increase in customer retention.
Sales Hiring and Enablement
I'm committed to building and empowering high-performing sales teams, and I've hired over 400 go-to-market team members in my career.
With a track record of recruiting and nurturing top talent, I've successfully hired and managed the first revenue team members at 7 B2B startups, scaling revenue teams as large as 150+ in multiple global locations.
I believe in taking an empathetic and tailored approach to equipping sales professionals with the tools, knowledge, and motivation they need to excel, a philosophy that has resulted to my team's success.
Executive Team Leadership
I bring a unique combination of strategic vision and hands-on execution that enriches the capabilities of an executive team. My collaborative approach as a strategic leadership team member ensures that every facet of the organization, from sales to product to operations, benefits from my leadership and experience.
Sales Operations
Everyone's first CRM is a spreadsheet, but optimizing sales operations for peak efficiency has always been a secret weapon that has helped me build and scale even at the earliest stages. By leveraging the right approach and tools, you can transform a clumsy sales process into something repeatable that streamlines workflows, improves data management, and drives significant revenue growth.
Hands-on Sales Strategy
I'm motivated by crafting and implementing early-stage sales strategies that pave the way for rapid growth. Drawing from my hands-on experience at very early stage companies like Glue.co and Paxata, I bring a practical approach to launching and scaling sales efforts, tailored to the unique needs and aspirations of a company seeking to claim their piece of the market.
Experience
Glue (formerly Mystery)
Vice President, Revenue
Oct 2021 - Dec 2022
Glue is the World's First AI-Powered Employee Engagement Platform for Distributed Teams. I joined the team as employee 23.
- I played a pivotal role in the company's growth journey, taking ARR from $40K to a substantial $930K in just 11 months.
- My leadership on the exec team was instrumental in the successful transition from services to SaaS, setting a strong foundation for scalable growth.
- I had the privilege of hiring and managing the first 10 revenue team members, fostering a culture of high performance and customer-centricity.
- I streamlined sales operations by converting manual processes into a scalable revenue ops stack, utilizing tools like Salesforce, Outreach, Gong, and Metabase.
Eyelevel Software, Inc.
Chief Executive Officer, Co-founder
Dec 2017 - Sep 2021
Where great conversations build happier teams.
- I successfully recruited technical and product co-founders to join me in building and launching a bootstrapped B2B startup.
- Grew revenue from zero to $90K ARR.
- Released multiple versions of our platform on web, iOS and Android App Stores
- Raised over $600K in pre-seed and angel funding.
Paxata
Vice President, Sales
Dec 2013 - Oct 2016
AI-powered self-service data prep and data fabric to transform data into info. A DataRobot company. I joined Paxata as employee 12.
- I joined the company at the pre-Series A stage and built the team that grew revenue from $250K to a significant $2.9M within just two years.
- I represented the GTM sides of the business in board meetings and other board communications.
- My work as the head of the revenue engine was critical to our success in raising Series A funding.
Tableau Software
Vice President, Sales
May 2008 - Oct 2013
Tableau is a suite of SaaS business intelligence tools that help people see and understand their data. I joined Tableau as employee 35.
- Having experienced Tableau's journey from Series A to acquisition, I bring insights into scaling from the ground up.
- At Tableau, I built the team and scaled the commercial segment to incredible revenue growth, taking it from $150K to over $110M in six years.
- I focused on fostering a high-performing sales culture, achieving an 80% attainment rate while maintaining 70%+ employee retention.
- I launched and led a global partner program at Tableau for over three years, which we then spun out as an independent channel and I helped build that org.
- My team started with 3 AEs and was over 150 AEs, CSMs, Sales Engineers, and Sales Leaders when I left.
Parallels
Sales Director, North America
Aug 2006 - Jul 2008
Parallels is a desktop and server virtualization software company. I joined the team as employee 5 in the US.
- At Parallels, I successfully grew global B2B revenue from $300K to $18M in two years.
- I hired the sales, sales engineering, support, and customer service teams, growing to a team of 60+ across multiple US and INTL locations.
- I led the integration of US go-to-market efforts through multiple international mergers.
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B2B Marketing Leader: Building and Executing GTM Strategies That Scale and Grow | GenAI+Marketing Expert | Former Autodesk (NASDAQ: ADSK)
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