Interim COO Software and SaaS Industry

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Summary

Experienced contract C-level executive known for delivering and sustaining revenue and profit gains. Aggressively identifies revenue-generating and cost-saving opportunities, with unique ability to foresee complete end-to-end business processes and streamline for effectiveness. Collaborates and motivates teams to excel and meet financial and business objectives. Always thinking like a business owner, relies on outstanding problem-solving abilities and project management skills to provide practical business solutions and enable organizations to run better, cheaper, and faster. Successful get-it-done and done right, roll-up her sleeves, goal-achieving manager in all operations and customer-facing functions.

Highlights
• Initially engaged by CEO to serve as VP of Sales & Marketing to establish a US presence for this VC-backed Canadian SaaS firm for the behavioral health market. Appointed Acting CEO by the Board after just 8 months and later retained by acquiror to serve as General Manager after acquisition.
• Engaged by owner to re-engineer operations, build scalable processes, reduce expenses, and overhaul go-to-market strategy for the B2B sales outsourcing /lead generation start-up. Reported to owner and led 40-person team.
• Brought in by investors to turn around failing US-operations for this global distributor of visual learning software and assistive technologies. Led P&L, product development, operations, marketing, sales, HR, and finance.
• Engaged by Board to turn around struggling SaaS-based behavior health analytics provider that had never reached profitability in 5 years. Rapid turnaround resulted in 2 acquisitions in 2 years.
• Tapped by Founder to establish US business operations for this early-stage startup providing healthcare training for practitioners in Saudi Arabia and other countries throughout the Middle East region.

Relevant Accomplishments

• Designed and executed an integrated marketing strategy to acquire new users, built on highly segmented database marketing and e-marketing tactics. Achieved 7-10% response rates and beat monthly lead generation targets for 18 consecutive months. Campaign became cover story in Direct Marketing magazine.
• Designed, implemented customized internal e-communications program for key enterprise clients: increased bench-level awareness, user acquisition and retention. Transformed free service into commercial product.
• Developed the lead generation function for a cybersecurity startup that provides a niche data product to government and commercial security analysts. Researched, selected, and manage a third-party digital media firm that provides SEO and an integrated sales and marketing program for sales development. Targeting via LinkedIn yielding over 20% response in SQLs. First two sales paid for cost of program.
• Increased ROI of a $3.6M digital lead purchasing program by profiling high potential consumers and tightening specifications. Cost per lead increased, but conversion rates improved.
• Setup and managed a new partnership framework for a public company that provides legal cannabis seed-to-sale compliance tracking. Negotiated legal and revenue share terms for over 50 agreements in 6 months. Developed sales materials and the operating process to support reconciling monthly sales and revenue share allocations for accurate revenue recognition. Redeveloped a new Mutual Non-Disclosure Agreement to include a DTSA provision (Defend Trade Secrets Act of 2016) that protects the receiving party if reporting a trade secret.
• Appointed by Board as Acting CEO to lead company through acquisition process. Responded to due diligence requests, managed the representations and warranties, and completed all financial reporting required.
• Updated a public firm’s digital media privacy policy to incorporate new privacy statutes mandated by California Consumer Protection Agency. Established and communicated a new web-based process for easy opt-out by consumers plus California-based businesses. Developed the internal communications program to train all customer-facing employees to follow new privacy protection policies.
• Negotiated a public company’s first $750K annual contract with a data management platform that resells the data to consumer package goods companies. Worked with the firm’s legal team to design its first Data Subscription Agreement (DSA) that ensured the privacy and anonymization of consumers and patients buying legal cannabis.
• Established US operation for a Canadian SaaS firm. Hired registered agent for Delaware registration and obtained new FEIN. Found and negotiated 6,200 SF office lease under a tight 4-day timeline required by private equity investors. Furnished with used office furnishings; defined system requirements, selected vendors and installed IT and telecom equipment in 8 days. In five weeks, hired, recruited, trained, and managed 8 US staff in operations, customer service and inside sales. Closed first US sale in 2 months.
• Designed and developed new Pay for Performance sales model to better meet changing market requirements. Revamped the recruitment process to include new KPIs and introduced new hiring schema to reduce financial risk of on-boarding new employees performing poorly after 90 days. To support new plan, replaced inflexible proprietary data system with Salesforce.com to integrate workflows and provide improved financial and sales account reporting. In 5 months, sales margins improved, and recruitment costs dramatically reduced. Hired new CPA firm and trained new accountant on business and financial processes.
• Boosted client renewal rate from 17% to 85% after charting entire customer experience that showed gaps in sales-to-service transition. Reengineered sales and professional services processes and customized Salesforce.com to improve customer touchpoint effectiveness. Reengineered HR and finance protocols to ensure compliance and prepare for acquisition.
• Hired by an early-stage VC-backed Intellectual Property early-stage business to recruit, hire and lead a 10-person marketing team with a $4M budget. Established leading brand position, launched, and managed global advertising and PR programs in the US, Europe, and Asia. Reduced marketing spend by 50% while exceeding all objectives. Won advertising and PR trade press awards.
• Improved profit margin by 25% by replacing costly and unprofitable field sales with inside sales team. In 4 months, recruited, hired, and trained 14 sales and service reps to manage complete end-to-end customer experience and satisfaction. Team exceeded field sales targets in 11 consecutive months. (VC-backed Israeli software firm)

Roles

• • COO
  • General Manager/Acting CEO,
  • VP
  • CMO

Education/Certifications

• • Bachelor of Arts, English
  • 2-year MBA-Style Rotational Training Program

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