Russ Thau
Sales team leader
San Francisco, California
Overview
Work Experience
Enterprise Sales Leader
2024 - Current
I manage the Pacific Northwest team.
Advisor, Fractional, and Interim leader
2016
I work with CEOs at Seed or Series A companies to help them establish the revenue foundation so they can transition to a repeatable motion. This includes owning a number, helping with hiring, and people management. Clients: Airtable, LaunchDarkly, Benepass, Descript, Momentum, BevSuite, Funtivity, and Numeric.
Chief Revenue Officer (CRO)
2022 - 2022
Hired to lead a team of 52 people. Unfortunately, many unforeseen events changed the company's direction. * Led a pivot to a new direction, including planning and executing a company-wide RIF. * Coached and mentored a first-time VP of Sales.
SafeGraph builds and maintains data sets to help accelerate machine learning and AI.
Raised $61,000,000.00 from Akkadian Ventures.
CEO and Founder
2019 - 2022
We raised $1.5M from NextView, Expa, and Angels to enable frontline sales managers. I learned how to take a product from ideation to market, recruit the first customers, pivot based on customer feedback, and manage cash flows. I also worked with the best co-founders and engineers.
VP of Revenue and Success
2017 - 2019
Joined at Series A and helped grow ARR from mid-single digits to tens of millions in revenue while keeping churn <1.25% per quarter. During this time: * Built the revenue and success organization from 2 to 64 people—leaders who reported to me: 3 Directors, Sales Operations, Demand Generation, and Partnerships. * Promoted, coached, and mentored two first-time managers and one first-time director. * Aligned the org around a coaching mentality of improving 1% daily and branded it Champions Do Extra (CDE).
Envoy transforms modern workplaces with innovations that make office life and work more meaningful.
Raised $170,150,000.00 from Menlo Ventures, Elad Gil, BAM Elevate, Haystack, TriplePoint Capital, Initialized Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Seven Seven Six and Brookfield Growth.
VP of Sales
2014 - 2016
My first sales accomplishment at Intercom was convincing the CEO to create a sales team. I sold for the first six months and figured out how to layer in a sales motion without disrupting self-service. I left the business after growing it from $1M to $35M in 2.5 years. The leaders who reported to me were four sales managers and a GM of Europe. * Built the sales organization from 1 to 43 Globally (second office in Dublin, Ireland) * Successfully promoted, coached, and mentored three first-time managers and created a program to transition 8 SDRs to AEs and 3 AEs to Senior AEs. * Aligned the team around the concept of the 20 Mile March from Jim Collins's book, “Great by Choice.” This created a daily performance standard to even out the peaks and valleys of sales. An added benefit was the underdog mentality it created. * Made all the first-time VP of Sales mistakes.
Director of Sales
2014 - 2014
Intercom is a software company that creates modern customer service software that redefines how businesses support their customers.
Raised $240,750,000.00 from ICONIQ Growth, Bessemer Venture Partners, Kleiner Perkins, Google Ventures and Vulcan Capital.
Regional Manager
2013 - 2014
While I was there, the company grew from $15M to $150M, and the sales team grew from 15 to 300+ people as we got ready for an IPO in 2015. Hired as the first external Sales Manager to help them navigate hyper-growth since I lived it at SuccessFactors. They needed someone the team would respect, so I sold for three months and broke the first-month sales record. * Presented how to evangelize Box for all new sales hires during boot camp. * Attended President’s Club twice. * Involved with hiring and developing over 50 reps in less than two years. * Promoted nine sales reps into the midmarket segment and two more to Managers.
Sales Manager
2011 - 2013
My team achieved the highest quota attainment in 2011.
Box is an online file sharing and cloud content management service offering unlimited storage, custom branding, and administrative controls.
Raised $1,458,950,000.00 from Kohlberg Kravis Roberts.
Sales
2009 - 2011
Hired as the third sales rep to create the SMB segment when they were at $1M in ARR and stayed until $5M. Responsible for 65% of all new logos.
Director of Sales, Existing Small Business Customers
2008 - 2009
While I was there, the company's ARR increased from $10M to $184M, and the number of employees increased from 50 to 850. We had a successful IPO in 2007 and later sold to SAP for $3.6B. * Promoted to create and lead the expansion sales segment. * I managed eight people in the expansion sales segment, and we achieved the highest quota attainment in 2008.
Mid-Market Account Executive
2006 - 2007
Promoted to the Mid-Market segment. 2006: 129% of quota. 2007: 104% of quota.
Small Business Account Executive
2005 - 2005
Founding member of the SMB sales segment.
Inside / Outside Sales
2003 - 2005
Sourced and built the company's Inside Sales organization. Achieved 96% year-over-year revenue growth in the first year. Promoted to Enterprise Field Rep afterwards in the Bay Area territory.