Startup CXO

Chapter 128Fractional Chief Revenue Officer

Sherri Sklar

One of the things that I like about working in a fractional role is that elements from your entire career can come into play, enabling you to make a large impact in a relatively short period of time. Many emerging tech companies often get to product market fit, only to stall when trying to grow and scale. The talent that got the company to that point may or may not be enough to take the company to the next level. From a revenue perspective, there are timely decisions that need to be made operationally—in your go‐to‐market strategy and in your execution—that can make or break your next growth cycle. It takes a seasoned senior executive who has lived the various parts of the revenue function under many different previous stress tests, to know which strategy and which move is the least risky and most likely to succeed.

I started selling IBM mainframes right out of college and when I left IBM I was running a $40 million business. When I went to the startup world everything went out the window. In the new world of tech startups, I started at the basement level to learn the business from the bottom up. I began again as a sales rep and from there to district manager, regional manager, VP Sales, and then went over to the marketing side to become a VP Marketing, and finally became a VP of Business Development. Over the course of my career, I had the opportunity to wear every kind of revenue hat in large organizations and in startup ...