Craiova, Dolj, Romania
Most SaaS trials fail. Not on day 14 when the contract ends - but on day 2 when the customer loses confidence. That's the expensive problem I solve. What I do: engineer GTM systems - trial playbooks, AI workflows, enrichment strategies, custom-built solutions - that shorten cycles, prove value, and close deals. The outcome: as of Q1 2026, I've influenced $12M+ in ARR at Apollo.io. I didn't arrive here by accident: • At Microsoft, I learned to keep mission-critical email systems alive - stabilizing outages, securing mail flow, and scaling migrations across tens of thousands of mailboxes. • At ESW Capital, I became the benchmark performer in one of the most aggressive SaaS support environments, promoted 3x in 4 years while building automations that kept 29+ products online. • At Apollo.io, I built the foundations for Onboarding, Professional Services, and CX before stepping into Solutions Consulting to define the GTM Engineer identity. If you're a SaaS leader asking "how do we grow from here?" that's the exact problem I've spent the last decade solving, through different lenses. I believe Solutions Consulting is evolving. It's no longer about showing features - it's about engineering outcomes. Where I'm headed: growing as a trusted voice in the industry, mentoring the next wave of SCs, and shaping how modern SaaS companies run trials and prove value.
Intentionally moved into this role, to build the foundation for our Solutions Consulting / Sales Engineering function from scratch. • Designed and ran hundreds of high-stakes trials across SMB, Mid-Market, and Enterprise, directly influencing $14M+ in ARR (as of Q2 FY27). • Increased trial-to-close conversion by 24% vs baseline through structured playbooks (ICP definition, AI research, enrichment, workflows). • Designed many custom solutions (internal and customer-facing) from scratch and partnered with internal teams to productize them. • Consistently overachieved - e.g. 158% quota attainment in Q2 2025 - with multiple Apollo awards for top performance. • Embodying the "GTM Engineer" identity: a hybrid role that blends technical mastery, revenue accountability, and creative storytelling.
Tasked and trusted with building Apollo's first onboarding, professional services, and customer experience functions from the ground up during a period of hypergrowth. • Designed the playbooks, programs, and early teams that became the backbone of Apollo's CX org - and participated in the interview and hiring process of great leaders that scaled and polished these functions, built upon experience. • Onboarding: Cut time-to-value from 6 weeks to <3 weeks through structured onboarding journeys and workshops. • Professional Services: Piloted integration projects with customer GTM stacks, proving Apollo's role as a core revenue system. • Customer Experience: founded and ran our first pre-sales team (achieved ~200% of quota in launch quarter), later transitioned to Sales where it continues to overperform. • Partnered cross-functionally to tie adoption and success programs directly to retention and ARR expansion. • Recognition: Known internally as the "builder of foundations" - the person who creates the system others can scale.
Stabilized Apollo's global support function during a critical growth stage. • Managed thousands of tickets per month while maintaining 95%+ SLA compliance. • Reduced average response time by 40% through new triage processes and early adoption of AI systems. • Authored knowledge base articles that cut repeat tickets by ~15%. • Provided the bridge that transitioned Apollo from Support → CX → SC functions.
Player-Coach mentality. Scaled a global support team from 30 → 50 reps in an environment where most teams shrank due to ESW's high-churn model. • Reversed attrition trend, improving rep retention by ~20% while delivering 50,000+ tickets/month across 29 SaaS products. • Maintained 95%+ SLA compliance and cut onboarding ramp from 6 weeks → 3 weeks through training programs and documentation. • Built automation and reporting frameworks that standardized performance across a volatile org. • Mentored 10+ team members into leadership or specialist roles. • Consistently used as the "benchmark manager", where other teams were measured against the performance of mine.