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Blake Danielson

Founding GTM Operator| First Sales Hire at 3 Startups| Pipeline, Ops & AI Workflows

I've been the first sales hire at three startups. I take over from founder-led sales, build the pipeline, and set up the systems so nothing slips.

$1.2M+
Closed in my career
$1M+
Pipeline built
5
Startups
3x
First sales hire

What I'm building

  • GTM Teardown

    Paste a startup's URL. Get a one-page go-to-market audit and the first 90 days I'd run there.

    Try it free

  • The AI Sales Stack

    How I ran US sales alone with a set of Claude workflows. Inbox, CRM logging, and a daily check that nothing got dropped.

    Read the case study

Experience

  1. to

    Head of US Sales

    Outsorcy

    • First US employee and first dedicated sales hire. Took over from founder-led sales and built the repeatable US motion: outbound, referral partners, discovery, pricing and close.
    • Closed $428K in ARR and built a $1M+ ARR pipeline, the largest in the company, with $300K in late-stage deals at my departure.
    • Built Claude-based sales workflows that logged every email, Slack and call touch to the CRM, drafted follow-ups and ran a daily pipeline review.
  2. to

    Head of Venue Partnerships (Part-time)

    BTO (Beat The Odds)

    • First sales hire. Signed 128 bars myself through walk-ins and partner deals; network now at nearly 550 venues.
    • Partners include Visit Long Beach, the city's tourism bureau. Leading outreach to tourism bureaus in 9 more cities.
    • Built an AI lead-gen tool that maps and scores sports bars from public data and reviews.
  3. to

    Co-Founder & Head of Sales

    ServiceProClub

    • Built the go-to-market from scratch (ICP, value prop, sales motion) and closed $225K+ in sales.
    • Closed our first 4 paying customers myself ($15K ARR), competing against ServiceTitan and Housecall Pro.
    • Built the full sales playbook and ran the stack (HubSpot, Apollo): sequences, demo flows, proposals and funnel reporting.
  4. to

    Strategic Operations Manager

    FocusPoint / Overwatch & Rescue (OxR)

    • Helped grow OxR from its first users past 100,000. The creator marketing program I launched drove 20%+ of sign-ups.
    • Owned onboarding and lifted 48-hour user activation 25% by fixing drop-off points.
    • Automated cross-team workflows (Zapier, Python) and rebuilt SOPs, freeing up $100K+ a year in labor.
  5. to

    Founders Associate

    Vertical

    • Direct report to the CEO of one of California's largest vertically integrated cannabis companies, which raised $65M+.
    • Sourced and led the acquisition of 2 Los Angeles dispensaries generating a combined $5M in EBITDA; ran a 15+ target M&A pipeline and took 3 to LOI.
    • Sold our brands wholesale to dispensaries: $550K closed, including $200K+ from 5 accounts at the first Hall of Flowers trade show.
  6. to

    Venture Capital Analyst

    Casa Verde Capital (Snoop Dogg's VC fund)

    • Identified and pitched Ginkgo Bioworks in 2018; it went public in 2021 at a ~$15B valuation.
    • Built a tracking model for 50+ cannabis operators and brands (20+ of them public) that automated analysis of financials, SEC/SEDAR filings and press releases.

Hiring your first sales lead?

I'll walk you through what I'd do in the first 90 days. Grab 30 minutes or send me a note.