Full Stack Sales Leader

Michael
Defoe

First hire. First dollar. First exit.

I join startups early, build revenue from zero, and scale teams to exit. Three companies. Three first-sales-hire journeys. From seed round to acquisition.

See the Work Get in Touch

Portfolio of Companies

Companies I've Helped Build

The outer ring is where I built the sales engine from the ground up. The inner ring is where I'm building now.

MD
MediaPRO
Security training · Enterprise
Vanilla
WealthTech · Advisors
Math ANEX
EdTech · K–12 districts
DrivePulse
Automotive AI · OEMs
LumiJobs
Career tech · Universities
Claire
Legal tech · In-house legal
0
First Sales Hires
$0
First Million in Sales
$0
ARR Built Bootstrapped
0
Clients Managed Solo
0%
Of Closed Deals Supported

Work Experience

Joined early, built the revenue engine, stayed through scale.

AppSec / CyberSecurity

MediaPRO.com

Director of Channel Partners & Solutions Architecture

September 2016 – May 2020  ·  Sold to Frontier Growth (private equity) in 2018, then to KnowBe4 in 2021

Joined as the founding solutions architect at a Gartner-recognized leader in security awareness and privacy training. I built the partner channel from scratch, trained the sales organization, and personally supported 90% of all closed opportunities in the two years before the company's exit.


Managed complex RFPs for Fortune 500 and government enterprise accounts — turning demanding compliance requirements into winning proposals.

Who they serve

  • Organizations of every size
  • Fortune 500 & government
  • Security, privacy & compliance teams
90%
of all closed deals personally supported
F500
Fortune 500 & government RFP management
3yr
Channel & Solutions Architecture leadership
#1
Founding solutions architect
  • Spearheaded team development as founding solutions architect
  • Trained sales teams to achieve high performance from day one
  • Managed all partner relationships — training, marketing, and co-sell
  • Represented the company at all major industry conferences
  • Built the playbook that scaled the channel organization to exit
FinTech / Wealth Management

JustVanilla.com

Head of Sales  ·  Seed through Series B

June 2020 – June 2022

Found via AngelList (now WellFound) as the company's eighth employee and first sales hire for an entirely new SaaS product turning a manual, attorney-driven process into a modern wealth management platform. Scaled the company from seed through Series B — 15 demos a day, two years straight.


Established the first sales pipeline, generated the first $1 million in revenue, and solely managed all 150 initial clients. The company grew to 60 employees while I was there.

Who they serve

  • Financial advisors & RIAs
  • Broker-dealers & enterprise wealth firms
  • Mass-affluent to ultra-high-net-worth families
$1M
First million in sales — built from zero
150
Clients managed solo from day one
Series B
Seed through Series B during my tenure
8→60
Employees during my tenure
  • First sales hire — established the entire pipeline from scratch
  • Ran 15+ demos daily through the critical seed-to-Series B phase
  • Showed wealth managers a better way than handing clients to attorneys
  • Scaled firm from 8 → 60 people, seed through Series B
  • Solely managed the first 150 clients through full customer success
EdTech / K–12 Assessment

Math ANEX.com

Head of Sales  ·  Bootstrapped

August 2022 – February 2024  ·  Acquired by Amplify, April 2024

Again found on WellFound — employee #6 and first sales hire for a bootstrapped EdTech startup with a new type of K–12 math assessment struggling to find a market. I determined grassroots was the path: went to every conference, listened deeply to educator frustrations, and let the results speak for themselves. Pilot-to-purchase conversion: 100%.


Grew the company to $1.5M ARR, managed the entire sales funnel and all client relationships, and represented the company at every conference — until we were approached by Amplify and sold. I stayed on with Amplify until February 2025 to vest and hand off clients.

Who they serve

  • K–12 school districts
  • Teachers & district leaders

At acquisition, Math ANEX reached about 220,000 students in more than 15 U.S. districts, including San Diego Unified.

$1.5M
ARR built at a bootstrapped startup
100%
Pilot-to-purchase conversion rate
Acquired
By Amplify, April 2024
#6
Employee — first sales hire
  • Bootstrapped to $1.5M ARR — no external funding
  • Managed the entire sales funnel: leads, pricing, closing, CS
  • 100% pilot-to-purchase conversion across all school districts
  • Handled all client relationships and conference representation
  • Led student advocacy — re-learned the K–12 space from the ground up

How I Work

Sales DNA

Every company is different. The approach is always the same.

🤝

Channel Partner Builder

At MediaPRO, I built the channel partner program from scratch — training partners, managing relationships, and developing co-sell motions that drove 90% of closed revenue. I understand how to turn partners into your best sales force.

📈

GTM Architect

Three times, I walked into a company with no sales process and built one from zero — creating, testing, validating, and running the Go-To-Market strategy. I don't inherit pipelines. I build them.

🎯

Team Leader

Trained sales organizations to achieve top-quartile performance. Scaled teams from 8 to 60 people. Stepped into CEO and CFO responsibilities when needed. Consummate brand evangelist with a "company first" mindset.

🏛

Executive Operator

Represented companies at every major industry conference. Managed relationships at the C-suite and board level across regulated, enterprise, and public-sector verticals. I know how to earn trust in boardrooms and at trade show booths alike.

🧠

Vertical Learner

AppSec → FinTech → EdTech. Every time, I learned the vertical from the ground up before selling. This makes me a credible, empathetic advocate for both the product and the customer — not just a quota carrier.

💡

Customer Advocate

My default is empathy first. I went to every K–12 conference to listen to educator frustrations before selling a solution. I showed wealth managers they could serve clients better. Sales as service, not persuasion.

Current Work

What I'm Building Now

I lead revenue at two early-stage companies and advise founders who need their first customers before they can raise their next round.

DrivePulse

Advisor

drivepulse.co
Automotive Intelligence · AI

DrivePulse analyzes automotive data to reveal trends, risks, and actionable insights — helping OEMs, suppliers, and mobility teams catch safety liabilities before they become recalls. As an early advisor, I helped shape the go-to-market strategy and initial revenue approach for a category-defining product.

Who they serve

  • Automotive OEMs & suppliers
  • Mobility platforms
  • Enterprise analysts
  • Go-to-market strategy for a pre-revenue automotive AI platform
  • Sales narrative development for OEM and supplier verticals
  • Early access program structure and outbound motion design
LumiJobs

Co-founder & Head of Revenue

Starting in 2026

lumijobs.ai
Career Tech · Higher Ed

LumiJobs is an AI job-search platform with job matching, résumé tailoring and visa-aware search. Universities license it for their whole student body, and career services get the first-destination data their NACE reporting depends on.

Who they serve

  • University career services
  • Students & new grads
  • H-1B & OPT job seekers
Claire

Head of Sales

Starting in 2026

goclaire.app
Legal Tech · Contract Review

Claire, by Phronixis, helps in-house legal teams apply company standards, fallback positions and deal context to produce consistent contract recommendations and risk ratings.

Who they serve

  • In-house legal teams
  • Legal operations
  • Compliance teams

Background

The Full Arc

2022 – 2024
Head of Sales
Math ANEX (EdTech) — Acquired by Amplify
Employee #6. Bootstrapped to $1.5M ARR. 100% pilot conversion. Sold to Amplify.
2020 – 2022
Head of Sales
Just Vanilla (FinTech) — Seed through Series B
Employee #8. First $1M. 150 clients solo.
2016 – 2020
Director of Channel Partners & Solutions Architecture
MediaPRO.com (AppSec / CyberSecurity)
Founding solutions architect. Channel program from zero. 90% of closed deals. Fortune 500 & government.
Earlier Career
IT, Project Management, Operations
Public School District · International Shipping · Hospital System
Built a foundation across IT, software engineering, and PM before discovering startups.
2003 – 2005
Management Information Systems
Washington State University

Let's Build Something.

Whether you're a pre-seed founder who needs their first customers, a growth-stage company looking for a sales leader, or an operator who needs a partner — I'm always interested in a conversation.

✉ michael@defoe.co in LinkedIn Facebook Instagram X (Twitter)