The Interview

Kluster's Take

Theo spoke with Andrew Bartlam, VP EMEA Sales at Orca Security. He explains his philosophy of breaking out of your comfort zone.

Andrew started his career working for Remedy. This was a hugely successful company that they took to IPO. Andrew then moved to Vignette, which went from 16 to $367 million worth of revenue in three years. He has worked for a bunch of different startups since and is hoping that Orca Security will be his fifth IPO. 

Andrew thinks you need to be outside of your comfort zone. Most definitely in a startup environment. He specifically looks for people that are dynamic. They do at least one more thing a day than the competition does and are full of energy. Andrew places value in time management. He wants people who are ruthless at qualifying deals. Communication is another key area for Andrew. He believes in the concept of managing your manager. He gives managers the information they need and is proactive with communication flow. Andrew expects the same from reps and wants to know where they are in the strategic deals.

He stresses that you should not assume that a client’s going to renew. Just because the customer success team is doing a good job, you still need to build that relationship.

Andrew believes there must be a single source of truth. Particularly in a high-growth environment. Otherwise, you have too many data sources and there are many other things you need to focus on. He stresses that “if it ain't in Salesforce, it doesn't exist”.