References

Founders who learned to sell, and teams that kept selling.

Twenty years of operating sales for early-stage startups. Below are references from founders and GTM leaders I have coached, advised, and hired for.

01Founder-led sales
Niels coached me from knowing nothing about sales to closing six-figure deals and building a full sales team. Two years in, he still feels like a friend who wants the best for the company. Without him, Zync would not be where it is.

I've worked with Niels as my sales coach for over 2 years. He took me from knowing nothing about sales to landing six-figure deals and building out an entire sales team. He's a patient but firm teacher, which is exactly what a founder needs. Every employee he mentored gave me great feedback when I asked about working with him. Without Niels, Zync would not be where it is today, and I plan to keep learning from him as we grow.

ZBZerzar BukhariFounder & CEO, Zync (YC)
02GTM leadership
We brought Niels in to fill a gap on our GTM leadership team. He got up to speed fast, found the highest-priority problems, and backed every solution with real data. I'd recommend him to anyone who needs structure in their GTM org.

We brought Niels on for a short stint to fill a temporary gap on our GTM leadership team. He got up to speed quickly, identified the highest-priority problems in our GTM strategy, and proposed practical solutions backed by spreadsheets and data. He gave our sales and CS teams interim leadership and a balanced perspective on the best path forward. He's an excellent communicator and very responsive. I highly recommend Niels as a GTM leader to create structure and solve problems in any GTM organization.

TLTessa LauCEO, Dusty Robotics
03Scaling revenue
Niels advised two of my early-stage YC startups. Both grew over 500% with better win rates and higher ACV. There's no way we'd have got there without him.

We relied on Niels as our GTM advisor at two early-stage YC startups. Both grew over 500% and improved win rate and ACV. There's no way we'd have got there without him. His suggestions were practical for the resources we had and easy to act on. He worked across sales, marketing, CS, and the exec level to keep us driving toward the KPIs we set at the start. He communicates well at every level of the business. I couldn't recommend him more to any startup that wants to scale.

ZFZack FranciscoVP Sales, Threekit
04Sales coaching
Niels was a world-class sales coach who felt like a full team member. He ran our weekly sales meetings, coached the team one-on-one, and found the experiments that actually moved sales. The best thing I did for our sales.

Niels was an incredible sales coach, and we wouldn't have hit our sales goals without him. His sales experience is world class, and he genuinely cared about our startup. He brought so much energy that he felt like a full team member. He led our weekly sales meetings and coached individual reps on how to sell. He also knows how early-stage selling works, where you have to experiment constantly instead of running a top-down plan. He helped us pick the right experiments to run so we could learn fast what was working and what wasn't. Getting Niels' help was the best thing I could have done for our sales.

BLBryant LeeFounder & CEO, Cognition IP (YC)
05US market entry
As a Norwegian startup entering the US, having Niels as an advisor was hugely valuable. He guided our pipeline, prospecting, and deals, and helped us hire our first US rep. His mix of US SaaS sales experience and Nordic background made him the right fit.

As a Norwegian startup entering the US market, having Niels as an advisor was hugely valuable during our establishment phase. He gave us strategic guidance on building pipeline, prospecting, and advancing deals through the funnel, and played a key role in hiring our first US team member. His experience with US sales processes for SaaS is hard to find. Combining that with a Nordic cultural background made him especially effective for a Scandinavian company like 7Analytics expanding into the US. I recommend Niels for sales and go-to-market strategy for any startup entering the US market.

HJHelge JorgensenCEO, 7Analytics
06Process and win rate
We brought Niels in for a VP-of-Sales perspective at $400K ARR. He found our biggest blockers, tightened qualification, raised win rate and ACV, and fixed BDR/AE alignment. A few months later we're at $600K.

Letterdrop is a seed-stage, YC-backed company. About 3 months ago, at around $400K ARR, we wanted a third-party VP-of-Sales perspective on our pipeline and started working with Niels. I'm a founder with a product and engineering background and had never built a sales org. Niels went through our entire sales process to pinpoint the biggest blockers and the clearest areas to improve. Since then we've raised our qualification rate by being more selective about the meetings we take, increased win rate, raised ACV, and gotten much better alignment between our BDR and AE. He also helped us think through comp structure and how to actually run a sales team. We're at roughly $600K ARR a few months later, and we know the specific steps to keep improving. If you have clearly defined problems in your sales process and the discipline to act on his advice, Niels genuinely moves the needle. Highly recommend him.

PLParthi LoganathanFounder & CEO, Letterdrop (YC)
07Pre-PMF selling
Niels set up our sales infrastructure during founder-led sales, from prospecting to closing, tailored to our stage. His coaching mattered most early, when we were still working out who our customer was. Any early-stage founder would be lucky to work with him.

Niels helped me set up our initial sales infrastructure during our founder-led sales phase. He gave us solid sales training from prospecting to closing, and built an approach tailored to our industry and stage. His coaching was most valuable early, when we were still working out who our target customer should be, how to find them, and the steps to close. Any early-stage founder would be lucky to work with him, especially founders with limited sales experience in the pre-PMF or early-PMF stages.

KMKent MoriCo-Founder, Mayfair (ex-YC)

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