Toronto · Canadian PR · open to roles

I sell it, then I build the machine that sells it.

Three-time founding sales hire. Nine years closing SMB and mid-market SaaS, and the same nine years building the CRM architecture, forecasting models and automation underneath the number.

Ashwin Sadananthan
Founding sales hire
$3M+ARR built at respond.io
20Reps hired & scaled
10→50%Handraiser → meeting rate

What I'm looking for

Three shapes of role, one underlying job.

Founding AE

Give me the product, an ICP hypothesis and an empty CRM. At Consio I generated $200K ARR in six months from a standing start. At respond.io I was the first AE, hit 140–200% of monthly quota, and wrote the playbook the next nine reps ran on.

Founding GTM

The job past closing: ICP, pricing, process, CRM architecture and the automation layer underneath. I built respond.io's first repeatable motion on top of an existing product-led base and moved the company off founder-led selling entirely.

Sales & GTM leadership

Hired and scaled 9 AEs, 9 SDRs and 2 partnership managers. Grew sales' contribution to company revenue by 600% in under 12 months while holding 35%+ win rates and sales cycles under 45 days.

The common thread is building the thing before it exists. Every role I've taken since 2021 has been a first or a founding seat: no playbook, no CRM, no benchmark to hit. Most sellers stop at the quota. I keep going until the motion runs without me.

Selected builds

The infrastructure under the number.

Every founding seat I've taken came with the same problem: the pipeline was real but nothing underneath it was. These are the systems I built to fix that, and what they returned.

The AI GTM stack

Consio.ai · 2025–26
One contract AE, no ops function, 80+ live deals to keep warm. Everything wired in n8n.

The problem

An early-stage AI phone platform for ecommerce brands. One in ten handraisers from the cold email campaign converted into a booked meeting, HubSpot went stale because nobody had time to update it, and product feedback disappeared into call recordings nobody re-listened to. Every hour spent on admin was an hour not spent in discovery.

What I built

  • A webhook off the call recorder into n8n, writing summaries and deal updates straight into HubSpot after every conversation, so the CRM stayed current without anyone maintaining it
  • A product-gap layer reading call transcripts, extracting feature requests, and posting them into a product Slack channel that fed the feature request tracker
  • An outbound engine built on real ICP evidence: I profiled top-performing accounts in Metabase, used Clay and Store Leads to find organisations matching that shape, then generated each script around whichever existing customer the prospect most resembled
  • LinkedIn and Slack automations across 200+ accounts, with Claude working from HubSpot deal state and a meeting database in Google Docs to decide which accounts needed a touch and draft it
Stackn8n · HubSpot · Clay · Store Leads · Metabase · Claude · Slack · call-recorder webhooks

10+ hours a week returned across sales, CS, partnerships and onboarding. Handraiser-to-meeting conversion went from 10% to 50%: half of everyone who replied with interest ended up on a call. $200K ARR closed in the first six months while the system ran underneath.

From product-led to predictable

respond.io · 2021–23
A PLG funnel with real signal in it and no sales motion to catch it.

The problem

A Series A conversational platform growing on free trials, with the founder still closing most of the revenue. Trial users were signalling intent every day and nobody was reading it. There was no forecast worth the name, no defined process, and no way to coach reps at the point where deals were actually being lost.

What I built

  • The first repeatable sales motion layered on top of the existing product-led base, taking the company off founder-led selling
  • An SDR program that mined free-trial usage for intent and turned it into 200+ qualified meetings per week
  • A data-driven forecasting model that made pipeline predictable enough to hire against
  • A coaching layer using Fireflies.ai meeting insights, so process improvements came from what reps actually said on calls
  • A scalable partnership acquisition model to carry the next phase of growth
StackHubSpot · Fireflies.ai · Zapier · trial-usage intent data · forecasting model

Scaled to $3M+ ARR with 35%+ win rates and sales cycles under 45 days. Sales' contribution to company revenue grew 600% in under 12 months. I also served as primary solution architect and fractional RevOps manager through the same period.

A partner-led motion, from zero

reSolved · 2024–25
No CRM, no forecast, and revenue arriving through partners nobody was tracking.

The problem

A solution provider building custom grant management systems for NGOs and charities. Deals came through partner referrals and co-sell arrangements, but there was no system recording which partner produced what, no pipeline visibility, and no basis for forecasting a quarter.

What I built

  • Salesforce implemented and customised from scratch for partner tracking, revenue forecasting and pipeline management
  • A repeatable sales motion built on top of partner referrals and co-sell agreements
  • Deep product expertise in complex grant management software, translated for finance and operations buyers
StackSalesforce · partner attribution · forecasting & pipeline reporting

$200K+ USD generated through partnership-driven new business, with the pipeline visible and forecastable for the first time.

Experience

Nine years, three continents.
Consio.ai
Toronto · 2025–26
Founding Account Executive / AI GTM
  • Generated $200K ARR in the first six months from a standing start
  • Ran 7–8 discovery calls a week across 80+ active deals, touching each every five days
  • Built company-wide AI infrastructure saving 10+ hours per week across sales, CS, partnerships and onboarding
  • Lifted handraiser-to-meeting conversion on the cold email engine from 10% to 50% using Clay for targeting and scripting
reSolved
Toronto · 2024–25
Founding Account Manager
  • Generated $200K+ USD through partnership-driven new business
  • Built a sales motion on top of partner referrals and co-sell agreements
  • Introduced and customised Salesforce for forecasting, partner tracking and pipeline management
respond.io
Kuala Lumpur · 2021–23
Head of Sales & Partnerships → Fractional RevOps Manager → Founding AE
  • Built the first repeatable sales motion on top of an existing product-led growth base
  • Scaled the sales team to $3M+ ARR with 35%+ win rates and sales cycles under 45 days
  • Grew sales' contribution to company revenue by 600% in under 12 months
  • Hired and scaled 9 AEs, 9 SDRs and 2 partnership managers
  • Launched an SDR program generating 200+ qualified meetings per week from free-trial users
  • As founding AE: $500K ARR across South East Asia, South Asia and the Middle East at 140–200% of quota
Qlik
Singapore · 2018–20
Trial Success Lead → Commercial Account Manager → BDR
  • $1.4M in license sales through channel partnerships at 139% of quota, across 6 ASEAN markets
  • Drove 250% growth from key focus partners through targeted enablement and joint sales motions
  • 130% of KPIs in first quarter optimising trial-to-conversion workflows; built $600K+ in enterprise pipeline
FDM Group
Singapore · 2015–18
Account Manager & Project Consultant
  • Generated $5M+ CAD, outperforming every other sales professional in Singapore
  • Built C-level relationships at ANZ, RHB, CIMB and Liberty Insurance
University of Leeds
United Kingdom · 2010–14
MEng, Robotics and Mechatronics

Stack

What I build and sell with.

Build

Clayn8nClaude ZapierWebhooks & APIsSalesforce HubSpotFireflies.aiQlik Sense CRM architecturePipeline forecastingProcess automation

Sell

Full-cycle SMB & mid-marketDiscoveryValue-based selling Technical product sellingC-level engagementOutbound & inbound Partner & channelTeam scalingEnablement & coaching GTM strategyApolloSalesloft

Contact

If you're hiring a first seller, a founding GTM lead, or someone to build the system and then run the team on it, I'd like to hear about it.

Toronto-based · Canadian Permanent Resident · works PST/EST · available immediately