Carl Larson

Limited Partner

Stage 2 Capital · Chicago, Illinois, United States

Present

The VC firm built by operators, for founders. ➤ Stage 2 Capital backs early-stage B2B software leaders and partners with them to turn product-market fit into repeatable, scalable growth. ➤ Stage 2 Capital is the first venture capital firm backed and run by go-to-market leaders. We invest in early-stage B2B software companies and work side-by-side with founders to build and scale repeatable revenue engines. ➤ Our community of senior executives, CROs, CMOs, and operators from the world’s fastest-growing SaaS companies brings hands-on expertise to every portfolio company. Together, we help founders move from product-market fit to predictable, scalable growth. ➤ Drawing on insights from hundreds of startups, we’ve developed proven, data-driven playbooks to accelerate revenue, strengthen operations, and drive sustainable scale.

Limited Partner

Serra Ventures, LLC · Chicago, Illinois, United States

Present

Backing founders turning breakthrough technologies into scalable companies. ➤ Serra Ventures partners with early-stage innovators solving industry-defining problems across the U.S. ➤ We back high-integrity teams turning deep research and technical innovation into scalable businesses. Founded in the Midwest to fuel commercialization around leading research universities, Serra now invests nationally — proving that transformative companies can be built anywhere. ➤ Our Managing Partners are former venture-backed CEOs who understand the art and science of company-building. We work shoulder-to-shoulder with founders, bringing coaching, operational insight, and access to a trusted network of investors and advisors. ➤ Serra invests at the inflection point where product-market fit meets the ambition to scale — helping founders turn innovation into enduring growth.

Business Technology Leader | Artificial Intelligence | Saas Applications | Cloud | Data Analytics

IBM · Chicago, Illinois, United States

➤ Partner with Account Sales and Technical Leaders to drive new, qualified opportunities for existing and new clients and IBM’s Sales Plays. ➤ Support business value framing, value realization and orchestration practices of the Client Engineering team. ➤ Lead the Client Engineering team to develop business cases and embed services capabilities into Minimum Viable Solutions. ➤ Collaborate with client business stakeholders to understand and develop the business level outcomes that the IBM Proof of Experience process needs to deliver. ➤ Own engagement process and hand-off to other IBM teams and customers. ➤ Act as focal point with tip of the spear responsibility for account team leadership to manage Client Engineering opportunities. ➤ Act as the primary driver for business value to our clients and internal IBM stakeholders. ➤ Coordinate internally with subject matter guild experts to create business value assets (business value assessments, business cases, ROI calculators). ➤ Deliver busi…

North American Sales Leader | Enterprise Software and Services | Hybrid Cloud

IBM · North America

➤ Work collaboratively with IBM global business line executives and the local market leaders, technical solution management, and client solution sales executives to identify, qualify, solution, execute and close strategic, enterprise TCV agreements. ➤ Lead by example to engage, negotiate, and close new business and first of a kind enterprise software service agreements. ➤ Lead and enable the sales organization to execute world-class sales activities. ➤ Develop, grow, and progress effective sales campaigns, pipeline revenues, and qualified sales forecasts using Salesforce Sales Cloud and Tableau Analytics Studio. ➤ Influence and hold accountable regional software sales teams by growing the quantity and quality of each customer engagement. ➤ Own, develop, and execute global sales metrics, target sales playbooks, and sales motions to increase sales velocity. ➤ Work collectively with other IBM line of businesses including Global Markets, Consulting, and Systems to grow the IBM brand and ma…

Sales Results|Sales Leader|Sales Strategy, Process & Execution|Sales Talent|Portfolio Advisor

Redbrick Sales Advisors · Greater Chicago Area

Redbrick delivers world-class sales leadership to companies & their leaders to grow profitable sales revenues, high-performance sales teams & loyal customer relationships. ➤ www.redbricksalesadvisors.com ➤ Hands-on sales leader with proven skills to drive sales, build C-level relationships, increase market share, customer retention & satisfaction. ➤ Recruits, builds & develops high-performance sales teams. ➤ Expands markets by creating new & repeat sales opportunities for high-growth businesses. ➤ Evaluates & executes account engagement strategies to exceed sales goals by prospecting for new opportunities & retaining & growing repeat customer revenues. ➤ Improves sales organization & business plans, strategic direction, GTM strategy design, product development strategy, customer success & value-creation, end-to-end sales account planning, development & closing processes, recruiting & compensation planning. ➤ In collaboration with the CEO of an start-up additive manufacturing firm, crea…

Executive Lecturer|Speaker|Coach|Management|Erp|Crm|Database|Analytics|Saas|Cloud|Oracle|Microsoft

Quinlan School of Business, Loyola University Chicago · Quinlan educates responsible leaders who strengthen our global business system.

➤ MBA-educated B2B sales leader with innate, professional experience: (1) Articulating how commercial organization’s utilize business information technology to digitally transform; (2) Exhibiting a commitment to promoting academic excellence in all students and peers; (3) Exuding a positive, supportive, and motivating disposition with students, faculty, and staff; (4) Demonstrating outstanding written and verbal communication skills; (5) Assessing results and providing constructive, timely feedback. ➤ As a seasoned, enterprise technology sales leader, teach "the business" of business information systems and operations to passionately illustrate how businesses justify and utilize SaaS business applications, data management, analytics, Cloud, and emerging technologies to create competitive advantage, improve revenues, reduce costs and manage risk. ➤ Create an interactive and engaging learning environment that confidently inspires students to collaboratively learn about today's high techn…

Enterprise Sales Results Leader|Sales Strategy|Sales Process|Saas|Cloud|Erp|Crm|Analytics|Database

Oracle · Driven software, SaaS & professional services sales leader who:

➤ Achieved a proven personal & team sales & revenue growth track record to profitably build businesses. ➤ Hired & (re)built successful sales teams to grow markets, win rates, & revenues. ➤ Implemented a customer engagement vision that improved C-level access, grew enterprise opportunity revenues & strengthened each customer experience. ➤ Fostered a high-performance sales culture to rapidly grow revenues, market share & references. ➤ Developed & implemented sales metrics & dashboards to improve CRM-driven processes, forecasts, execution, & consistent results. ➤ Documented playbooks & strategies to open both new & grow existing customer footprints. ➤ Developed sales vision & strategy to drive transformation including improved sales process execution & value-add customer engagement. ➤ Built, motivated & scaled high performing sales teams to grow revenues & improve customer satisfaction by creating a results-oriented culture of trust & teamwork. ➤ Designed & implemented new sales processes…

Group Vice President, North American Big Data & Iot Sales

Oracle · Greater Chicago Area

➤ Promoted to recruit and build the new $30M Big Data sales organization for the Eastern United States and Canada for retail, CPG, financial services, manufacturing, distribution, telecommunications, healthcare, public sector, higher education, and hospitality industries. ➤ In addition to business application and data management software solutions, I have been leading sales organizations that sell analytics solutions for over 20 years. ➤ The North American Big Data Sales Specialist Team was responsible for the Oracle Big Data platform including data acquisition, integration, refinement, management, storage, discovery, analytics, and visualization solutions. ➤ My team competed against and supported business intelligence clients utilizing analytics software from vendors such as Tableau, Qlik, IBM, SAP, Informatica, SAS, and Microsoft. ➤ My team also competed against Teradata and Netezza data warehousing and business analytics solutions. "Carl led sales teams during much of this period in…

Group Vice President, North American Sales

Oracle · Greater Chicago Area

➤ Promoted to a third line Group VP to lead & grow Oracle’s $396M North American Central Group & directed over 200 sales personnel across 18 states, 6 provinces, 5 areas, & 12 regions for retail, CPG, financial services, manufacturing, distribution, telecommunications, hospitality, and non-profit industries. ➤ Grew revenues from $294M to $350M, or 19% by consistently growing the business every quarter in 2014. ➤ Achieved 123% of the quota objective and grew revenue from $231M to 317M, or 37% in 2011. ➤ Achieved 125% of the quota objective and grew revenue from $187M to $230M, or 23% in 2007. ➤ Grew Engineered Systems sales 200% & was the first team to sell 100 units exceeding the combined sales of all NA teams. ➤ Increased revenue 15% from $132M to $152M by leading the North American Utilities Group as executive sponsor. ➤ Selected to attend the inaugural Executive Leadership Development Experience associated with Carnegie Mellon University. ➤ Recognized multiple times as the quarterly…

Area Vice President, North American Sales

Oracle · Greater Chicago Area

➤ Promoted to a second line Area Vice President to lead and grow Oracle’s $140M North American Central Area comprised of over 100 sales personnel across 7 states, 6 provinces, and 5 regions for retail, CPG, financial services, manufacturing, distribution, telecommunications, hospitality, and non-profit industries. ➤ Grew annual revenue from $122M to $140M, or 15% and transaction volumes 50% to achieve annual quota in 2005. ➤ Named the lead executive sponsor for the division to serve on Oracle’s Technology Leadership Council. "Carl is an accomplished leader who has consistently delivered operational excellence and revenue growth results. He is one of the very best client focused executives I have worked with. Carl engages with the totality of the customer expectation articulated in a value statement that delivers consistent results to his organization. He distinguishes himself through a disciplined enablement methodology which evaluates the value expectation of the customer. This method…

Regional Manager, North American Sales

Oracle · Greater Chicago Area

➤ Promoted to lead and grow Oracle’s $22M North American Central Region comprised of over 15 sales personnel for retail, CPG, financial services, manufacturing, distribution, telecommunications, hospitality, and non-profit industries. ➤ Awarded Regional Manager of the Year in 2002 by growing the region from $22M to $26M, or 15%. ➤ Grew revenue pipeline to 350% vs. $22M quota by establishing and implementing key performance indicators. "Carl is one of the most competent sales leaders I had the pleasure supporting while at Oracle. Over the years, due to his leadership, management skills, drive, and ability to attract and retain talented sales people & managers, Carl delivered consistent revenue growth and over achievement of annual goals. Carl is an outstanding professional and an asset to any organization." - Gus Samios, President

Territory Manager, North American Sales

Oracle · Greater Chicago Area

➤ Hired to manage and lead Oracle’s $6.2M IL commercial application, data, and analytics platform sales territory to grow both new and existing account revenues and market share that led to overachieving sales revenue quota each fiscal year. ➤ After 18 months of successful performance, was promoted to Regional Manager based upon 197% & 148% sales quota attainment in 1997 & 1998 respectively & was awarded Rookie of the Year honors. ➤ Starting in 1997, consistently qualified for Oracle’s 100% Revenue Club Excellence. "Carl is an energetic leader and business strategist. He was a great mentor to me earlier in my career and admired his sense of calm and self-assurance in the most competitive/stressful situations. Carl's positive demeanor, great sense of humor, and relationship building skills helps position himself, his clients and his teams for success." - Doug Rossier, President

Solution Sales Leader|Marketing|Business Strategy|Sales Channels|Industrial Automation|It Networking

Anixter International · Mount Prospect, Illinois

Regional Management, Manufacturing and Industrial Sector Sales Leader ➤ Hired to expand Anixter’s industrial solution offerings awareness through sales enablement, marketing plans and trade shows to communicate how the company connects a manufacturer’s plant floor with corporate information systems. ➤ Developed $26.5MM in incremental revenue within the $139MM industrial and manufacturing sectors across Anixter's 15 state Central Region that grew the region’s sales 20%. ➤ Built dedicated channel partnerships, strategic sales programs, demand generation marketing campaigns, and presentations to support and motivate new business development efforts and value-based sales initiatives to exceed revenue growth targets.

Sales|Marketing|New Logo Development|Software|Hardware|Technology|Consulting|Channels|Entrepreneur

Aspen Consulting · Rolling Meadows, Illinois

Sales Director, New Business Development ➤ Hired as employee #1 to direct new business sales growth and development for an entrepreneurial consulting services firm offering systems integration, consulting, hardware, software, and training to cross-industry clients. ➤ Generated from $0 to $1,000,000 in 18 months by establishing 30 new customers that led new business development responsibilities for the company.

Sales|Manufacturing|Distribution|Mrp Applications|Databases|Hardware|Consulting Services|Channels

IBM Corporation · Oak Brook, Illinois

➤ Hired to build IBM's AS/400, System/3X, and RS/6000 information technology platform sales by directly calling on new and existing clients by providing hands-on sales and service to support the value of IBM's MAPICS and DMAS manufacturing and distribution software solutions. ➤ Achieved $6.5MM and 40% growth on a $4.6MM objective by leading sales activities and developing marketing programs to direct a field, technical, and channel sales team that provided strategic sales and consultative service to clients by offering comprehensive information technology, consulting service, and financing solutions. ➤ Qualified for IBM 100% Club for consistent sales achievement, results orientation, integrity and branch management honors. "Carl is an exceptional, results driven sales executive, as well as a skilled communicator, with strong business acumen and ethics rooted in IBM's sound management principles. Carl has always exemplified a commitment to excellence in all his endeavors. The combinatio…