BOSTON — Proton.ai, the AI-powered growth engine for distributors, announced Feb. 3 the appointment of two executive positions. The company has hired Kevin Colón as Chief Revenue Officer and tapped Emily Garza as Vice President of Customer Success.
Kevin Colón brings more than 25 years of sales leadership to Proton, with a history of delivering revenue growth and increased market share for high-performing SaaS and high-tech companies. Most recently, Colón served as a key member of the executive team at Salesloft, where he helped grow the SaaS company from $33 million to more than $100 million in two years, leading to a successful majority sale to Vista Equity Partners and a $2.3 billion valuation in 2021. Prior to that, he managed US enterprise revenue regions for Box, and led the strategy, go-to-market, and revenue teams at Striim, which achieved 10x sales growth during his tenure.
WATCH: 5 Minutes With ID: Proton's Benj Cohen on AI's Evolving Role for Distributors - published Jan. 25
“Kevin’s proven success in driving revenue for hyper-growth SaaS companies made him a clear choice for our business,” said Benj Cohen, Founder & CEO of Proton. “His experience and drive will help us realize Proton’s lofty growth expectations over the coming years.”
“I’m excited about Proton’s solution, people, customer-first focus, and industry vision,” said Colón. “We have an opportunity to deliver disruptive AI technology to a B2B industry that is hungry for innovation and forward-thinking solutions.”
Emily Garza brings extensive experience in direct sales and sales enablement to Proton’s Customer Success organization, having worked for more than 12 years at AT&T and Fastly. In 2021, Garza was named a Top 100 Customer Success Strategist by SuccessCOACHING. Most recently, she was responsible for customer engagement and growth at Fastly, maintaining a 60+ Net Promoter Score while scaling the customer success organization from supporting $60M to $300M+ in annual recurring revenue.
“Emily brings a holistic view of the customer journey to our Customer Success organization,” said Cohen. “She’s an experienced leader who knows how to create and maintain a fanatical customer base.”
RELATED: Distributor Growth Platform Proton.ai Nets $20M in Series A Funding - published Jan. 18
“When I saw Proton's ability to demonstrate measurable ROI and heard direct customer feedback on the business value they’ve created, I knew this was an organization I wanted to be a part of,” said Garza. “The team is humble, driven, customer-focused and provides a game-changing offering – all factors that made me want to join.”
Outside of Proton, both executives currently serve as advisors to university programs, with Colón advising the University of South Florida College of Business and Garza advising and promoting the University of San Francisco School of Management. Colón is also an investor and advisor to Hub.inc, the leading pre-sales SaaS platform.
These two appointments come on the heels of Proton announcing in January of 2022 that they received a $20 million Series A round of funding led by Felicis Ventures. The company boasts customers that include some of the most prominent in wholesale distribution, including MSC Industrial Supply, R.S. Hughes, and Palmer-Donavin.
About Proton.aiDistributors have tons of data – sales history, product data, customer info, the list goes on. Like we’ve seen in B2C, this type of data can be used to increase sales (think Amazon, Netflix). Sophisticated machine learning – which is not a core competency for Distributors – is the key to success. Proton solves a huge data problem for Distributors. We aggregate data, analyze it with neural network AI, find upsell and cross-sell opportunities, and create more proactive and profitable orders. On average, our customers see a 5-10% increase in revenue for every sales channel in which they deploy Proton.ai. For more information, visit www.proton.ai.
