👋 I help early stage B2B SaaS companies reach initial scale -faster. If you’re an ambitious early-stage founder that is looking to reach G2M fit, let's chat!

I support ambitious SaaS founders with their G2M efforts, to take their startup from founder-led sales to scaling up, faster!

¬ See how I work

Since 2010, I’ve been fortunate to be part of three successful SaaS startups from pre-revenue to exit (2) or past €5m ARR (1). Along the way, I've gathered invaluable learnings - sometimes what really works, other times what can cost precious runway!

¬ See what I've built

Portfolio

Composable

¬ Commerce Layer

Composable commerce API for developers

2021 -

Active

Composable

¬ Ninetailed

API-first Personalisation and Experimentation engine

2021 -

Active

Sales & Growth

¬ Breyta

CRM as it should be

2022 -

ACTIVE

Sales & Growth

¬ Lative

Connecting revenue and finance for efficient growth

2022 -

active

Martech

¬ Colorful

Virtual photo studio for ecommerce

2023 -

ACTIVE

Future of food

¬ Hier Foods

Local food supplier management

2021 - 2022

engagement ended

Future of food

¬ Invisible Foods

Marketplace for reducing food waste

2021 -

Active

HR Tech

¬ Poption

Helping corporates hire graduates

2020 - 2021

bankrupt

MARTECH

¬ Teston

Unmoderated online user testing

2019 - 2020

Acquired

MARTECH

¬ SmartPricing

Building the OS for hotel and lodging owners

2023 -

Active

What they say

Christian is the best advisor we have at Commerce Layer. He's experienced, open-minded, professional, and fun to work with! He quickly becomes your go-to person when it comes to making strategic decisions about your team structure, partnerships, and more. He also introduced me to great talents, helping us with some of our best hires. One of the things that I like more about Christian is that he really cares. He feels part of your journey and puts great commitment into making your company successful.

Filippo Conforti

CEO & Founder of CommerceLayer

Christian is a jack of all trades when it comes to kick-starting efficient sales organizations. In the almost two years we’ve been working together, he’s had an incredible impact on how we operate on a commercial level. His vast knowledge and excellent communication make him an ideal sparring partner on a strategic level. At the same time, he does not shy away from the operational nitty-gritty. Christian did a fantastic job mentoring our commercial leadership, resulting in excellent results.

Lara Hämmerle

CEO & Founder of Hier

I've been working with Christian for over 3 years with him being my advisor and board member in two of my companies now. In both companies he became an extension of the GTM team, helping with structure, know-how and improving processes that elevated our company from founder-led sales to scaling a revenue org. I've learned a ton and I'm still learning, and would recommend any kind of company to work with Christian in some form or another.

Chris Moen

CEO & Founder of Breyta.io

Christian is on top of his game. He is a pleasure to work with, and his experience, knowledge, network and closeness are invaluable. Christian teams up effectively with senior leadership, peers, and team members, and he can effectively support, guide and motivate founders at all levels.

Andy Kaiser

CEO & Founder of Ninetailed

Christian is the real deal - just within a few months of having him as a Commercial Coach - I can call him an excellent strategist who knows how to leverage his skillset, network and experience to add the value a startup needs. [...] He has also been instrumental in enabling our fundraise and getting right and tight traction in our first paid pilot as well as in our software development.

Neville Michna

CEO & Founder of Invisible Foods

How I work

With every startup I advice, I become a natural extension of the team. You can call me for anything.

I start by analysing the current state of the company's G2M efforts. Where are you seeing early signs of success? What are the areas of most friction? Which patterns can we observe? To understand what we need to change first.

There's no standard playbook for how to get from €0 to €5m ARR. Every product, market, team, etc. are different and need different things to reach initial scale.

However, there are certain things you need clarity on to find that repeatability and your go-to-market fit:

What pain are really you solving?

↳ Value proposition & messaging

For which companies?

↳ "Right now" ICP

Who at those companies feel this pain? Who buys?

↳ Personas

How are they getting by for now?

↳ Your actual competition (not some other startup nobody's heard about)

What is alleviating this pain worth to them?

↳ Pricing & Packaging

How quickly can we create a repeatable process?

↳ Sales playbook

Who do we need on the team to execute scale?

↳ Hiring strategy

Getting past the initial traction is not a project. If I join your company, it's to get you to €5m ARR and beyond, faster!

I charge a fixed monthly retainer and receive stock options vesting over two years.

I'm also happy to put in an angel ticket when that's on the table.

Operator Experience

¬ Solvemate was a chatbot company for customer support. I joined Solvemate as the commercial co-founder in 2017, in order to build and lead the G2M organisation. We grew Solvemate to about 30 people and $2m ARR before selling to Dixa.

2017 - 2021

Acquired

¬ Contentful was the first-mover in the headless content management space and paved the way for a move away from monoliths towards a composable stack. I joined as the first G2M hire in 2014 when there were just 8 people, and set up the foundation for sales, marketing, customer success and partnerships. When I left in 2017, we had grown to about 80 people and $5m ARR.

2014 - 2017

IPO-bound

¬ Podio was an early day Notion, where you can build your own workflows for anything from project management to CRM. When I joined as the first business hire in 2010, we were among the early companies to apply the freemium model in B2B, or product led growth, as it's being renamed these days. We launched the product in early 2011, and grew it to tens of thousands of users by 2012, when we were acquired by Citrix.

2010 - 2014

Acquired