Meet Kirsten Liranzo, a Q&A with ChartHop’s Vice President of Sales

Today we are delighted to welcome Kirsten Liranzo to the ChartHop team as our new Vice President of Sales! With over 13 years of experience in sales, Kirsten brings a wealth of expertise in scaling high-growth companies and leading strong sales organizations. 

We sat down with Kirsten to learn more about her background, her leadership style, and why she’s excited to join the ChartHop team. 

Can you tell us about your background?

I’ve been fortunate to join many great companies during their early growth phase and have seen what goes into scaling awesome revenue teams. In my tenure at BlueJeans Network, I helped grow the company from $4M-$100M in revenue. At that time, we worked tirelessly to “democratize video conferencing.” This was years before video was as prevalent in our day-to-day lives as it became during COVID-19. At Zugata, I built out the Sales and Customer Success teams and helped get their enterprise motions in place prior to their acquisition by CultureAmp. After Zugata, I went back to video conferencing and joined Highfive as the VP of Sales and CS. I spent most of my time there improving the sales process and streamlining the post-sales customer experience, until Highfive was acquired by Dialpad. I’ve since been at Dialpad running all enterprise business in North America. My experience across companies in their early growth phases to scale well beyond $100M in revenue has brought me to ChartHop, where I’m excited to see exponential growth once again.

Why did ChartHop stand out to you? What made you excited to join the team?

I took my time and spoke with dozens of companies when I was considering my next move, and there were a few things that were very important to me, all of which ended up leading me to ChartHop. The first was finding a product that solved a unique problem and was differentiated in its market. Throughout my career, I spent countless hours with my Finance teams, attempting to manage headcount planning and compensation and performance analyses on spreadsheets. When I saw the ease in which ChartHop allows for planning and executing on growth plans, I was blown away. To me, ChartHop’s People Operations Platform is a must-have for mid-to-large companies in any phase of growth, as they manage their biggest asset (their people). The second thing I look for is a collaborative leadership team who cares about the culture of the company and is thoughtful about growth. In my hiring process, I quickly saw how each leader on the executive team is sharp and passionate, starting with our CEO Ian White. I knew I would be able to make an impact with this team. There is an incredible amount of opportunity at ChartHop, which is what makes me most excited to get started.

Where do you see ChartHop in five years?

In five years I see ChartHop as a robust Enterprise HR & Finance platform, competing with the legacy systems that exist today. I would love to see ChartHop grow 10x or more in the coming years.

How do you describe your role to others?

As the VP of Sales, it’s my job to set the revenue strategy for the company and enable my teams to execute on that strategy. I get to be the internal voice to my peers in the business around our customers’ challenges, and provide feedback to ensure we’re offering a solution that not only solves them, but brings in enough revenue that we can continue to offer more over time.

What’s the first thing you’re most excited to tackle at ChartHop?

I’m really looking forward to partnering with the sales team to quickly meet with our prospects and customers. I enjoy directly hearing about their unique problems and discussing where ChartHop can make an impact. 

What’s your superpower?

Dedication to my team and our goals. Being dedicated gives me a high level of discipline and a laser focus on execution. 

What are the essential ingredients to a great team?

Trust, transparency, and what I call “super accountability”. When everyone knows and understands their own goals and impact, and are wholly accountable for their own results, the team can maintain positivity around their collective efforts. These three things breed dedication and the output is better results. 

What advice would you give to people starting a career in tech?

Invest in building your network of personal advisors, mentors, and peers. By creating a network, I don’t mean adding as many people on Linkedin as possible, but instead identifying the 5-10  individuals that you can lean on throughout your career. Utilize the people who want to invest in you at every job you take, and seek feedback. Stay connected with those who have led you, appreciate those who coached you, and never burn a bridge! I wouldn’t be where I am today without a few key people who were, and continue to be, the original investors in my success.