BUSINESS GROWTH

From product-market fit to go-to-market to scaling sales & marketing.

FUNDRAISING

Story and approach make all the difference. Ensure you can answer the tough questions.

FOUNDER / CEO COACH

Even the best athletes have coaches. Make sharper decisions. Avoid the many pitfalls. It’s lonely at the top.

My Difference

Full-time

This is not a side hobby; it’s my profession. I coach and mentor startups full-time, which means I’m available, focused, and continuously develop my craft in startup coaching.

Track record

3 successful exits, 2 ongoing, and since 2016, I’ve helped 100’s of startups that have collectively raised $100M’s in funding.

Cross - functional

Per early advice from successful CEOs, I’ve intentionally worked cross-functionally (engineering, sales, marketing, business development, consulting), which provides a holistic perspective. Plus decades of experience also provide depth in multiple functions.

Global

Having been raised, lived, worked globally, and studied international business, I can help with expansion from or into the USA and/or managing multi-cultural teams.

Business Growth

Multiple times, I’ve grown tech businesses from scratch to $multi-M and 100’s employees.  There is a systematic and frugal way to grow your business or find and remove growth blockages.  Sales and marketing are challenging enough.  The enterprise market adds a dimension of complexity.  With 30 years experience, I can often help selling and navigating the enterprise market.

Fundraising

I’ve raised $millions for my own startups, and I’ve experienced bootstrap success.  Whether you’re looking to raise angel or VC equity financing or seek other creative means to finance your business, I can help you prepare, pitch, and explore creative financing options.

Confidant & Sounding Board

As a mentor and coach for multiple B2B accelerators like 500 Startups, Alchemist, NASDAQ, UC Berkeley, I’ve advised dozens of Founders and 1st-time CEOs.  It’s uncertain in a startup, and lonely at the top.  I provide guidance on almost any topic you’ll run into from business strategy to priority setting to deal negotiations to everyday challenges.

C-Suite in One

Scale yourself.  Every company needs experienced leadership in all functions from Sales to Marketing to Engineering.  But early stage companies don’t necessarily need or can afford these full-time roles.  I can not only provide guidance across functions from my real experience, but is also cohesive.

Sales & Marketing

Successful exec roles in both Sales and Marketing, growing sales from $0 to $multi-Million, have evolved my perspective into a holistic view of the business funnel.  I bring a keen focus on understanding often-complex B2B buyer’s journeys to optimize GTM, demand gen, and closing sales.

Operational Leadership

As a tech executive (multiple times a CEO, Founder, VP), I have 30 years experience starting, building, and operating technology startups.  I have intentionally gained first-hand cross-functional, cross-industry, and global experience.  As CEO, I have grown and led companies over 100 employees and $multi-million from scratch.  I can lead or help leaders lead their technology businesses more successfully.

For Overseas Startups

For startups based outside of the United States, I help test, enter, or expand into the U.S. market and/or provide a local presence in Silicon Valley.

U.S. Market Entry or Expansion

I can help foreign companies enter and grow their businesses in U.S. markets.  I have also lived and worked throughout Europe and Asia, so I work well with companies in those geographies looking to expand or move into the U.S.

Silicon Valley Presence

As a U.S. citizen and Silicon Valley resident for 20+ years, I can help you setup local business in U.S. and/or Silicon Valley.  I’ve repeatedly, single-handedly found, sold, and grew business in new geographies.

Technologies

I have 30 years experience building technology businesses focused on the enterprise market.  Being early to market with products based on new technologies like cloud, social, and mobile (new at the time), I not only have lots of SMAC experience, but I am very familiar with the challenges of bringing new frontier tech products to market.  And I have repeatedly built these businesses from scratch.

SMAC Technologies

  • Social

  • Mobile

  • Analytics (big data)

  • Cloud (SaaS, PaaS, aPaaS)

Frontier Technologies

  • 3D & 4D Printing

  • Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

  • Augmented / Mixed / Virtual Reality

  • Blockchain

  • Computer Vision

  • Conversational Agents

  • Drones and Robotics

  • IoT and Edge Intelligence

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Photo of Rupesh Mishra

Samir is the quintessential investor-mentor, a rare combination of deep operational expertise, unwavering support, and tough-love feedback. When other investors hesitated, Samir saw our potential and wrote us our first check. His hands-on guidance went deep encompassing pitch deck refinement, web presence optimization, cap table management, and network access. His mentorship extended into the go-to-market realm, helping us distill our Ideal Customer Profile (ICP), providing customer feedback, and refining our sales deck. Samir is the ideal investor for any first-time founder seeking a true partner in their entrepreneurial journey. My deepest gratitude for his unwavering support and mentorship.

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Rupesh Mishra (CEO & Founder), InstaSecure, Inc.
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I worked with Samir weekly for the past couple of months while my startup was going through the Nex Cubed accelerator program in 2019. The value Samir brought as an advisor was key to improving our story with focus on segmentation, GTM strategy and getting traction. Once we answered most of the gaps our startup had, we were ready to work on the pitch. Samir improved our pitch with a solid story while focusing on the key points investors look for. As a founder, there are so many tasks and things going on. Samir helped guide me to focus on priorities and goals that mattered most. I enjoyed working with Samir and will continue to work with him in our journey to building a successful startup.

Juan Juan (CEO & Founder), Fanalyze

Samir was a coach and an advisor as we went through the Alchemist Accelerator. He has a keen eye for strategy and helped us think through our business model and our lead-generation approaches in a systematic way.  We will continue using him as a great resource and a friend as we build the company.

RaviKiran Gopalan (CEO & Co-Founder), Acuity
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Samir has been an amazing mentor. His advice is pointed and practical. Working with him has been a true pleasure. We feel very blessed to have him in our corner.

Rob Eyler (Founder & CEO), Capturely

Samir has thorough grasp of software, SaaS and the enterprise market. At Psynthesys, a pharmaceutical clinical trials Saas solution, he helped me establish a workable balance between MVP and business priorities to work alongside an approach of his I used in persona-driven MVP investigations. His extensive tech knowledge provided me with insights I needed to make some tough architectural technology decisions and his communication skills have led to important refinements in customer and investor pitches. I hope to continue working with Samir.

Rick Ericson (CEO & Founder), Psynthesys
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I have worked with Samir as part of Nex Cubed’s portfolio company, where I currently serve as the CEO of TELL EM. Samir has been a great asset; consistently treating the business as his own. An important attribute of working with Samir, is that he is willing to listen, and fight for your vision, while also staying ready to suggest alternative strategies to your plans. In short, Samir is not afraid to say no. He comes ready to provide valuable reasons to back up his recommendations. This is significantly important for CEOs. Very rarely do you find someone who provides consistent results that go above and beyond expectations. I look forward to continue working with Samir on many occasions in the future and would highly recommend him to anyone.

Felix Ekwueme (CEO & Founder), TellEm

We brought Samir in to help assess and refine our Go-To-Market strategy.  Samir has a comprehensive view of building and running a business, and understands where and how marketing fits in.  Coupled with his scrappy entrepreneurial pragmatic approach, he helped us identify, understand, and prioritized our key prerequisite strategy and metrics.  We’re really looking forward to our next phase of work with Samir.

Sam Kang (Vice President), Mindtribe
Brandon Peele

I count on Samir as a mentor who will give it to me straight. Over the years, he’s given me critical insight and wisdom on strategic and leadership challenges. He’s also incredibly self-aware and fun to talk to.

ion Learning

Brandon Peele (VP, People Science), ion Learning

As a founder working on a startup at its infancy, I’ve always found it useful to consult others with relevant experience and expertise. Samir has proven to be a truly valuable ally & mentor for me. He’s been in the founder’s shoes and knows the feeling. He has always shared his knowledge and expertise when I needed guidance and assistance, and made me think about every aspect of the business in order to succeed.

Hannan Parvizian (CEO & Co-Founder), Volansi
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Working with Samir has been a fantastic experience! He’s provided not only great advice but different perspectives to how we think about building our company. I always appreciate how he challenges my thinking and dives deep into the steps we’re taking to running the business. He also has incredible value as a storyteller in terms of providing the proper narrative to help tell a company’s story in the best way. I’ve learned a lot about building an early stage company throughout the time we’ve worked with him and look forward to continuing to work with him moving forward.

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Mike Liu (Co-founder & CEO), FreeFuse, Inc.
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During my entrepreneurial journey, I had the opportunity to work with Samir twice. He earlier mentored one of my companies in the cleantech space for a short time and is now officially an advisor to my current startup company as I write this recommendation. He was one of the very few professionals who decided to advise my company when we were just an idea and guided us all the way to a stable product market fit. I’m humbled and impressed by the kind of venture-building experience he has, which has directly helped me become the kind of leader I should be. if you’re a founder looking to kickstart your startup journey, Samir is the go to professional you must reach in order to experience an obstacle free adventure.

Ashutosh Srivastava (CEO & Founder), Talzen
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In today’s martech driven world of continuous engagement of customers, prospects and partners, Samir is the rare marketing executive who not only understands his audience and how to engage them – in terms of executing marketing automation and demand gen programs – but also as a chief evangelist who has an incredible gift of articulating company and product messaging, from a deep technology level all the way up to delivering C-level business impact. Samir is equally accomplished closing customers and negotiating win-win biz dev partnerships as he is briefing industry analysts and conducting media interviews. What’s more, Samir is a high-integrity, quality person who often pays it forward as a volunteer for organizations including the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

Ross Perich (Vice President), 10Fold Communications

Samir is a rock star enterprise tech executive who understands both strategy and detailed tactics for short and long term revenue growth. I found his expertise invaluable in creating a believable, repeatable, and ultimately successful go-to-market plan for Wivity, a wireless/hardware/cloud startup.

Alfred Tom (CEO & Co-Founder), Wivity Inc.
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Samir is simply awesome! He is able to break down very complex issues into very simple concepts. He is also a very cool guy and just simply, fun to talk to.

Ola Okeshola (CEO & Founder), Gerald
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During my time as a trainee at Alchemist, I worked with Samir. Like any other founder, it’s important for me to be clear when I explain the idea to the client and the investor. And Samir has done the best here.
He does a great job with meanings, gets to the heart of things, and makes hard things easy to understand.
During the sessions, Samir parses your startup through in-depth questions, not only fetching diamonds in the product vision but also helping you look at the product in a different way.

I recommend Samir as a CEO mentor with high industry insight and an extraordinary engagement with the CEO challenges.

Serge Berezhnoy (Founder & CEO), Insightarc
Derrick Chen

Samir was very helpful in answering my questions, especially when I asked him about how to book revenue. Since we are similar to an eCommerce marketplace, he quickly pointed me to look at eBay & Etsy financials on how they do it. Therefore I can justify our valuation. He also made sure I did my research on these 2 companies by sending a follow-up email the next day. Extremely smart and knowledgeable in the industry. Thank you.

Cenports Commerce Inc.

Derrick Chen (Co-founder), Cenports Commerce Inc.
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I had the great privilege of working with Samir as part of the NASDAQ Milestone Maker mentor program. Samir brings great clarity and simplicity to structuring your company pitch based on the audience you’re addressing helping prioritize key points of consideration. I feel very fortunate to have the opportunity to benefit from his rich industry experience, objectivity and professionalism as will any entrepreneur who is fortunate enough to work with him.

Jeremy Goodwin (CEO), SyncFab
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I had the good fortune to work with Samir on a weekly basis for 6 months as my startup was going through Alchemist Accelerator in 2019. Samir made an immediate impact on our business when we first started with him and the difference was night and day. We initially chose to work with Samir because of his cross-functional experience working in technology companies of all sizes – his background in sales and marketing proved to be very useful during the early days of our company. Samir played a critical role in helping us find product market fit, iterate customer acquisition strategies, understand investor motivations, story creation, and prioritization. Most importantly, Samir is a great person and very enjoyable to work with.

i-5O

Albert Kao (Client Champion), i-50
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If you get the opportunity to speak with Samir about your business, I recommend you do so. Samir takes the time to really understand your business vision and cuts through problems with ease. His ability to quickly provide meaningful insights and feedback is extremely valuable in a start-up environment. He will inspire you to propel forward.

Richard Cromie (CEO & Founder), Paidiem
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Samir Ghosh started mentoring Alchemist Accelerator startups in 2016 and has since helped over 50 of our startups, including some of our most successful. His B2B startup breadth and depth earned him high ratings from founders and increased involvement with Alchemist from Mentor to Goal Coach, Sales Coach, CEO Coach, Fundraising Coach, and Selection Committee. I enjoy Samir’s consistent reliable professionalism and enthusiasm and look forward to continued work together.

Danielle D'Agostaro (Managing Partner & COO), Alchemist Accelerator
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Samir has undeniably been a crucial coach and startup mentor for us this year. I worked with him as my startup was going through Nex Cubed’s accelerator program in 2018, and I can honestly say that we would not be where we are without his GTM/strategy insights. He goes over and above what is normally expected, meeting with us multiple times a week and staying fully engaged in all of our conversations. The advice he gives is not just general advice; he gives pointed feedback and suggestions based on the issues we are currently facing, as well as the issues we do not yet know we will have to face. Samir’s healthy skepticism has always turned out to be warranted and has staved off numerous dangerous pitfalls. His experience coaching and involvement in many other businesses really shines through here. Samir is truly passionate about startups and honestly tries to lead you to success, but his coaching does not just stop at GTM and strategy- he is supportive as both an adviser and a friend. I look forward to continuing to work with him in the future.

Jama Mohamed (CEO & Co-Founder), Herth
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Samir was not only pleasant to work with, but he provided excellent guidance to help refine our client sub-segmentation within our different target verticals. He has a brilliant and straightforward way of approaching business strategy. No one can show you the path to success. That, you must find for yourself. If there ever was a guide to point me in the right direction, however, it would be Samir.

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George Gluck MD (CEO and Co-Founder), Surgistream
Merideth Mehlberg

Samir is a talented mentor and marketing consultant who has helped my business partner and I confirm our ideal product/market fit as part of a larger effort toward sustainable growth for our company. Over the several years I’ve known him, I’ve found Samir to be an insightful thought partner who helps executives focus on what is most important to maximize the ability to achieve company and personal goals. In our latest round of interactions, he planted the seed that led to a full re-imagining of our value proposition and a change to our target client. As a result, we have kicked off a whole set of strategic initiatives to close the gap between where we currently find ourselves and the impact we truly want to make in our market.

Merideth Mehlberg

Merideth Mehlberg (CEO & Founder), Merideth Mehlberg International LLC
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Samir is by far one of the best coaches I’ve had. Right from the very beginning, he kept asking extremely uncomfortable probing questions. He has this ability to cut through a lot of the things we do to get to the very essentials. Every time I spoke to him, I came out of the meeting having my priorities set. He’s also got this keen sense of knowing what works and what doesn’t. That’s a skill which takes decades to build. It helps that he’s been there and done that before he’s advising others. I’m grateful to Samir for keeping me sober and on track. I continue to engage with him and take his guidance.

Shayak Mazumder (CEO and Co-Founder), Eunimart
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Samir started advising UC Berkeley SkyDeck startups in early 2019. His startup breadth and depth quickly earned him high praise from founders and deeper involvement with SkyDeck from Advisor role to Key Advisor, BAM (Berkeley Acceleration Method) Instructor, Selection Committee, and Advisor Council where he regularly contributes fresh creative ideas. I appreciate his professionalism and enthusiasm and look forward to continuing to work together.

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Sibyl Chen (General Manager & Head of Program), UC Berkeley SkyDeck
Todd Farnham

Samir has been a fantastic advisor to our Kiwi tech start ups. His level-headed yet creative and open-minded approach to GTM strategy have helped our companies navigate the US market more intelligently and deliberately. Samir has an uncanny ability to diagnose business problems faster than anyone else I’ve met. He’s been an incredible asset for New Zealand Trade and Enterprise. Anyone who gets to work with, or engage with him in an advisory capacity, is incredibly lucky. Samir is a legend!

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Todd Farnham (International Business Growth), New Zealand Trade and Enterprise
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Samir has been an excellent asset as we build our company. His experience in driving sustainable revenue streams and helping us analyze how to get there has been very valuable.

Rusty Stapp (CEO & Founder), Ubiquious
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I worked with Samir for 4 months while my startup “Blings.io” was participating in the SkyDeck acceleration program, cohort of spring 2020. Samir’s advice on our go-to-market strategy, growth hacks, customer acquisition and overall marketing strategies really helped our business scale. His insights made us not only look at our market differently right off the bat, but also develop skills to helps us look at our market from a more critical POV through the customers wants and needs. If you are looking for someone to help you align and prioritize tasks to goals, I highly recommend Samir. Best part is it’s all done with a smile 🙂

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Yosef Peterseil (COO & Co-Founder), Blings.io
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Working with Samir motivates me immensely. I’m learning to apply the theory from courses and books to our startup and thanks to him we’re making tremendous progress. His advice is targeted, precisely tailored to our startup and geared to our situation. I would be incredibly happy if Samir remains our coach for a long time!

Sebastian Stöcklmeier (Co-Founder), Synthavo

As we expand our business with SaaS and data products, we brought Samir in to help review and bring a best-practices approach to our marketing efforts.  Samir’s guidance from initial market review through campaign plan development and execution was invaluable.  He helped us refine and prioritize our GTM and branding strategies, provided structure via segmentation and persona development, appropriately challenged our team’s assumptions, and even assisted with collaboration and marketing technology selections.  We’re excited about our ongoing work with Samir.

Steve Rourke (CEO & Co-Founder), CFE Media
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Samir has an uncanny ability to get to the heart of a startup’s unique questions and reframe them as familiar choices with predictable outcomes. I came to him based on a strong recommendation from a colleague I trust, having already spoken with multiple mentors, advisers and friends about our confounding but imminent decision. We were fortunate to have options for fundraising, but also faced uncomfortable trade offs with each path. In one hour Samir had reframed the way we thought about those trade offs based on his tactical experience both as a founder and an investor. I shared his insights with my co-founders the next morning and we were quickly aligned and very relieved.

Kenny Davis (CEO & Co-Founder), Action Face, Inc.
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Samir is extraordinarily sharp and efficient at getting to the core of a message or marketing plan, for a tech startup in my case. He brings his direct, hands-on entrepreneurial experience plus accumulated insights from working with multiple cutting-edge startups. He knows what is happening now in the markets and which of the most modern technologies and tools will work best, as well as the enduring disciplines that win. He clearly understood how our target executives notice, take in and process technology-solution messages, and he translated those to the exact context of our technology domain and our early-stage situation. Samir’s CEO-level engagement sharpened our marketing, direct-selling and investor messaging, each well-crafted to the relevant audience. In all cases, we were measurably much more effective at converting targets into engaged prospects.

Charles Stucki (CEO), Bayware, Inc.

Samir brings a wealth of not only marketing but general B2B strategy and business experience.  He was invaluable in helping us evaluate our various strategic opportunities, prioritize based on our goals and capabilities, and create a tangible action plan to confirm our product/market fit and build the business.

Arun BalaKrishnan (CEO & Founder), Omniwyse
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I have known Samir over 8 years now via CEO forum. I have always felt him to be a very genuine person and most recently had a chance to seek his mentorship to plan for the growth of my business. I found his insights very helpful and very easy to relate to. I look forward to continue working with Samir going forward. Thank you Samir.

Sunny Saran (CEO), e2o Health

Samir is one of the best coaches we have. He brings a tremendous amount of experience and expertise to the table. Samir has always shared his knowledge and expertise whenever we need guidance and assistance.

Bozhao Yu (CEO & Co-Founder), Atalaya
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Samir is the quintessential founder/mentor/investor turned CEO coach, having experienced both successes and failures founding several of his own companies. He has a gift for offering insights that lead to genuine breakthroughs. He’s a true professional and a tremendous asset in any situation.

Alexander Polyansky (Founder & CEO), Seventh.ai
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Samir quickly understood our business problem in our first conversation itself. He provided very relevant advice on how to solve those problems and grow our business. Samir would be an excellent mentor/coach and we look forward to working with him again.

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Gunjan Thakuria (Founder & CEO), Tathya
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We are exceptionally lucky to have Samir advise our startup Enki.AI. He understands the complicated issues in the sales and marketing space. I love his original, incredible approach to segmenting the market by value proposition, not just by industry, as many do. Most importantly, Samir helped us find what really matters for a startup by asking thought-provoking questions. Through his guidance, we were able to hone in on the customers who could find the most value from Enki.AI. Apart from his knowledge, he is easy to talk to. Perhaps, most importantly, he is honest, but kind in telling us things that might be hard, but necessary to hear. I highly recommend him to anyone looking for an advisor.

Andy Zhu, Enki AI
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Samir has been a phenomenal startup mentor and coach for us. We had the pleasure to work with Samir through Alchemist accelerator. He’s helped coach us around go-to-market strategy and tactics, navigating and closing enterprise accounts, determining our pricing structure, segmentation and has helped us avoid numerous pitfalls. Samir has a keen understanding of the entire enterprise space from sales and marketing to business and fundraising strategy. Samir has our highest recommendation and we look forward to continue working with him.

Paramvir Sandhu (CEO & Co-Founder), Chaine
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Samir has been an amazing advisor who helped me think about my business in ways that I could not imagine before. His diverse business & marketing expertise is invaluable – from conceptualizing ideas to challenging my assumptions and forcing me to explore different angles for our market positioning. He’s been great at getting to the bottom of any issue and I’m learning a lot from him. Thanks!

Emil Tamas (CEO & Co-Founder), Moqups

We picked Samir as our Sales Coach through Alchemist accelerator and appreciated his advice and help so much that we contracted with him directly for additional help as well. Samir has a wealth of cross­­‑functional and industry experience. He understands the challenges facing startup CEOs, especially involving new technologies. Samir thinks strategically and yet is entrepreneurially hands-on.  He’s been a valuable sounding board and confidant. Samir has helped with our GTM, fundraising pitch, messaging and website, branding, analyst relations. He’s helped make valuable introductions and has been a force-multiplier for business development in additional market segments. I look forward to continuing to work closely with Samir.

Quantum Insights

Bernard Chen (CEO & Co-Founder), Quantum Insights
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We developed a great partnership with Samir. His knowledge and dedication to Korean startups not only boosted their self-motivation to entering global market but helped them achieve successful strategies. I have a lot of respect for Samir’s passion and competence.

Byung Kook (Steve) Kim (Assistant Director), Born2Global
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Samir is a wonderful and caring mentor. He is not afraid to roll up his sleeves and dig into the details to help entrepreneurs. Conversations with him have been so thought-provoking and inspiring. When he shares an idea or insight, it seems like ‘why didn’t I think of that.’ He is a master at simplifying concepts and is a clear thinker. I am so excited about working with him and looking to spend as much time as he makes himself available for me and our company.

Ravishankar Gundlapalli (CEO & Founder), MentorCloud

SELECTED BY DOZENS OF LEADING ACCELERATORS TO MENTOR THEIR STARTUPS

Book a consult with Samir

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