December 1, 2015 – Sales Mgmt Steli Efti, Social Outsourcer Tara Holling & Entre Travel Carrie Roche

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Steli Efti – CEO at Close.io and Author of The Ultimate Startup Guide to Outbound Sales

Steli Efti is the co-founder and CEO of an inside sales CRM company called Close.io. At 17 years old, he dropped out of high school to start his first business and has never turned back. After starting several successful businesses in Germany, he eventually sold everything he owned and bought a one-way ticket to Silicon Valley. His first tech company, Supercool School, failed. Afterwards, he started SwipeGood with two other co-founders and they joined the prestigious seed accelerator Y Combinator (class of Winter 2011). Hindered by the lack of a dedicated sales force, the three founders pivoted and created ElasticSales, an outsourced sales team on demand for B2B SaaS startups. Under ElasticSales, Steli and his team helped over 200 venture-backed startups in Silicon Valley develop predictable and scalable sales models. Frustrated by the available CRMs, the team created their own CRM, which they called their “secret sauce”. It was internal sales software that allowed their salespeople to outperform other salespeople. Other startups eventually began asking for the CRM as well. Due to the demand, Steli and his team released Close.io in January 2013. Close.io is a CRM that’s focused on inside sales that has VoIP built-in so you can make calls, receive calls, and really kill it on sales calls within the CRM.

Tara Holling – Co-founder & CEO at $99 Social and Founder at Entreprenista.com

Tara Holling knows it’s not always easy to establish and maintain your business’s social media presence. In fact, it can be challenging to find the hours or the know-how to make it happen. In response, Tara created $99 Social. The company exists to help busy entrepreneurs like you maintain a solid presence on social media, so that when your customers and potential customers go looking for you, you’re there. And you’re not just there, you’re there consistently, establishing your relevance, credibility, and approachability as a small business owner. She also started Entreprenista.com, a social community that connects entrepreneurial women to the people, information, and products that can help them build a successful business and a happy life.

Carrie Roche started building businesses while she was working as an employee.  Her first dip into entrepreneurship was offering graphic design and websites to small businesses.  As time went on, she started providing more services in online marketing and became a digital nomad.  As a digital nomad, Carrie traveled the world with her husband, working from the road.  After traveling and living in over 30 countries, they started offering curated travel experiences.  It was a natural fit for entrepreneurs and many of their initial clients were entrepreneurs.  Cowork Adventures was born. Cowork Adventures organizes coworking camps and adventure trips around the world for like-minded entrepreneurs, freelancers and remote workers. They offer trips to some of the most beautiful places on Earth! With each trip you can create a new network of lifetime friends, grow your business, exchange know-how, experience local cultures and more importantly, feed your soul with adventure.