Bill Brakeman
@billbrakeman
I build HubSpot-native revenue operating systems that turn fragmented go-to-market motions into scalable growth engines.
United StatesWhat I'm looking for
I've built commercial operating systems for companies including Guardrail Online, Elvin Electric, fjorge, and The Nerdery—creating the pipeline governance, pricing, forecasting, compensation, and CRM foundations needed to scale.
At fjorge, I rebuilt the GTM operating system and grew sales 124%, from $2.9M to $6.5M. I increased close rates from 15–17% to more than 40%, expanded average project value from $20K to $60K, and increased proposal velocity 8x.
At The Nerdery, I helped grow sales from $500K to $45M while building Sales and Marketing from one person to more than 70 direct hires. I have worked across six CRM systems, including hands-on HubSpot and Salesforce work, and build data-backed attribution and reporting systems that create a single source of truth.
Today, I build practical commercial tools, including an Airtable-backed pre-construction estimator and a quoting configurator that turns site drawings into priced bills of quantities. I’m drawn to PE-backed and high-growth teams that need someone to build the playbook rather than inherit one.
Experience
Work history, roles, and key accomplishments
VP, Revenue Operations
Guardrail Online
Jan 2026 - Present (8 months)
Built the revenue operating system from scratch for an early-stage industrial safety manufacturer, including KPI-driven pipeline governance, forecasting cadence, and a quoting configurator that converts site layouts into priced bills of quantities.
Operating Partner & Fractional COO
Elvin Electric
Jan 2026 - Present (8 months)
Designed and built the full commercial operating system, including job descriptions, pricing logic, cash-flow structure, and revenue tracking, and shipped a live pre-construction estimator application on a custom Airtable job-cost backbone.
Independent Consultant — RevOps & GTM Architecture
Sharpline Consulting
Apr 2022 - Dec 2025 (3 years 8 months)
Provided independent consulting on revenue operations and go-to-market architecture, including sales compensation plans, KPI frameworks, pipeline structure, and HubSpot CRM configuration for multiple clients.
VP, Client Acquisition & Retention
Fjorge
Sep 2018 - Feb 2022 (3 years 5 months)
Grew sales from $2.9M to $6.5M (124% growth) and transformed close rates from 15-17% to 40%+ by rebuilding the full GTM operating system, including swim lanes, contracts, qualification, pricing authority, and compensation plans.
Director of Alliances
Avionte Staffing Software
Jan 2016 - Dec 2018 (2 years 11 months)
Grew partner program ACV from $800K to approximately $3.4M across 12+ strategic partner contracts and cut partner implementation time from 40 days to 5 days through process redesign.
Midwest Business Manager
RESPEC
Jan 2015 - Dec 2016 (1 year 11 months)
Led the RESPEC/POD integration and secured a Minnesota state government IT contract, establishing the firm's regional public-sector revenue footprint.
Founder & Principal
Sharpline Consulting
Jan 2013 - Dec 2015 (2 years 11 months)
Advised growth-stage clients on GTM architecture and sourced a key strategic partner for Avionte, seeding the alliance program that later scaled to $3.4M ACV.
Vice President of Sales
The Nerderly (Sierra Bravo Corp.)
Jan 2005 - Jan 2013 (8 years)
Grew sales from $500K to $45M over eight years, building the entire commercial operating system from scratch and scaling the Sales & Marketing organization from one to 70+ direct hires.
Director of Sales
MessageLabs
Jan 2003 - Dec 2005 (2 years 11 months)
Doubled Central Division revenue to $10M+ in two years, running both mid-market and enterprise motions for a cybersecurity SaaS platform.
Sales Director / Federal Director of Sales, DoD
Micron Electronics
Jan 1992 - Dec 2001 (9 years 11 months)
Ran sales and revenue operations across Minneapolis and Boise within Micron's $600M SMB business unit, owning budget, compensation plans, and bonus structure for a 130-150 person organization.
Education
Degrees, certifications, and relevant coursework
Lewis-Clark State College
Bachelor of Business Administration, Economics and Management
Bachelor of Business Administration in Economics and Management from Lewis-Clark State College.
Availability
Location
United StatesAuthorized to work in
Portfolio
elvin-precon.netlify.appJob categories
Skills
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