Top Gun Ventures Recruits Chief Revenue Officer for iDonate

November 3, 2021 – Top-drawer chief revenue officers are commonly found at start-ups and smaller businesses and tend to the bottom line while the rest of the C-level team expands key partnerships, seeks growth opportunities, or sources funding. That is changing. Larger businesses now view the CRO post as an essential, long-term role.

In one recent search, Plano, TX-based executive search firm Top Gun Ventures (TGV) placed Mary Flynn Barton as the new chief revenue officer at iDonate. The search was led by Don Tuttle, co-founder and managing partner.

“Through our partner-only led search process and extensive research efforts we were able to identify Mary as an executive that brought exactly the skill-sets, experience and background needed for the CRO role at iDonate,” Mr. Tuttle said. “She will be instrumental in leading iDonate’s scaling of the business and getting it to the next level and beyond. iDonate’s team and investors were looking for a game-changing leader to help scale the business and they found one in Mary Flynn Barton.”

Prior to joining iDonate, Ms. Flynn Barton was a vice president and sales leader at Coupa Software, a $500 million plus global technology company that develops platforms for business spend management. During her decade-long tenure at Coupa Software she experienced exponential growth in sales and the company participated in a successful IPO in 2016.

iDonate, headquartered in Dallas, is a venture backed, high growth, SaaS-based provider of a digital fundraising platform for non-profits. The company develops software and services for accessing billions of dollars more in potential gifts to support the organizations.

Top Gun, established nearly 20 years ago, also has offices in Austin, Boston, Dallas, Seattle and St. Louis, and reaches throughout the Americas, Asia and Europe. The firm places CEOs and other senior executives with corporate, non-profit, venture capital and private equity clients.

Recruiting Chief Revenue Officers

Hunt Scanlon Media has reported on a number of search firms finding chief revenue officers for their clients. Here’s a look at searches either underway or recently completed:

The Lapham Group placed Sean Rider as the new chief revenue officer of One Concern Inc. in Menlo Park, CA. CEO Craig Lapham led the assignment. “We’re thrilled to welcome Sean to the One Concern team,” said Ahmad Wani, co-founder and CEO of One Concern. “Sean’s established leadership and expertise across strategic risk finance and the alternative risk space will enable us to offer our clients unparalleled value in the resilience space. The Lapham Group is a leading boutique executive search firm headquartered in New York City.

Benchmark Executive Search, a boutique provider of cybersecurity talent, recently placed Ben Wenger as chief revenue officer of Dedrone in San Francisco. In his role, Mr. Wenger heads global sales to provide counter-drone technology to enterprise and government customers globally. “We are excited to follow Ben’s progress as he and the Dedrone team solve problems for new federal and commercial customers,” said Jeremy King, president of Benchmark.

Executive recruitment firm Buffkin / Baker has been selected to assist in the search for a new chief revenue officer for independent data cooperative Alliant. The search firm is seeking a dynamic sales leader and innovator in the data as a service (DaaS) arena as the company drives continued growth through multi-channel consumer marketing solutions. Candidate must be experienced executive with a proved track record of leading and developing high-performing sales and sales operations teams, said the search firm. They must also have hands-on experience selling consumer data solutions direct to mid-level to enterprise brands, understanding how data can impact direct and digital marketing initiatives.