I joined Luminance back in March as the Chief Revenue Officer at Luminance Inc. USA. I’ve worked in executive sales positions at various companies throughout my career, most recently at Forescout - a fast-growing company in the cyber security space.

What’s most important to me is working at a company where I can really see the vision. AI is proliferating into many aspects of the corporate world, but when I came across Luminance, I could see that their technology was doing something no-one else was. That, in combination with a great company culture and proven business strategy, convinced me that this was the company I wanted to be at.

Shortly after joining, Luminance announced its $40 million Series B funding round, off the back of 5x ARR growth over the past two years and rapid global expansion. A key focus of the company is now scaling and sustaining this momentum, particularly here in the US, where over one third of our revenue is now generated. In practice, this means rapid hiring, constant innovation, and a lot of selling. Here’s what a typical day looks like for me…

8:30am

I live in Florida but I’m in New York most weeks to visit customers and be on hand to support our growing team based in the city. Yesterday I had a customer meeting here, so today I’m going into our office in Manhattan. I come straight from the gym, as I find this clears my head and sets me up well for the day ahead.

I always try to pencil in some time at the start of my day to focus on strategic planning. The crux of my role lies in making sure we have a strong business strategy, so I need to understand, analyze and enhance our go-to market, US expansion project and business-wide sales function. It’s this kind of insight that feeds our commercial decisions, such as where to open our next office…

9:30am

My first call today is the weekly management meeting – this is with all executive members to discuss how each team is working and make sure the business-wide vision and activity is aligned. From Marketing and Sales to Product and Legal, the call really helps to understand how each segment of Luminance is helping us move forward as a business. For me, the biggest focus is growing our North American footprint. We’ve tripled our New York presence in the last four months, been recognised on the Inc 5000 list of America’s fastest growing private companies, and got more people on the ground across the States. The plan for now is to continue to grow in all areas in order to accommodate both our goals and the demands of the market!

10:30am

Next, I pop out for a coffee with a current customer in the finance sector to discuss growth plans. With more and more customers adopting Luminance, a big focus for the company this year is ensuring optimal satisfaction and forming strong partnerships with all of our existing customers. To help facilitate this, last year we created a Customer Success division to make sure our customers are maximizing the value they’re getting from Luminance. Fostering a strong, bespoke relationship with customers is also extremely useful as it provides valuable insight into how organizations are using Luminance and what they want to see next from the technology.

12pm

I have an interview with a candidate interviewing for a Commercial Director position in our New York office. We’re hiring so rapidly out here; we need people across the board and at every level. For any role, there are some key traits I always look out for – resilience, problem-solving abilities, measured past success to name a few! I enjoy the process of getting to know someone and working out whether we could work well together.

1pm

Our New York office is right next to the Rockerfeller Center, so I grab lunch from there and head to the park to eat it in the sun with the team, making the most of being here with them in person.

2pm

After lunch, it’s time for our weekly Sales call with the US reps. I get each Account Executive to discuss their current pipeline of opportunities, explore potential risks and work out how to turn these into closed deals. At Luminance we have a lot of entry-level roles which don’t require prior sales experience, so providing adequate mentorship to help employees develop and thrive is key. I find this particularly rewarding – sharing my passion for selling and seeing others get hooked and go on to achieve great things themselves. These meetings are also helpful to review internal processes or feedback and make sure we’re working as effectively as possible.

3:30pm

Now it’s time to meet with a prospect. There’s an exciting tech company that we’ve been speaking to about how Luminance can help improve their internal efficiency. This is one of my favourite parts of Sales – understanding a business’s pain points and demonstrating how our technology can be applied to resolve them. It’s a fine balance of illustrating the merits, articulating business justifications and empathizing with the problem at hand. Every deal is unique, and Luminance is helping such a wide range of organisations – across all verticals, sizes and locations – so it’s always interesting to get up and running with a new customer.

6pm

It’s our summer party this evening and we’re off to Frying Pan for an evening on the river! With lots of new faces at the office, this is a great chance to relax and bond as a team, particularly as a well-deserved treat off the back of such a busy and successful period here at Luminance.

Interested in finding out more about working at Luminance? Visit our careers page.