The power of persistence – career lessons in start-ups, scale-ups and global sales

Vlerick Insight Talks: Professor Veroniek Collewaert interviews alumna Emmanouela Androulaki

Veroniek Collewaert

By Veroniek Collewaert

Professor of Entrepreneurship

19 December 2024

How do you transform your career from professional basketball to a high-level sales role in the tech industry? Alumna Emmanouela Androulaki is Senior Area Vice President of Sales at Braze, a leading customer engagement platform. Ten years after graduating, she shared her story at the opening event of our academic year. In an interview with Veroniek Collewaert, Professor of Entrepreneurship at Vlerick Business School, she described how she took the leap from sports through a finance degree to a sales career – and how she moved from an early-stage European start-up to a large scale-up in the US. It's a story of embracing your uniqueness, how skills are transferable and how to navigate the global start-up and scale-up ecosystem.

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Veroniek Collewaert: You graduated from Vlerick Business School in 2014 with a Masters degree in Financial Management and then joined a small start-up in Berlin called Remerge as an account manager. Given your finance degree, such a career jump might not seem obvious to our finance students and alumni, as many tend to end up in private equity or investment banking. What intrigued you about joining a start-up – and what skills did you take from your finance degree that you could apply in the start-up world?

Emmanouela Androulaki: “I definitely took an unconventional career decision. I think I was the only one in my class who went into tech and sales. A few reasons drove my decision. First, I fell in love with start-ups through your class, which provided a solid foundation for entrepreneurship and the start-up ecosystem. Additionally, start-ups appealed to me because of the flexibility, responsibility, and fast growth they offer.

“I always believed that skills are very transferable. Strategic thinking, data analysis and understanding how global markets work are valuable in any career and business – and especially in start-ups that are still figuring things out. Even today, I still apply these skills in my sales job in the tech sector.”

Veroniek Collewaert: Your career has also taken you around the world. What advice would you have on pursuing international ambitions?

Emmanouela Androulaki: “It has been an amazing experience, but it's tough, especially with immigration and getting a visa in the US. There are a few ways to increase your chances. The most straightforward path is working for a European company with a US office or a European company that plans to open one. Getting a degree in the US also helps, as it allows you to stay for a few years with a visa. However, applying for a job in the US while based in Europe can be difficult because you need to prove why you're more suitable than local candidates. This route is especially hard unless you have a PhD or highly specialised skills.”

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From professional basketball to a dream job in the USA

Emmanouela Androulaki was a professional athlete in Greece. Then her Masters in Financial Management put her on track to become a tech sales leader in the USA. Listen to her story - and the advice she has for start-ups, scale-ups and global sales.

Veroniek Collewaert: That’s useful advice – and we’re glad we now have a double degree with a US school to help Masters graduates make that leap. Another key aspect of successful career growth is learning from mistakes. Can you share what you consider your biggest failure and what you learned from it?

Emmanouela Androulaki: “I had many more failures than successes – but you have to fail in order to eventually succeed. If I had to pick one, it would be my journey to work at Braze. It took me three and a half years to land a job there. I was rejected in 2019, again in 2020, and once more in 2021. I realised that the skills I gained at a smaller start-up were different from the ones I needed to jump to a bigger company like Braze. Despite the rejections, I tried building a relationship with Braze’s president, who became my mentor. This allowed him to get to know me on a personal level and to see my skills and leadership style beyond my resume. In 2021, I got the job – without even applying and without having the exact experience for the job he was recruiting for! This taught me the value of persistence, building relationships, showing the difference between your resume and you as a human, and the importance of having mentors and advocates.”

Veroniek Collewaert: That’s a great example of persistence! After starting at Remerge in Berlin, you moved to San Francisco just one year later. Moving across continents early in your career, especially with a nine-hour time difference with Berlin, must have been challenging. What lessons did you learn about scaling a company internationally at this level that you can share with entrepreneurs?

Emmanouela Androulaki: “The American market is huge compared to Europe, and it's easy to waste money if you don't have a plan. Early on, we realised we needed to focus specifically on the TAM, the Total Addressable Market, we were aiming at in order to increase our chances of penetrating that market. What’s the ideal customer profile you want to target – and make sure you target only them. We initially lacked a clear strategic plan on how to allocate resources, which we later corrected.

“Secondly, it’s important to get warm introductions as the competition in the US market is high and when you just start nobody knows you. Cold calls and e-mails won't make you sell your product. You need to leverage your network, whether through technology and commercial partnerships, venture capital networks, or angel investors to get access to your target accounts.

“Finally, hiring the right people early on is crucial, as the first hires set the tone for the company. In San Francisco, competition for talent is fierce with all the tech giants offering very attractive packages. You need a strong story and a clear plan to attract the right people. So, it was almost like running a start-up all over again.”

Veroniek Collewaert: How did you manage the coordination between the US and the head office back in Germany?

Emmanouela Androulaki: “That was the number one frustration for the team. The time difference made it difficult, especially for sales teams in the US needing support from teams in Germany. We solved this in the short term by having dedicated European team members supporting the US market and adjusting their work hours. In the long term, it’s important to figure out the cost-effectiveness of hiring locally versus overseas.

“Additionally, there are significant differences between the business cultures in Germany and the US, and we learned that the aggressive pace of the US market requires adjusting how we operate. That does not mean changing the core element of who you are as an organisation, but you do need to figure out what to adjust. It’s key to find the right balance between global company values and regional differences.”

Veroniek Collewaert: You stayed with Remerge for seven years and grew the team from five to 250 people as VP of Global Revenue. That’s a remarkable growth journey. What were the key growth challenges, and what lessons did you learn?

Emmanouela Androulaki: “In the early days of a start-up, everything is obviously growth at all costs, but at some point, you need to be profitable. A major lesson was the importance of focusing on specific regions and even product lines and assigning a different P&L (profit and loss statement) to them. That helps you to better understand what parts of the business are profitable and make the right business and strategy decisions: where to invest or not, where to hire more people or decrease teams.

“Another key challenge was the work structure. It’s a crucial element to make teams collaborate well and align them to the company goal – but also to make sure there is ownership and knowledge transfer. As the company grows, the structure that works for 50 people may not work for 100 or 250. The structure also needs to be right for your specific talent, product and company culture. My favourite is a matrix structure, especially for a scale-up where global alignment coexists with regional accountability. Such a structure can be messy because more people have responsibilities with dotted and direct reporting lines. That’s why you need to set very specific expectations – and that’s also why a matrix does not work well for early-stage start-ups.”

Veroniek Collewaert: After Remerge, you joined Braze which was definitely not a small start-up. The company was 10 years old with some 1,000 employees. How would you compare your working in a start-up versus a scale-up like Braze?

Emmanouela Androulaki: “In a start-up, you learn by doing as you're thrown into problems you’ve never faced before. You need to be comfortable with chaos and you need to be able to prioritise amidst many problems. But the impact you have on the company is so much more fulfilling and noticeable. In a scale-up, the work is more structured. There are more resources and defined roles, allowing you to develop deeper expertise. Both environments have their challenges, and they require different personalities. While I enjoy both, I prefer working in a scale-up like Braze.”

Veroniek Collewaert: Lastly, what are your top three tips for scaling a sales team?

Emmanouela Androulaki: “First, ensure your sales team is properly structured to focus on both new business and growing existing customers. Second, invest in sales enablement so your team knows how to talk to customers in terms of solving business problems, not just features and functionalities. Especially when you’re selling an expensive product. Third, customize your sales approach for different customer segments. How a company with 100 employees buys software is very different from how a company with 1,000 employees does. Structuring your team to reflect those differences is critical.”

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Veroniek Collewaert

Veroniek Collewaert

Professor of Entrepreneurship/Partner