Meet Jim Herbold: A Passionate (and Successful) Go-To-Market Leader

Editor’s Note: This is the tenth in our We are EM (Monkeys Are People Too) series.

Sales Leader, Team Player, Enterprise Expert

Jim Herbold is not your typical Silicon Valley sales leader. He considers himself not just a team builder – and he’s built his share of successful teams – but also a team player. Jim’s 15-year career in Silicon Valley included playing a pivotal role in helping Box build a robust 400-person sales force, helping to pave the way for the company’s successful 2015 IPO. Not every company can go public, but every company can benefit from Jim’s considerable expertise in sales strategy, market diversification, and execution.

From the Queen City to Silicon Valley

Jim was born to work in Silicon Valley. Actually born in Cincinnati, Ohio, his early interest in math and science, combined with his early interest in anything electronic that had dials, buttons and gauges, made him ideally suited for a career in technology. After stints in the telecom industry in New York and the Atlanta Olympics, and then with a Singaporean investment venture, he moved to the Bay Area in the late 1990’s and found his way quickly into sales. His aptitude for helping companies go from Point A to Point B by closing deals, making strong sales hires, maximizing their productivity, all the while learning the art of leadership, made him a perfect fit for the sales side of the tech industry.

A Passion for Start-ups, A Sixth Sense for Success

Jim has been drawn to start-ups his entire career. As a consultant, he’s looking forward to using the experience he developed across his career to help a broad range of companies in the B2B software space “get it right early on.” Jim refers to his knack for sales leadership as a “sixth sense,” and it includes building the right team, identifying the value being served by a particular product, and pinpointing a market for that product. That’s not all. Action plans. Data analysis. Scaling teams across growth stages. Jim has done it all, and he’s had great success doing it.

Time Off: Work Hard. Play Harder. No Exceptions.

Jim’s appreciation of creativity and reinvention isn’t limited to his work in the start-up culture. They also apply to his personal life. The father of two boys, ages six and ten, he’s worked hard to perfect the art of work/life balance. He’s put together a museum-grade mineral and fossil collection, is a self-proclaimed backyard grill master, and would probably be a scuba dive master if his career in sales didn’t pan out. Jim’s bucket list is no skimpy list, and he’s always been a doer. When he isn’t busy helping companies achieve their sales goals, he’s planning for the day when he’s going to take his boys to Nepal for some Himalayan trekking. He works as hard as he plays, and takes nothing in life for granted.