Navy veteran turned Founding GTM Leader. I've taken startups from $0 to $1M+ in ARR, closed enterprise logos like PwC and Janus Henderson, and built entire revenue engines — sales, marketing, product feedback, and customer activation — from scratch. Currently based in San Francisco.
From Naval Nuclear Reactor Operator to Founding GTM Leader.
Hark automates frontline operations for enterprises by enabling them to build their own AI agents that can call, send SMS, email, and operate the browser.
Financial copilot for institutional investors — Hedge Funds, Family Offices, Asset Managers, and Corporate Clients.
Full-cycle recruiter for medical device and healthcare industries.
Managed high-profile clients including Santander, Wells Fargo, and Exeter.
1,500+ hours of hands-on training on an operational reactor. 600+ hours focused on reactor plant systems, chemistry, reactor physics, thermodynamics, and radiological controls.
Volunteered at the Petaluma Veterans Memorial temporary shelter after the devastating Santa Rosa fires.
People I've worked with who can speak to my work and character.
I am writing to provide my strong recommendation for Dak Brown, who recently served as a Founding GTM Lead on my team at Runbook.
Despite his short tenure, Dak's impact was immediate. He stepped into a complex role and mastered our product with impressive speed. Within his first month, he was already leading high-stakes demos and discovery calls with major enterprises, including Albertsons, Hogan, and Home Depot. Beyond his technical aptitude, he contributed fresh, strategic perspectives that refined our product roadmap and sales cycles.
Dak's dedication is exceptional. He consistently went above and beyond, putting in significant effort to ensure our early-stage momentum stayed high. He is a high-energy "asset" who brings both domain expertise and a positive, collaborative spirit to the office.
While we ultimately moved in different directions due to misaligned long-term equity structures, I have the utmost respect for Dak's talent and work ethic. Any company looking for a driven, founding-level GTM professional would be lucky to have him and I would welcome him back anytime.
I am writing to provide my highest recommendation for Dak Brown, who served as our Founding GTM Lead at Fintool from March 2024 to December 2025.
Dak built our entire go-to-market function from scratch and scaled us from $0 ARR to $945k ARR in 18 months. He closed marquee logos including PwC, Janus Henderson, HMI Capital, and Artisan Partners — collectively managing over $1 trillion in assets. Beyond the numbers, he architected our sales motion, owned marketing end-to-end, and drove a 30% increase in product adoption through white-glove customer success. His guerrilla marketing campaign at the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting generated national media coverage from Barron's and became a masterclass in creative, low-budget brand building.
What sets Dak apart is his ability to operate at both strategic and tactical levels simultaneously. He negotiated podcast sponsorships, built our CRM infrastructure, hosted product webinars, and served as the critical bridge between customers and our product team. Every week he sent our engineers curated call clips and stacked evidence for features — one of which directly drove that 30% adoption increase in usage. He made it a personal goal to meet every major customer in person and hit that milestone in September, exemplifying his commitment to relationships over transactions.
Dak brings infectious energy to early-stage teams. He rang a gong for closed deals, planned team celebrations, and created the kind of culture that makes the grind of startup building sustainable. Any company hiring Dak is getting a rare combination: a revenue leader who thinks like a founder, executes like an operator, and builds like he's invested for the long term.
I am pleased to recommend Dak Brown, who served as our Founding GTM Lead at Fintool from March 2024 to December 2025.
As CTO, I worked closely with Dak to bridge the gap between our product and the market. He was, without question, the best non-engineering partner I have collaborated with. Dak didn't just relay customer feedback — he acted as the genuine voice of the customer within our technical organization. He cared deeply about the integrity of the product and, crucially, wasn't afraid to challenge the engineering team when he felt a solution didn't meet the user's needs. That willingness to push back when something wasn't right made a tangible difference in the quality of what we shipped.
Dak's approach was rooted in high-fidelity data. Every week, he sent curated call clips highlighting real pain points, filed detailed GitHub issues, and stacked evidence across multiple customers for feature requests. One feature he championed through this rigorous approach led to a 30% increase in product adoption within two months of launch.
What impressed me most was Dak's technical curiosity and bias toward building. When he needed better visibility into customer usage, he used Claude Code to build his own dashboard rather than consuming engineering resources. He built an AI sales agent using ElevenLabs to qualify leads, demonstrating both technical aptitude and a deep respect for the engineering team's bandwidth. During product meetings, he consistently sharpened our strategy by asking the right questions.
Dak also understood the strategic value of design partners. He didn't just volunteer whoever was available; he curated a group of customers with the right technical sophistication and organizational buy-in to provide meaningful feedback. This thoughtfulness significantly accelerated our development cycles.
Any technical team would be fortunate to have Dak as their go-to-market partner. He brings a rare blend of technical fluency, user empathy, and the backbone to advocate for excellence.
I am writing to offer my strong support for Dak Brown. I came to know him over the past 18 months as a prospect and then as a client when my firm purchased a finance-based AI solution from his previous company, Fintool.
What impressed me most about Dak was his thoughtful and consultative sales approach. He didn't just try to sell us a product; he made sure he first understood our firm, our investment approach and our goals related to using an AI application. He is a personable, intelligent professional who was able to bridge the gap between the technological side and our practical financial requirements. He did a great job listening and then offering solutions to meet our needs.
This was a competitive process as we evaluated several AI solutions. Dak was consistently patient and respectful of our evaluation process and was not annoyingly pushy. Post sale, he was consistently responsive and really made us feel like our feedback mattered to Fintool as that firm continues to refine its product offering.
In my 33 years in the finance industry, Dak is one of the more pleasant and balanced sales professionals I've worked with. While I was sorry to see him leave Fintool, I believe Dak Brown would be a tremendous asset to any sales organization in the AI industry.
Dak was an awesome account manager for us — always extremely responsive and knowledgeable on the Fintool product. Candidly I was shocked to see how responsive he was outside of normal business hours, especially considering his location in California.
Dak went the extra mile to learn who we are as a fund and ensure that Fintool's product was being properly used and innovating towards our needs. Dak also did a great job initially finding us as a client — he saw that we looked at the tool, proactively reached out, showed us the value proposition, and ultimately closed.
Lastly, it meant a lot to our firm that Dak and team came out to visit us. He made sure any questions we had were answered and went above and beyond showing us better ways to manage workflows around earnings and morning news runs. Dak would be a great fit for any team wherever he lands.
6 years of submarine service — from Naval Nuclear Power School to the USS New Hampshire, "Live Free or Die," SSN 778.
Enlisted Submarine Breast Insignia — "Dolphins"
The qualification process typically takes a full year — mastering every system aboard the submarine, from nuclear propulsion to damage control, firefighting, weapons, and navigation. Dak earned his in three months. Fewer than 5% of the Navy wears this pin. It means your crew trusts you with their lives.
Honorably discharged after 6 years of distinguished service. Received the following medals and decorations:
Medals & Decorations
Ribbons & Badges
Served aboard the USS New Hampshire for 4 years conducting missions vital to national security. Highlights:
Qualifications earned:
Graduated with a 3.4 GPA from one of the most rigorous academic programs in the U.S. military. The curriculum was designed by MIT and carries a roughly 50% attrition rate. Completed 600+ hours of coursework in reactor physics, thermodynamics, chemistry, and radiological controls, plus 1,500+ hours of hands-on training on an operational nuclear reactor.
Every cold email was deeply researched and personally crafted. The results speak for themselves — prospects regularly responded just to compliment the outreach, even when they weren't buyers.
Outbound
I represent the company well and have been told I am a great face of the business. Whether it's a demo, a webinar, or a first meeting, prospects and customers consistently walk away with a strong impression of the brand.
Sales / Brand
I negotiate customer testimonials into renewal and expansion deals, turning happy customers into marketing assets. Video testimonials and case studies become leverage for both brand credibility and future sales conversations.
Customer Success / Negotiation
Designed and executed a creative, low-budget guerrilla marketing campaign at the Berkshire Hathaway annual shareholder meeting that generated national media coverage from outlets like Barron's. A masterclass in scrappy brand-building for a startup.
View on X → View on X →
Built an ElevenLabs voice bot at Fintool to automate inbound lead qualification. Visitors could speak directly with the bot to learn about the product, answer qualifying questions, and get routed to the right rep.
AI / Sales Ops
I use coding to unblock myself when necessary rather than consuming engineering resources. I built this website with Claude Code, and I also built a custom usage dashboard to track customer engagement and product adoption without waiting on the engineering team.
Engineering / AI Tools
Born and raised in Sacramento, California — and Northern California is where I intend to stay forever. My family is everything to me, and I'm lucky that they're all local. Whether it's family dinners, a holiday gathering, being close to the people I love most is something I never take for granted. That same value shows up in how I work — I build real relationships, not transactional ones.
Most of my closest friends are local too, which means there's never a shortage of plans. Outside of family and friends, you'll usually find me on a bicycle. Some may say I have a bike addiction — and they're probably right. I love getting out into the Marin Headlands for a long ride whenever I can.
I wouldn't say I am a foodie, but I eat from time to time. I genuinely enjoy cooking and am always experimenting with new cuisines, and I'm constantly hunting for the next great restaurant. Beyond that, I spend a lot of time listening to podcasts and reading books — just staying curious.
I try and be the same authentic person at work as well as my personal life. A few qualities I try and embody are grit, integrity, humility, and reliable.
