? Paul Falkenberg — Chief Revenue Officer (CRO)

Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) · Atlanta, GA

Building AI revenue engines that scale and exit.

Growth-driven enterprise sales executive with 20+ years scaling SaaS, data, and analytics organizations from startup through PE-backed exit. I turn underperforming teams into high-velocity revenue machines.

Portrait of Paul Falkenberg

About

I architect GTM strategies that move companies through their next inflection point — from Series A through strategic exit. At Nexus Cognitive, I built the sales engine that grew ARR from $4M to $18M and earned an Insight Partners A-Series investment. At Appriss, I scaled ARR from $50M to $90M, culminating in a $136M acquisition by LexisNexis.

I blend strategic vision with hands-on sales leadership. I'm fluent in Challenger and MEDDICC, and I lean heavily on AI tooling (ChatGPT, Gemini, NotebookLM, Copy.ai) to optimize prospecting, engagement, and deal conversion across complex enterprise environments.

Impact

$136M
Strategic acquisition of Appriss data assets by LexisNexis
$50M → $90M
ARR growth at Appriss in under 3 years
$4M → $18M
Revenue growth at Nexus Cognitive (2021–2024)
87%
Revenue converted to ARR at Nexus (up from 35%)
+$20M
Single engagement closed with a top financial services trade association (2023)
30+
Enterprise sellers built, led, and ramped at Appriss

Experience

Founding CRO / SVP

Nexus Cognitive Tech · Startup

Oct 2021 – Sept 2025

  • Built and led GTM for an enterprise data, cloud operations, and outsourced SOC2/Type2 cybersecurity managed-services business.
  • Grew revenue from $4M to $18M; converted ARR mix from 35% to 87%, anchoring an Insight Partners A-Series investment in 2024.
  • Built sales ops from scratch: MSA/DPA/SLA/SOW contracts, marketing ops, collateral, and HubSpot CRM KPIs.
  • Developed partner ecosystem across AWS, Azure, GCP, Databricks, Snowflake, Cloudera, Datadog, Palo Alto, and Splunk.

VP of Sales

Phoenix Innovations · Startup

2020 – 2021

  • Accelerated startup GTM in secondary smartphone, ITAM, IIOT, and reverse-logistics analytics markets.
  • Defined ICP and vertical segmentation; built repeatable sales plays, pricing, and brand positioning from the ground up.
  • Implemented CRM, pipeline governance, KPIs, lead scoring, and deal review cadence to improve forecast accuracy.

VP of Sales

Sierra-Cedar · Golden Gate Capital

2018 – 2019

  • Managed reorganization and divestiture of assets outside the company's core ERP business.

SVP of Sales

Appriss · Insight Partners

2016 – 2017

  • Architected a full GTM overhaul that scaled ARR from $50M to $90M, repositioning Appriss as a recurring-revenue insights platform.
  • Built and led a 30-person enterprise sales org; implemented Challenger and MEDDICC, improving quota attainment by 35%.
  • Drove value-creation plans with Insight Partners that led to a $136M acquisition by LexisNexis.
  • Operationalized Salesforce forecasting and AI-driven pipeline scoring, lifting forecast accuracy from 68% to 93%.

VP of Sales

Sierra-Cedar · Golden Gate Capital

2012 – 2015

  • Directed GTM and sales transformation across US/Canada Public Sector, driving double-digit annual growth to $45M+ revenue.
  • Built vertical plays in education, state & local government, and healthcare — lifted qualified pipeline 40%.
  • Established sales enablement programs that accelerated new AE ramp time by 50%.

Earlier in career: Unisys, KPMG, Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC).

Tech & Methodologies

GTM & Sales Leadership

  • AI-Driven GTM Architecture
  • ARR Acceleration
  • PE Growth & Exit Strategy
  • Challenger
  • MEDDICC
  • Strategic Enterprise Sales
  • Enterprise SaaS & Managed Services

Cloud, Data & AI

  • AWS
  • Azure
  • GCP
  • Snowflake
  • Databricks
  • Apache Iceberg
  • Trino
  • Spark
  • Kubernetes
  • Agentic AI & Orchestration
  • ChatGPT
  • Gemini
  • NotebookLM
  • Copy.ai

Security & Integration

  • SOC2
  • SIEM
  • IAM
  • XDR
  • APIs / ETL / ELT
  • RPA (Power Platform, Nintex)

Education

  • MBA — Ohio University, Athens, OH
  • BS Electrical Engineering — Ohio University, Athens, OH

Client Experience

Three decades of client engagements spanning federal, state, and local government, enterprise SaaS, data, and managed services. Organized by industry.

Justice & Public Safety · State & Local Government

  • City of Los Angeles (LAPD) 2012 – 2019

    Major Integrated Justice Information Systems (IJIS) and Early Intervention Systems engagements through the Sierra-Cedar JPS practice.

  • White House Chief Technology Office — Data Driven Justice Initiative ~2016 – 2017

    Contributor to the federal Data Driven Justice Initiative during tenure at Appriss.

  • New Orleans Police Department ~2014

    Sold a $4.6M Early Intervention System (EIS) program. Major reference account for the Sierra-Cedar JPS practice.

  • Supreme Court of Texas — Automated Registry / Statewide Query Portal 2010

    Project Director for the Automated Registry System providing judges direct query access to Criminal History, Department of Corrections, Motor Vehicles, Probation, and Mental Health systems through a single web application.

  • Supreme Court of Ohio — Ohio Court Network (OCN) 2008

    Project Director for a statewide court data warehouse aggregating cases from all 485 Ohio courts of record (Criminal, Civil, Juvenile, Probate, Family) and integrating BMV, ODRC, and Ohio State Patrol data.

  • Michigan Supreme Court — Statewide Case Management System 2007

    Project Manager for the System Requirement Specification for the next-generation Michigan Case Management System (95 use cases across Criminal, Civil, Probate, Juvenile, and Family courts) and the Phase II development proposal.

  • Texas Department of Public Safety — Path to NIEM 2007

    Facilitated JIEM workshops documenting state-to-local and local-to-state information exchanges; developed 28 JIEM processes (60 discrete exchanges) and NIEM-compliant IEPDs with gap analysis. Unisys engagement.

  • Gwinnett County, Georgia — Integrated Justice System Strategic Plan 2006

    Developed the countywide blueprint for electronic integration of justice agencies: enterprise architecture, business-process documentation, 350-exchange JIEM model, technical architecture, and CJIS action plan.

  • Volusia County, Florida — Integrated Justice System 2005

    Developed a Justice Information Exchange Model (JIEM) covering Court CMS, Sheriff RMS, and Jail Management System replacements. Unisys engagement.

  • Gwinnett County, Georgia — Countywide SAP Implementation 2003

    Created the Program Management Office (PMO) for a large SAP implementation (100,000+ consulting hours, 50,000+ client hours). Built financial models, project plans, PM standards, status reporting, and CMM Level 3 processes. BearingPoint/KPMG.

  • Supreme Court of South Carolina — Case Management System 2000 – 2003

    Project Manager for the statewide court Case Management System implementation: requirements, COTS customization, data conversion, testing, and training. Built the real-time interface to SLED and the FBI's NCIC.

  • Supreme Court of South Carolina — Strategic Planning 1999 – 2000

    Developed the Strategic Technology Plan for modernization of the South Carolina Judicial Branch, including business-process analysis, performance metrics, funding strategy, and financial justification.

  • Pennsylvania Justice Network (JNET) 1999

    Managed the JNET Agency Support Project, identifying enhancements and integration opportunities so participating criminal-justice agencies could maximize the JNET infrastructure. BearingPoint/KPMG.

  • Orange County, Florida — Integrated Justice Commission (Orlando) 1999

    Managed development of a countywide Integrated Criminal Justice Information System (ICJIS) strategic plan while at CSC.

  • Louisiana Commission on Law Enforcement 1997 – 1998

    Managed development of a statewide Integrated Criminal Justice Information System (ICJIS) Strategic Plan while at Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC).

Financial Services

  • Premier U.S. Financial Services Trade Association — Small Business Lending 2022 · $20M+

    Sold a $20M+ engagement to a financial-services trade association representing institutions in small-business lending. Built a data-aggregation platform pulling information from 160 major financial institutions to deliver risk-management products to the major credit reporting bureaus.

Aviation & Transportation

  • Premier National Airline Carrier — Middle East 2024 · $3M

    Sold a $3M enterprise data-managed-service engagement.

Strategic Acquisition

  • LexisNexis 2017 · $136M

    Buyer of Appriss's automobile-collision-data business in a $136M transaction triggered by competitive pressure my team applied — generating a substantial return for Appriss's parent, Insight Venture Partners.

Manufacturing & Automotive

  • General Motors Corporation — Romulus, MI Powertrain Plant 1996 – 1997

    Project Manager (via Hughes Aircraft) for an Intranet-based information system supporting the engine machining and assembly line, including just-in-time training, point-and-click failure diagnostics, and downtime-reduction analytics.

Strategic Cloud & Data Partners

Partner ecosystems developed across recent GTM motions for joint sales and marketing.

  • AWS
  • Microsoft Azure
  • Google Cloud Platform
  • Snowflake
  • Databricks
  • Cloudera
  • HashiCorp
  • ModelOps
  • OvalEdge
  • MuleSoft

Let's talk.

Open to CRO, VP Sales, and GTM leadership conversations. Based in Atlanta, available nationally.