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Ben Cheung
Co-Founder at CloseFactor
Ben Cheung is the Co-Founder and COO of CloseFactor, a company he started in November 2019 along with Leena Joshi and Erik Buchanan.13 CloseFactor is an AI-powered platform that helps B2B marketing and sales teams identify and prioritize the best opportunities.3
Before founding CloseFactor, Ben held several key positions in prominent tech companies:
- AI for Productivity at Microsoft
- CEO and Co-founder of Genee.me (acquired by Microsoft)
- Senior Director of Product Management at Jive Software during its IPO in 2011
- Director of Product Management at VMware during its IPO in 2007
Ben has a strong educational background, with a B.S.C.E in Computer Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology and an MBA in Strategic and Entrepreneurial Management from The Wharton School.
CloseFactor has shown impressive growth, with revenue increasing by 5411% over ten quarters.3 The company has raised significant funding, including a $15 million Series A round in January 2023, bringing its total funding to $20 million.3 CloseFactor's platform has helped customers like LaunchDarkly and Zuora more than double their sales productivity.2
Ben's expertise lies in technology, entrepreneurship, product management, and strategic leadership. His work at CloseFactor focuses on using machine learning and AI to automate target account research and improve sales productivity for B2B companies.4
Highlights
Many of us fail to recognize the value of discussing a plan with a friend or colleague, just as many Account Executives (AEs) fail to grasp the significance of account planning in influencing the duration of the sales cycle.
Putting our thoughts down on paper allows us to gain perspective and identify missing elements within our overarching plan. Incorporating input from colleagues and sales leadership provides an additional, third-party perspective, leading to the emergence of fresh ideas and the identification of information gaps.
Opting to "wing it" and only discovering obvious gaps on the go inevitably extends the sales cycle.
#accountplanning #accountplan #salescycle
What does it take to be a product manager for a product that is knowledge and insights produced by ML? I had been a PM for hardware, packaged software, mobile, and SaaS; Each one of those transitions created a new challenge for the PM discipline. I am looking for a PM to take on this challenge together: https://lnkd.in/g9Np_km8. I greatly appreciate anyone in my network referring candidates who want to take on this new frontier. #product #hiring
