Richard Poolman
Three decades in enterprise software. Three times I have had to commit before the evidence was complete.
I co-founded a software company and ran it as managing director. I was the first commercial hire for ServiceNow in the Benelux. I built Snowflake's major accounts function across the Nordics and Benelux.
The record
My own company.
I co-founded DataProfit and was its managing director in the early years. We built out of Amsterdam first, then London, with a small presence in Silicon Valley to understand that market and meet partners and investors. I brought investors in from the Netherlands and abroad, several of whom joined the board and shared the risk with us.
Building from the beginning.
At ServiceNow I joined as the first employee in the Netherlands and became Regional Director for the Benelux. From the start I was responsible for winning the first deals, building the first partnerships and hiring the people needed to establish the region. After three years building the Benelux business, I was asked to help with the global account management programme and took responsibility for Shell, Deutsche Bank and Nestlé as three challenging global accounts.
At Snowflake the constraint was speed. The major accounts function did not exist. I built it across the Nordics and Benelux while the company was scaling hard, and recruited, onboarded and coached the team largely through lockdown.
What carried it.
A decision only travels as far as the people and structures carrying it. At Quantexa I was VP Alliances Europe, building the European partner ecosystem with the Big 4 and the tier-1 system integrators across banking, insurance and government. At Tanium the same work ran through financial services, government and critical infrastructure, where decision cycles are long and compliance is in the room from the start.
I was at ServiceNow before, during and after its IPO in June 2012, and at Snowflake before, during and after its IPO in September 2020. That dates the operating environment. It is not a credential. I have been in enterprise software since 1999, when I started at Mercury Interactive and stayed on through HP.
What that taught me
Waiting is also a decision.
Each of those starts required committing while the case for it was still incomplete. Holding back feels like the cautious option and it is not a neutral one. The market keeps moving, other people commit, and the position you were keeping open closes on its own. Most of the judgement is in reading which way the incompleteness cuts, and in being clear that delay carries a price even when nobody books it.
What you decide has to work when you are not there.
A team working across countries. A partner selling your position to a client of their own. A global account you see a few times a year. None of them can stop and check. If they cannot put the decision in their own words and hold it in a room you are not in, it does not travel, however sound it was when you made it.
Boards
I am open to a small number of non-executive director and advisory board positions, with B2B software, AI and data companies operating in Europe or moving into it.
What I add sits alongside financial and technical oversight: a reading of whether the commercial picture a board is being shown reflects what is actually happening in the market, in the accounts and in the partner channel.
Venturoxx
Venturoxx is my practice. It is where this judgement gets applied commercially, with founders, chief executives, investors and boards, and the work is done by me. If your question is about a company, that is where it is answered.
Start the conversation
Venturoxx work, board and non-executive conversations, and selected operating opportunities. All to the same address.