A Columbus startup that typically doubles revenue annually as it charts a path to an IPO has recruited a chief revenue officer who helped quadruple sales at his last company.
Aware, whose software helps employers manage regulatory compliance and employee engagement on collaboration platforms, has hired Bill Strogis from Hyperscience, a New York City data automation company.
Hyperscience had promoted Strogis to its chief revenue officer in January 2021, after he propelled 300% growth in his first full year with the company as vice president of worldwide sales, according to a news elease at the time. Before that, he had been vice president of sales productivity at cybersecurity business Cyberreason. Overall Strogis has three decades' experience in enterprise software sales leadership, most of it with early stage companies.
"Bill is an incredible addition to Aware and joins a strong leadership team that is poised to push our company to even greater heights," Aware CEO Jeff Schumann said in a news release Tuesday. "We've seen exponential growth in recent years, and with Bill joining the team, we're confident we've now raised the bar by an order of magnitude."
Strogis has a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Florida – an analytical background that Aware said shows in his approach to sales. While with Hyperscience, he split his time between New York City and a Florida residence.
He succeeds Scott Williams, who for nine months last year was the company's first chief revenue officer, following growth-oriented jobs with Columbus-based g2o and firms including Twilio and ServiceNow. Since November Williams' LinkedIn profile has listed him as a self-employed consultant.
Aware, the DBA of Nullable Inc., has more than doubled annual revenue each year since it was founded in 2017, although figures are not disclosed. Its software detects risk and assesses overall employee engagement through real-time analysis of workplace collaboration platforms including Slack, Microsoft Teams and Facebook Workplace.
As of last fall it was on track to more than triple if not quadruple sales over 2020. In October, Goldman Sachs Asset Management led a prospective $60 million Series C funding round, the first investment in the state by the the investment bank's Growth Equity arm, and added two executives to Aware's board.
"With Aware's massive traction in the market and a keen eye on the future of communication in the enterprise, it was an easy decision for me," Strogis said in the release.
At the start of this month, Hyperscience announced that CEO Peter Brodsky stepped down as part of a companywide restructuring, reported sister publication New York Business Journal. The company, which in December had raised a $100 million Series E, named COO Charlie Newark-French as interim CEO.
