I turn technical product into predictable revenue.
A fractional operator for founders and CROs who know their product is strong but feel the GTM motion is inconsistent, undersized, or stuck.
15+ years building the Sales Engineering, Customer Engineering, and post-sales machinery that turns strong B2B products into enterprise revenue — at companies from Seed through Series D and beyond.
Built for founders and CROs at Seed to Series D
Early Stage — Seed to Series A
- First 5–10 enterprise deals in flight but close rates are inconsistent
- Founder or CEO still running demos and POVs personally
- No Sales Engineering function yet, or a single first hire
- Product is genuinely strong but you can't communicate that to procurement
- You need enterprise credibility to close your first big logo
Growth Stage — Series B to D
- SE or CE team exists but win rates and cycle times are flat or slipping
- Scaling into new regions or segments but the motion doesn't translate
- Product, Sales, and Customer Success are pulling in different directions
- Implementation is inconsistent — some customers succeed, others stall
- You need someone who has built this before, not someone figuring it out
I work across UK, EMEA, and US-aligned organisations — Advisory (1–2 days/month), Embedded Fractional (2–3 days/week), or fixed-outcome Projects (60–120 days). The right model depends on where you are and what the gap actually is.
Three ways I can engage with your company
Own the plan, ship the change, hand over to a permanent hire.
For companies that need senior GTM and operational leadership now — not in six months. I embed as a working executive, not a consultant. I attend your deal reviews, manage your SE or CE team, fix the implementation motion, and build the operating cadence that makes the results repeatable.
What this covers
- Sales Engineering org design, hiring, and competency models
- Demo and POV standards, MEDDICC / Command of the Message rollout
- Stage-based Land, Prove, Expand implementation model
- Product–Field–Engineering operating loop
- KPI systems, forecasting, and team governance
- Automation and AI tooling to remove 35–40% of repetitive load
Engagement models
Numbers from the work, not the pitch.
These figures are drawn from direct work at Cockroach Labs and Pythian. I can share specifics in a conversation.
Senior leadership. Zero full-time overhead.
Most early and mid-stage companies don't need a full-time VP of Sales Engineering or COO. They need someone who has done it before, can hit the ground running, and can build something the permanent team can own.
Active from day one
No 3–6 month recruiting cycle. No 3–6 month ramp. I know what good looks like and I've seen what breaks. You get a working operator, not someone learning on the job.
Pattern recognition at scale
A full-time hire brings one person's perspective. I bring pattern recognition from 15+ years across multiple companies at every stage — from first enterprise deal to global org. I've seen your exact problem before.
Fraction of the fully-loaded cost
A senior VP of Sales Engineering or COO is £250–400k+ fully loaded before equity. Fractional engagement delivers the same strategic impact at a fraction of the cost — and with no dilution.
Scales with you, not against you
Advisory (1–2 days/month), Embedded (2–3 days/week), or fixed-outcome Projects. Dial up when you're moving fast, dial back when you're not. You're never locked into a headcount you don't need.
Commercial focus, not slide decks
I'm a former VP who ran deals, managed P&L, and built functions from scratch. Not a strategy consultant writing recommendations. If I identify a problem, I fix it.
Low risk, clear exit
No severance. No long notice periods. No equity cliff. If the engagement isn't working, you stop. That sharpens accountability on both sides.
Full-time hire vs. Fractional engagement
| Full-Time Hire | Fractional with Daniel | |
|---|---|---|
| Time to first impact | 6–9 months (hire + ramp) | Week one |
| Annual cost | £250–400k+ fully loaded | Fraction of that — no equity dilution |
| Flexibility | Fixed headcount | Scale up, down, or out as you grow |
| Experience breadth | One person's career trajectory | 15+ companies, every stage, multiple scenarios |
| Risk if it doesn't work | High — severance, equity, org disruption | Low — clear engagement terms, clean exit |
| Knowledge transfer | Retained internally when they leave | Explicitly designed to build internal capability |
* Applies primarily to Fractional COO/CTO/Head of SE engagements. Board Advisory and NED roles serve a different function — independent perspective and governance rather than operational execution.
Not an advisor who advises. An operator who also advises.
I'm Daniel Holt — VP of Sales Engineering & Customer Success at Cockroach Labs and founder of Holt Advisory Services. I've spent 15+ years building the technical GTM functions that turn strong products into predictable enterprise revenue.
At Cockroach Labs, I built the EMEA and International Sales Engineering organisation from a single hire to 50+ people across three management layers — while lifting the global evaluation win rate by 125% and reducing high-severity customer escalations by 70%. I also own the post-sales and Customer Engineering motion: stage-based implementation, automation, and the operating cadences that keep large deployments on track.
Before that, I ran global managed services at Pythian — P&L ownership, 80+ engineers, six managers — and led enterprise data platform transformations at DataStax across financial services, government, and retail. I understand the commercial stakes, the technical complexity, and the organisational dynamics.
I work with founders, CROs, and boards who need someone who has done this before, can communicate it clearly at board level, and can build something the permanent team can own after I leave.
Experience
Certifications
- AWS Certified Solutions Architect
- Google Cloud Professional Cloud Architect
- Microsoft Azure Solutions Architect Expert
- Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA)
- Certified Kubernetes Application Developer (CKAD)
From the people I've worked with
Daniel doesn't just advise — he gets into the detail. He helped us restructure our entire SE motion, from how we run evaluations to how we hand off to Customer Success. Within two quarters our win rate had moved materially. He thinks like a founder but operates like a VP.
We needed someone who could walk into a board meeting, explain a complex technical risk in plain language, and then go sit with the engineering team and fix it. Daniel does both. His independent perspective on our GTM strategy was exactly what we needed at Series B.
Having Daniel as a Non-Executive Director has genuinely strengthened how we think about commercial risk. He challenges us constructively — not from theory, but from having run these organisations himself. He brings operational credibility that most NEDs don't have.
Let's have a direct conversation.
If you're a founder, CRO, or board member who wants to talk about what a fractional engagement, board advisory, or NED role would actually look like in practice — reach out.
No discovery call scripts. No automated sequences. Just a direct email and a real conversation about whether this makes sense.