Michael Puhala

cv at my last name dot com
Scottsdale, Arizona
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/puhala 

Michael Puhala is an enterprise SaaS executive with deep experience across go-to-market strategy, product strategy, sales engineering, and executive leadership. His career has centered on helping organizations bring complex technology solutions to market, position them effectively, and build the teams required to sell and scale them.

He has worked across enterprise software, digital transformation, online communities, and increasingly, AI-focused business initiatives. Michael’s current focus includes AI acceleration and AI positioning, helping companies move from AI as a concept to AI as an operational advantage. His work spans strategic narrative development, product and GTM alignment, workflow transformation, and enabling teams to adopt AI in practical, high-impact ways.

He has successfully sold into and supported enterprise brands including Boeing, Intel, IBM, BT, British Airways, Air France, Macy’s, Spotify, FOX, and Disney. He is also the published author of Human Traits, a novel exploring the complex relationship between humanity and artificial intelligence. Core focus areas include GTM, Product Strategy, Sales Engineering, Executive Leadership, AI Acceleration, AI Positioning, Enterprise SaaS, Technical Pre-Sales, Product Marketing, and Digital Transformation.

• Revenue Growth

• Account Management

• Peak Performance Coaching

• Stakeholder Engagement

Professional Experience

Bevy

www.bevy.com
September, 2025 - Present
Remote Employee: Phoenix, Arizona

VP GTM & Product Strategy
As VP of GTM & Product Strategy, I lead Bevy’s market positioning and growth initiatives, connecting product vision with go-to-market execution. My work spans product strategy, thought leadership, customer migrations, and sales enablement. A growing focus of my role is advancing Bevy’s AI strategy across both product and operations.

This includes shaping AI-powered community capabilities, developing workflow-driven use cases, and building systems that move AI from isolated prompts into repeatable, high-impact processes. I operate at the intersection of product, GTM, and AI adoption, translating emerging capabilities into practical, scalable applications. This hybrid role bridges strategy and execution, from defining market narratives and influencing the roadmap to driving revenue impact through direct sales and partnership initiatives.

Khoros

www.khoros.com
November, 2024 - August, 2025
HQ - Austin, Texas
Remote Employee: Phoenix, Arizona

VP of Marketing & Chief Community Evangelist
Executive leadership role combining public advocacy, thought leadership, and strategic influence to position Khoros at the forefront of the evolving online community and AI landscape. Defined and championed the Community Language Model (CLM), a strategic initiative to train AI systems on community-native data, engagement signals, and behavioral patterns often missed by general-purpose LLMs. This work became foundational to Khoros’ AI strategy, informing product direction and enabling more context-aware moderation, knowledge extraction, and member experiences. Worked across product, GTM, and executive leadership to align market needs with platform innovation, while representing Khoros as a leading voice in the community space through speaking, writing, and customer engagement.

Billtrust

www.billtrust.com
A EQT Portfolio Company
September 2023 to August 2024
VP of Global Presales - Remote. Scottsdale, Arizona
My role in leading the global presales organization with a distributed team of 26 high-performance Solution Consultants and Solution Architects. I managed a revenue impact team responsible for supporting $30M+ in net bookings growth to the top line for 2024.

Khoros

www.khoros.com
A Vista Equity Partners portfolio company (Formerly Lithium)
October, 2010 - October, 2022
HQ - Austin, Texas
Remote Employee: Scottsdale, Arizona

VP of Solution Strategy
December, 2018 - October, 2022
Initiated sales and solution strategy, collaborated with field experts, and translated Vista playbook into executable plans to achieve revenue targets. Engineered vision of sales team members around customer-facing opportunities and Setting digital engagement for large enterprises using key leadership skills. Secured profitable business volumes and acted as primary global subject matter expert for multiple public speaking events. Offered concise and strategic sales vision, support, and guidance to workforce, driving 30+ account executives to accomplish sales quota.

• Utilized industry-relevant strengths to close large enterprise accounts, including IKEA, Service Workday, Microsoft, and Google as primary influencer. Excellence

• Onboarded three innovative solutions to market, meeting average of 122% of $16M quota in 2021.

• Achieved $16 M Quota by showcasing remarkable performance in driving technology and selling initiatives.

• Spearheaded execution of routine sales operations to surpass set objectives and optimize outstanding customer service, scaling win rate and improving sellers' performance.

• Communicated business plans encompassing sales pitch, revenues, and expense controls with teams and guided on developing solutions for online communities and brands and achieving quota/targets.

• Adopted best practices to re-platform by educating customers on new technologies for transitioning into new platform.

• Primary liason to product leadership to provide bi-directional communication conduit and 360 feedback loop to improve solution.

VP GTM Jive X Integration
August, 2017 - December, 2018
Managed go-to-market team on effective Jive-X integration that led to expanding significant customer base and lifting revenues. Integrated market leads in digital customer experience for enhanced customer satisfaction, sales, loyalty, revenue, and business reputation. Administered overall communication cycle, including one-on-one direct meetings with leaders of other organizations. Played instrumental role in stabilizing company and improving profitability upon revenue acquisition, impacting bottom line EBITDA positive to tune of $33M.

• Utilized industry-best standards for conducting in-depth market surveys, driving account development, and generating $34M of subscription revenue for company.

• Organized daily work schedules focused on prioritizing important tasks, including administering existing accounts and adding 230 newly acquired customers to existing customer base and processes.

• Led five direct reports to undertake P&L responsibility of retaining $34M.

• Initiated strategies to drive competitor ($34M biz) to acquire IP and book of business within timespan of one year.

• Streamlined day-to-day operations, resulting in retaining 80% of customer base, downsizing inefficient ones, and maintaining 80% of revenue.

• Utilized strong communication skills to inherit “angry mob” of 234 customers.

• Sold new platform to customers and instructed on usage benefits, switching 30% to 40% customers.

VP World Wide Sales Engineering
October, 2010 - August 2017
First dedicated leader of Sales Engineering team with mission of streamlining worldwide sales engineering initiatives. Pinpointed and overcame business challenges or operational gaps by advising on consultative selling techniques. Fostered comfortable work environment that grew team from 3 people to 18 globally.

• Recruited and supervised SEs in international markets comprising Mexico City, Toronto, Dubai, Berlin, Zurich, London, Paris, Singapore, and Sydney.

• Supported growth of company’s revenues from $20M in annual subscription revenue to $95M in annual subscription revenue.

• Interfaced with teams to accomplish 80% competitive win rate, higher by 30% than industry average, and aided company in boosting revenues fivefold.

• Collaborated with CEO of acquired company to lead integration efforts for two technologies through UX coding and develop and launch integrated product to market.

• Established a world-class technical sales team through team leadership and direction, catering to clients’ and future needs and delivering high-quality solutions.

• Implemented D, E, & I initiatives and built diverse workforce with 40% women-to-male ratio in company.

Prior Experience

Sr. Director, World-Wide Sales Engineering, Khoros

Sr. Sales Engineer & WCM Evangelist, End Play

Sr. Sales Engineer, Atex

Founder, Acoustic Designs, Inc.

Sales Engineer, Clickability

Director, Pre-Sales, OpenPages

Director, Sales Engineering | Sr. Sales Engineer, Interwoven, Inc.

Web Architect, SRP

Education

Grand Canyon University
Phoenix, Arizona
Bachelor of Science, International Business

Internships:

The White House
Washington, D.C.
Presidential Personnel for National Security
Administration: George Bush, Sr.

The United States Air Force (Civilian Intern)
Rhein Main, Airforce Base Germany
Office of Special Investigations (OSI)

Board Member

City Mom Collective
www.momcollective.com
October 2012 - January 2025