Serial tech investor and adviser Jag Dhariwal has joined fast-growing North American transaction management platform dealcloser as it looks to significantly expand its customer base and raise further capital.
Dhariwal, who is based in Toronto, takes over the executive role of chief growth officer, responsible for sales, customer success and marketing, and helping the company to scale. His appointment is part of the ‘operators for operators’ model run by venture capital company Bryce Catalyst, which is in an investor in dealcloser and which hired Dhariwal in October.
Dhariwal has a background in computer engineering and a track record of leading growth in SaaS companies, including Cartesis (acquired by Business Objects then SAP); Clarity Systems (acquired by IBM); and OLAP Vision itself (acquired by Thomson Reuters).
The appointment will see incumbent chief growth officer Dan Wales, who is also part of Bryce Catalyst but based in the UK, transition away from the role.
Dealcloser was founded in 2017 by Amir Reshef and in January 2021 received $1.75m in seed funding from Bryce Catalyst. Reshef said that Dhariwal would be building on the work done by Wales and the team to date, commenting: “Before Dan we didn’t have a formal sales process in place, and I had never seen a CRM system, but Dan helped us to build our foundations and Jag is now taking over with a huge focus on sales and marketing.”
It is significant that Dhariwal is in the same time zone, and Reshef said: “We’re bringing in someone who has ‘been there and done that’ and has the contacts in North America, the knowledge of enterprise procurement processes, and who will be very hands on.”
Dhariwal added: “I see this as rocket ship time. We have a great product, good market fit, and happy customers. 2023 is going to be about building on the foundations built by Dan and Amir and the team. We are looking for that breakthrough growth in 2023 and expanding into the large global firms in North America.”
As Dhariwal focuses on sales and marketing, a large part of Reshef’s focus now will be on raising further funds, which Bryce Catalyst can be expected to be a part of. Reshef said: “We looking to extend our seed funding to fuel our growth.”
While Dhariwal joins at a time of economic uncertainty, he forecasts that law firms will be focusing on bringing further efficiency to their processes, commenting: “Inefficiencies and administrative tasks are being scrutinised more than ever, and customers don’t want to pay for them. Clients want value for money and by using solutions like ours, firms can achieve that.”
caroline@legaltechnology.com