The High-Performing Technical Leader

Arvi Carkanji
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The High Performing Technical Leader is for founders, CROs, and technical revenue leaders scaling pre-sales and post-sales teams in technical SaaS. Hosted by Arvi Carkanji, founder of Elite Talent Recruiting, this show goes deep with leaders who are actually building, scaling, and running high-performance technical GTM teams. From hiring the first Solutions Engineer to managing rapid team expansion, from positioning pre-sales as a revenue function to retaining top talent through growth, we explore the real challenges that define technical revenue leadership. These are honest conversations with VPs, CROs, founders, and technical leaders who've done the work and are willing to share what it actually takes to win. Whether you're a founder figuring out your first technical GTM hire, a VP scaling your pre-sales function, or a leader navigating customer success as a revenue lever, you belong here. Let's build.

  1. 20 Oct

    Ep. 35- Why You Should Hire SEs Who've Never Been in That Seat with Tobias Rott, Pre-Sales Career Coach

    Give us Feedback on this episode our next great Solutions Engineer might have zero pre-sales experience on paper. I'm going live with Tobias (Toby) Rott, founder of Presales Club. He coaches talent looking to enter pre-sales without ever being in that seat before, and he's now doing it full-time. We dig into: Why "we need someone with the SE title" is costing you great talentThe differentiator method: how to spot who's hireable without the backgroundWhen domain expertise beats sales pedigreeThe gaps career changers must close: persona-based messaging, business value, sales motionsIf you are thinking about hiring SEs right now this will be worth a listen Elite Talent Recruiting helps B2B SaaS leaders hire high performing Pre Sales and Post Sales talent when speed and quality actually matter.  We are on a mission to prove Pre Sales and Post Sales teams are just as crucial to revenue as offensive linemen are to quarterbacks.  They accelerate sales, fuel growth, and help SaaS companies win bigger deals faster.  We build SaaS GTM teams by headhunting top Pre Sales and Post Sales talent and delivering hires in 35 days or less, including Sales Engineers, Solutions Consultants, Solutions Architects, Customer Success, and Technical Account Managers.  If your team is stretched thin, specialized roles are sitting open too long, or you are scaling fast and need reliable recruiting support that actually moves the needle, we help you hire the kind of talent that drives growth, innovation, and customer success without wasting months in interview chaos. Check out our website: https://elitetalentrecruiting.io/ Connect with Arvi directly on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arvi-carkanji/  All other resources: https://linktr.ee/elitetalentrecruiting

  2. 13 Oct

    Ep. 34- Before You Buy AI for Pre-Sales, Hear From the Ex-CEO of a 7,000-Person SI. Michael Chanter, Founder & CEO of 1KE

    Give us Feedback on this episode Your pre-sales team is the bottleneck. Not because they're bad. Because you need 5 SEs on every deal and you have 1. Every sales leader is now asking the same question: how do I get more out of the team I already have? Tonight I'm sitting down with Michael Chanter, Founder & CEO of 1KE. Before founding 1KE, Michael ran a 7,000-person systems integrator across 20 countries. He's seen what happens to pre-sales capacity at scale, and now he's building AI that handles the solutioning work so your best people can get back in front of customers. We're getting into: → Why pre-sales is the real bottleneck in complex technical sales → How to turn your average SEs into strong ones and your superstars into 10x players → The biggest mistakes leaders make when bringing AI into their pre-sales org → What he looks for (and what he avoids) when hiring for pre-sales and GTM If you lead a pre-sales, solutions, or GTM team and you're trying to scale without burning out your people, this one is for you. Elite Talent Recruiting helps B2B SaaS leaders hire high performing Pre Sales and Post Sales talent when speed and quality actually matter.  We are on a mission to prove Pre Sales and Post Sales teams are just as crucial to revenue as offensive linemen are to quarterbacks.  They accelerate sales, fuel growth, and help SaaS companies win bigger deals faster.  We build SaaS GTM teams by headhunting top Pre Sales and Post Sales talent and delivering hires in 35 days or less, including Sales Engineers, Solutions Consultants, Solutions Architects, Customer Success, and Technical Account Managers.  If your team is stretched thin, specialized roles are sitting open too long, or you are scaling fast and need reliable recruiting support that actually moves the needle, we help you hire the kind of talent that drives growth, innovation, and customer success without wasting months in interview chaos. Check out our website: https://elitetalentrecruiting.io/ Connect with Arvi directly on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arvi-carkanji/  All other resources: https://linktr.ee/elitetalentrecruiting

  3. 9 Oct

    Ep. 33- Pre-Sales Leaders Are Being Handed More Hats: Here's How to Wear Them Properly, with Anthony "Tony" Francetic

    Give us Feedback on this episode Pre-Sales Leaders are being handed more hats than ever. SDR teams. New scope. AI changing the playbook every quarter. And most leaders were never trained for half of what they now own. So how do you wear all those hats without dropping one? That's exactly what I'm digging into with Tony Francetic from Thomson Reuters. Three years ago, Tony's org shifted and on top of leading his Solution Consultants, he took on the SDR team too. Two teams, two completely different ways to coach and develop, one leader. His path is anything but typical. He started in journalism, then spent 14 years at Thomson Reuters moving through support, training, and management before landing in pre-sales leadership. He's also writing a book on stoicism and pre-sales (and yes, I'm holding him to that deadline live 😄). Here's what we're covering: 👉 How Tony went from journalist to pre-sales leader, and what actually helped him level up inside a large organization 👉 What changes when one leader owns both SDRs and Solution Consultants 👉 The real difference between coaching an SDR versus a Solution Consultant 👉 How the pre-sales leader role has changed in the last 5 to 10 years, and what's expected now 👉 Why stoic thinking might be the most underrated leadership skill in GTM 👉 What Tony looks for when hiring, and what separates good from A-Players If you're a founder, CRO, or pre-sales leader being asked to take on more than your title says, this one's for you. Elite Talent Recruiting helps B2B SaaS leaders hire high performing Pre Sales and Post Sales talent when speed and quality actually matter.  We are on a mission to prove Pre Sales and Post Sales teams are just as crucial to revenue as offensive linemen are to quarterbacks.  They accelerate sales, fuel growth, and help SaaS companies win bigger deals faster.  We build SaaS GTM teams by headhunting top Pre Sales and Post Sales talent and delivering hires in 35 days or less, including Sales Engineers, Solutions Consultants, Solutions Architects, Customer Success, and Technical Account Managers.  If your team is stretched thin, specialized roles are sitting open too long, or you are scaling fast and need reliable recruiting support that actually moves the needle, we help you hire the kind of talent that drives growth, innovation, and customer success without wasting months in interview chaos. Check out our website: https://elitetalentrecruiting.io/ Connect with Arvi directly on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arvi-carkanji/  All other resources: https://linktr.ee/elitetalentrecruiting

  4. 5 Oct

    Ep.32- Why High-Performing SEs Leave: Building IC Careers That Stick, with Chris Clark

    Give us Feedback on this episode Your best SE just told you they want to leave. Not because of money. Because they don't see a path forward that doesn't involve management. Here's the problem: most GTM leaders treat IC progression like an afterthought. You hire for technical depth, coach them into people managers, then act shocked when they leave. On this episode, I'm talking with Chris Clark, career coach to mid-career SEs and former Solutions Engineer at Slack and Salesforce. He works directly with SEs navigating growth at both enterprise and early-stage companies and advises hiring managers on retention. We dig into: Why your best ICs are quietly job searching (and it has nothing to do with comp)How to build IC-track roles that actually retain senior SEsThe difference between leading at Salesforce-scale vs. a Series B startup (and why your SEs care)What career design looks like for people who don't want to manageRed flags Chris is seeing in how companies treat technical career progressionIf you're scaling a GTM team, you need to hear this. Elite Talent Recruiting helps B2B SaaS leaders hire high performing Pre Sales and Post Sales talent when speed and quality actually matter.  We are on a mission to prove Pre Sales and Post Sales teams are just as crucial to revenue as offensive linemen are to quarterbacks.  They accelerate sales, fuel growth, and help SaaS companies win bigger deals faster.  We build SaaS GTM teams by headhunting top Pre Sales and Post Sales talent and delivering hires in 35 days or less, including Sales Engineers, Solutions Consultants, Solutions Architects, Customer Success, and Technical Account Managers.  If your team is stretched thin, specialized roles are sitting open too long, or you are scaling fast and need reliable recruiting support that actually moves the needle, we help you hire the kind of talent that drives growth, innovation, and customer success without wasting months in interview chaos. Check out our website: https://elitetalentrecruiting.io/ Connect with Arvi directly on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arvi-carkanji/  All other resources: https://linktr.ee/elitetalentrecruiting

  5. 25 Sept

    Ep. 31- The Core 4 Skills Every Sales Engineer Needs to Own the Client Conversation with Rew Dickinson

    Give us Feedback on this episode Your SE is technically brilliant. But they're not owning the conversation. Most pre-sales leaders think their team is great at discovery and storytelling. In reality, when Rew Dickinson surveyed 50+ leaders, the average score on storytelling was 4.6 out of 10. And on leadership? Most SEs are too agreeable. They say "it depends" instead of taking an opinion. They defer instead of guide. Here's what that costs you: deals that stall, prospects who don't move forward, and SEs seen as technical resources instead of trusted advisors. Rew built a framework that changes this. The Core 4 Skills every SE needs to own the client conversation: knowledge, storytelling, discovery, and leadership. Not in theory. In practice. From someone who took a $48M deal from stalled to closed by showing up without their sales rep and actually leading. https://mailchi.mp/alphagtm.com/5jfblp2mx4 Elite Talent Recruiting helps B2B SaaS leaders hire high performing Pre Sales and Post Sales talent when speed and quality actually matter.  We are on a mission to prove Pre Sales and Post Sales teams are just as crucial to revenue as offensive linemen are to quarterbacks.  They accelerate sales, fuel growth, and help SaaS companies win bigger deals faster.  We build SaaS GTM teams by headhunting top Pre Sales and Post Sales talent and delivering hires in 35 days or less, including Sales Engineers, Solutions Consultants, Solutions Architects, Customer Success, and Technical Account Managers.  If your team is stretched thin, specialized roles are sitting open too long, or you are scaling fast and need reliable recruiting support that actually moves the needle, we help you hire the kind of talent that drives growth, innovation, and customer success without wasting months in interview chaos. Check out our website: https://elitetalentrecruiting.io/ Connect with Arvi directly on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arvi-carkanji/  All other resources: https://linktr.ee/elitetalentrecruiting

  6. 16 Sept

    Ep. 30- Stop Losing Deals to Forgotten Leads: A Go-to-Market Fix, with Guillaume Bruere, Co-Founder of Groovin

    Give us Feedback on this episode Your team's CRM is missing leads. Not because they're bad at their jobs, but because leads fall through the cracks when they're not actively in a pipeline. The cost? Deals disappear. Pipeline shrinks. Revenue suffers. Today, I'm talking to Guillaume Bruere, co-founder of Groovin, about how the best GTM teams prevent this from happening in the first place. We dig into: The hidden lead problem every CRO faces (and why spreadsheets don't fix it)How to surface forgotten prospects before competitors doBuilding and scaling a product bootstrapped, without outside capitalWhether you're a revenue leader managing pipeline leakage, a pre-sales team maximizing deal flow, or an AE/SE hunting in your own network, this is going to be a very tactical episode USE CODE ARVI10 FOR A DISCOUNT ON GROOVIN.AI Elite Talent Recruiting helps B2B SaaS leaders hire high performing Pre Sales and Post Sales talent when speed and quality actually matter.  We are on a mission to prove Pre Sales and Post Sales teams are just as crucial to revenue as offensive linemen are to quarterbacks.  They accelerate sales, fuel growth, and help SaaS companies win bigger deals faster.  We build SaaS GTM teams by headhunting top Pre Sales and Post Sales talent and delivering hires in 35 days or less, including Sales Engineers, Solutions Consultants, Solutions Architects, Customer Success, and Technical Account Managers.  If your team is stretched thin, specialized roles are sitting open too long, or you are scaling fast and need reliable recruiting support that actually moves the needle, we help you hire the kind of talent that drives growth, innovation, and customer success without wasting months in interview chaos. Check out our website: https://elitetalentrecruiting.io/ Connect with Arvi directly on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arvi-carkanji/  All other resources: https://linktr.ee/elitetalentrecruiting

  7. 9 Sept

    Ep. 29- How Integrations Impact Your Pre-Sales and GTM Team with Cristina Flaschen, CEO of Pandium

    Give us Feedback on this episode Your sales engineers are on the front lines of a problem most revenue leaders don't even see: integration challenges that kill deals before they close. Cristina Flaschen, CEO of Pandium, spent 20+ years as that person—the technical leader your SE calls when a prospect asks "can you actually integrate with X?" Now she's building the infrastructure to solve it. We dig into: Why your sales engineers are losing deals on integrations (and what you can do about it)How to hire sales engineers who can navigate technical complexity without the credentialism biasBuilding diverse teams with non-traditional backgrounds that outperform the homogeneous bubbleWhat separates a good SE from an A-Player scaling GTMIf you're building a pre-sales function, hiring your first SE, or scaling technical revenue teams, this is essential. Elite Talent Recruiting helps B2B SaaS leaders hire high performing Pre Sales and Post Sales talent when speed and quality actually matter.  We are on a mission to prove Pre Sales and Post Sales teams are just as crucial to revenue as offensive linemen are to quarterbacks.  They accelerate sales, fuel growth, and help SaaS companies win bigger deals faster.  We build SaaS GTM teams by headhunting top Pre Sales and Post Sales talent and delivering hires in 35 days or less, including Sales Engineers, Solutions Consultants, Solutions Architects, Customer Success, and Technical Account Managers.  If your team is stretched thin, specialized roles are sitting open too long, or you are scaling fast and need reliable recruiting support that actually moves the needle, we help you hire the kind of talent that drives growth, innovation, and customer success without wasting months in interview chaos. Check out our website: https://elitetalentrecruiting.io/ Connect with Arvi directly on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arvi-carkanji/  All other resources: https://linktr.ee/elitetalentrecruiting

  8. 21 Aug

    Ep. 28 How To Build A Predictable SDR Engine Without Burning Out AEs with Gabe Lullo

    Give us Feedback on this episode We talk with Gabe Lullo, founder of Alleyoop, about why sales development is resurging and why SDR work is its own discipline that connects marketing demand to sales closing. We share practical frameworks for building pipeline in an AI-heavy world, from nailing your ICP to hiring for grit and running outreach that still sounds human.  • Gabe’s path into sales and how Alleyoop evolved from sales training into sales development as a service  • sales development as the mediator between sales and marketing, improving lead quality and AE focus  • the rent to own approach to outsourcing SDRs, then building the function in house  • Common early mistakes when scaling SDR teams, especially missing support, tools, and clean process  • the three pillars that have to align, people, process, technology  • why live conversations and the phone still reveal product market fit faster than automation  • what AI changes in outbound, where it helps, and why replacement narratives fall apart  • channel strategy today, phone first, LinkedIn next, email last  • outreach reality check on higher touch counts and the need for creativity across channels  • voice notes and video notes on LinkedIn, what tends to get replies and what can backfire  • the 80/20 content approach and why personal posts can build trust even in B2B  • what high performing SDRs look like, grit as the main predictor, and how to screen for it  • interview and training approach, one way video cover letters, mock cold calls, objection handling  • ramp expectations for SDRs versus AEs and how leaders often misjudge timelines  • lessons from hiring mistakes, culture fit matters even for top producers  Elite Talent Recruiting helps B2B SaaS leaders hire high performing Pre Sales and Post Sales talent when speed and quality actually matter.  We are on a mission to prove Pre Sales and Post Sales teams are just as crucial to revenue as offensive linemen are to quarterbacks.  They accelerate sales, fuel growth, and help SaaS companies win bigger deals faster.  We build SaaS GTM teams by headhunting top Pre Sales and Post Sales talent and delivering hires in 35 days or less, including Sales Engineers, Solutions Consultants, Solutions Architects, Customer Success, and Technical Account Managers.  If your team is stretched thin, specialized roles are sitting open too long, or you are scaling fast and need reliable recruiting support that actually moves the needle, we help you hire the kind of talent that drives growth, innovation, and customer success without wasting months in interview chaos. Check out our website: https://elitetalentrecruiting.io/ Connect with Arvi directly on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arvi-carkanji/  All other resources: https://linktr.ee/elitetalentrecruiting

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The High Performing Technical Leader is for founders, CROs, and technical revenue leaders scaling pre-sales and post-sales teams in technical SaaS. Hosted by Arvi Carkanji, founder of Elite Talent Recruiting, this show goes deep with leaders who are actually building, scaling, and running high-performance technical GTM teams. From hiring the first Solutions Engineer to managing rapid team expansion, from positioning pre-sales as a revenue function to retaining top talent through growth, we explore the real challenges that define technical revenue leadership. These are honest conversations with VPs, CROs, founders, and technical leaders who've done the work and are willing to share what it actually takes to win. Whether you're a founder figuring out your first technical GTM hire, a VP scaling your pre-sales function, or a leader navigating customer success as a revenue lever, you belong here. Let's build.

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