About
Our Story
Too many companies try to sell their products to the government yet fail 3-4x over a 3-year period, wasting millions of dollars on salaries, benefits, and lobbyists because they don’t have the right strategy. Their money is going in the wrong direction, which results in a series of failed sales leaders and account executives, who may have succeeded with the right strategy. Without it, they had no chance from the start. They are set up for failure. Each meeting with investors or the CRO is grim, with limited pipeline, limited closed deals, and churn of account executives, while potentially spending millions to make the product government compliant.
Over the last three decades, we’ve watched our peers at other companies live this reality and seen companies hire a new Public Sector leader every 9-12 months. We don’t think it’s necessary for everyone to rinse and repeat this process, which is why we started GovScaler. Our company helps tech companies effectively sell to the Public Sector, avoiding mistakes that inevitably end in failure.
While we thought our sole focus would be mid-stage start-ups or established companies with limited Public Sector exposure, we have learned that our expertise also helps even the largest Public Sector software sales divisions in the world. Rather than bringing in a new Public Sector leader to boost sales, which ultimately kills morale, GovScaler brings in fresh ideas and mentors sales leaders to grow their
business.
Our Team
Dedication. Expertise. Passion.
Our team of partners have built and grown some of the largest public sector technology companies in the world, including Oracle, Salesforce, Microsoft, Apple, Cisco, and CrowdStrike. And our team of experts provide first hand industry experience to ensure messaging always resonates. We bring all that knowledge to companies looking to start or expand their public sector business.
Wendy Whitcomb
Co-Founder
Wendy has spent 20 years selling software, mostly to S&L Government. She has thrived in newly formed Government groups by rapidly growing quality pipeline, effectively positioning the product, and ensuring sales teams are set up for success. Her passion is enabling sales teams to effectively sell to the government, thus making the Government more efficient.
Barton Phillips
Co-Founder
Barton has spent 25 years dedicated to successfully scaling sales teams and driving revenue growth. He has led teams at the early growth stages of three of the fastest growing software companies in history: Siebel, Salesforce, and DocuSign. Barton grew Salesforce Public Sector from less than 1M in annual revenue to over 100M. He founded DocuSign Public Sector and grew it to over 300M in annual revenue.
John Sellers
Partner - Cyber Security, Federal, Partnerships
John has over 25 years of experience as a sales leader, with success growing sales revenue and building, developing, and leading high performing sales teams. John managed US Public Sector business strategy and sales for Blue Coat Systems, Palo Alto Networks, and Cisco Systems. He also has extensive relationships with the cyber security VAR community.
Mike Donlan
Partner - Government Sales Leadership
Mike has over 30 years experience leading Public Sector and Education sales organizations globally. Most recently he led the US Government and Education sales teams at Apple. Prior to that he spend 14 years at Microsoft as: VP of SLED, Global GM of Government, Public Sector/Defense and Technology, GM of APAC Public Sector, and CTO of US Public Sector. He also spent 8 years leading teams at Oracle.
Kerry Ryan
Expert - Child Welfare, Public Health, Tribes
Kerry is a passionate advocate for ensuring women, children and families have equal opportunities to thrive. She has a masters in psychology and spent the last 14 years in the public health sector, supporting states, Tribes, and territories participating in federal programs aimed at enhancing early childhood systems, improving maternal and child health, and preventing child abuse and neglect.
Valerie Baldwin
Expert - Army, Defense Contracting, Government Affairs
Valerie has spent over 40 years on Capitol Hill, including roles an Assistant Secretary of the Army, Attorney for HUD, and Appropriations Clerk for the House of Representatives. Additionally, she was VP of Govt Affairs at Lockheed Martin and Leidos and supported many defense contractors with Baldwin Consulting.
Mark Northrup
Expert - Utilities, Cyber Security, State Government
Mark has spent nearly 30 years in IT, including CIO of Cleco and LA DWP, Cyber Security Commissioner for State Government, and various other consulting roles including IBM and EY. He is passionate about securing data and keeping the lights on!
Leslie Whitcomb
Expert- K12 Education
Leslie spent 31 years in the NY State Education system, starting as a teacher, retiring as a Superintendent of Schools, and several roles between. She has been a fantastic resource to sales teams looking to sell into school districts, as she is intimately knowledgeable on the systems used and challenges faced.
Dr. Lori Bednarchik
Expert - Higher Education
Lori has decades of experience in higher education and holds a PhD in Communications. She is a professor at ASU, SDSU, and several other universities. She is passionate about higher education being accessible to all that want a secondary education. She understands the challenges that higher education institutions and educators face each day. Additionally, she is a professional public speaker, working with universities around the country.
Steven Dermody
Expert - SLED Modernization/Architeture
Steven brings over 15 years of technical leadership, including over a decade directing SAAS adoption and enterprise architecture across all 17 Colorado state agencies at OIT. He specializes in pre-sales discovery, StateRamp/compliance scoping, and legacy modernization, helping tech companies bridge agency business needs to accelerate government deal cycles.