Background
Who I am
I'm a GTM and sales leader with over a decade of experience scaling revenue for SaaS companies across Europe. My work spans enterprise, mid-market, and SMB — with roles at Salesforce, Merkle/Dentsu, Deel, and several high-growth scale-ups.
My background in psychology (BSc + MSc from EUR Rotterdam) shapes how I lead: with a focus on trust, culture, and building teams that actually want to perform — not just teams that are managed into it.
I've lived and operated across Bulgaria, Germany, the Netherlands, Ireland, and now Czechia — which gives me a genuine feel for how business gets done across multicultural EMEA markets.
- 10+
- Years in SaaS sales
- 5
- Countries operated in
- 30%+
- YoY growth, back-to-back
- 8×
- Salesforce top performer
Experience
Track Record
Deel
SMB Sales Leader, CEE
- Leading the CEE SMB sales team (4 FTE)
- Back-to-back 30%+ YoY territory growth
- Deploying AI-enabled outbound, qualification, and sales motions
Funden
Sales Coach
- Advised co-founders on GTM, sales motions, and enablement
- Coached pipeline generation and full-cycle sales (5 FTE)
Salesforce
Account Executive
- Seven roles in five years across three sales regions
- Bootcamp Rising Star · 8× Top Performer · Top SMB AE FY20/Q4
- 10× Mentor & onboarding buddy
Merkle / Dentsu
Regional Sales Director
- Built CEE & AT teams — avg 170% YoY growth (5 FTE)
- Built Merkle's BDR function across DACH (3 FTE)
- Established Merkle as an award-winning regional partner
FLO Group
Chief Growth Officer
- Led DACH & CEE expansion
- Built joint revenue teams with full P&L ownership (9 FTE)
- Aligned GTM across sales, marketing and delivery
Media & Speaking
Press & Talks
Employer Branding Summit 2025
Digitalk 2025 Keynote
AI революцията няма граници
Why Deel is expanding into CEE
Deel's fastest-growing company CEE push
Crossroads Bulgaria 2025
Tech News BG Feature
Deel's focus on the Bulgarian market
In their words
Testimonials
A few words from people I've worked with, managed, and partnered with — pulled straight from LinkedIn recommendations.
I had the pleasure of being mentored by Ivan during a period of intense GTM effort in ALVAO. Ivan is always practical and down to earth. He's not tied down to any single platform but always offers the best advice given the context. From GTM perspective, Ivan really knows the craft and his advice has been really valuable.
Jan Skrabanek
GTM & Alliances Lead · ALVAO
Jan was Ivan's client · Jan 2026
Ivan is a difficult person to work with. If you are looking for a leader with conforming, thus mediocre opinions, this is the wrong address. If you are looking for a head-nodding, easy-to-satisfy manager who does not challenge ideas, switch somewhere else. Ivan pushes boundaries. He challenges the status quo. He forces individuals to grow personally and professionally. I loved it all.
Michal Majnuš
Managing Consultant · Marketing & CX · Trinity College Dublin (MBA)
Reported to Ivan directly · Mar 2024
Ivan was my manager whilst scaling the new CEE and Baltics team at Deel. He coached me and gave the insights that helped me to excel my closing skills and bring the biggest deal at the time. The cheerfulness, empathy and how Ivan sees the bigger picture and long term goals really inspired me at the time.
Milda Grabauskaitė
Account Executive · Modash (ex-Deel)
Reported to Ivan directly · Nov 2024
Ivan Valev was a key contributor on my team for the Emerging market in his role as business development rep. He constantly achieved or over achieved on his KPI's and monthly quota, whilst cultivating relationships on both the customer and internal stakeholder level. A team player that shared his knowledge and helped to mentor some of the newer team members. Ivan was always accommodating and also a pleasure to work with.
Darren Brennan
Senior Software Sales Director · Salesforce
Darren managed Ivan directly · Aug 2016
I've dealt with Ivan when my company had initial thoughts of implementing Salesforce. He was our point of contact from day one. Unlike many other account managers, Ivan was extremely helpful and patient with us. I never felt like I was dealing with a sales man, but rather a consultant who is looking for our best interest. He helped us understand the value of Salesforce, showed us its capabilities and how it can solve our problems, negotiated pricing for us internally until we finally became clients. To this day Ivan and I are on very good terms. He truly knows how to build relationships.
Tarek Reda
Growing pipeline & revenue for B2B · ex-client
Tarek was Ivan's client · Jun 2018
I first met Ivan when we were looking to implement a customer-focused strategy in order to scale Foodics growth and expand our footprint outside of the GCC. As our main point of contact, Ivan laid out an engagement plan from the get-go which made our evaluation of the Salesforce platform structured and easy to follow. He surrounded us with resources and helped us evaluate real-life ROI, as well as tangible business outcomes. We trusted him to advise us on different implementation partners and help us secure a successful project delivery. Ivan made us feel confident that Salesforce is the technology partner we need to take the business to the next level. I look forward to working with Ivan again.
Daniel Rongo
CEO Sabato AI · ex-Foodics
Daniel was Ivan's client · Jun 2018
Ivan is essentially the main reason why I decided to join the professional services side of the Salesforce ecosystem. His way of leadership combined with hands-on approach had powerful impact on how I perceive business relationships & alliances as well as realizing which leadership style I need to perform the best. Ivan is the type of leader who provides a huge support, builds up your confidence and shows you the endless possibilities that can be achieved in the world of business. Throughout the years that we worked together, I observed his ability to build strong teams & networks that lasts while inspiring tons of people along the way.
Andrea Kuklova
Sales Lead · FLO
Andrea reported to Ivan directly · Feb 2024