# Michael V. Puhala
**Go-to-Market & Sales Engineering Leadership · Applied AI, Human in the Loop**

Phoenix, Arizona · cv@puhala.com · puhala.com · linkedin.com/in/puhala

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## Summary

A go-to-market and sales engineering leader with two decades in enterprise SaaS, now working at the intersection of GTM and applied AI. I built and scaled global sales engineering organizations and carried complex technology into the largest enterprises, and I never stopped building hands-on. Today I help enterprise and mission-driven organizations put AI to work without losing the human judgment, authorship, and accountability that make the work theirs. I do not just hold that view; I built a practice around it: a personal AI operating system I run daily, a cohort program teaching it, and a published body of work on staying human alongside the machine.

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## Experience

**Bevy** — VP, GTM & Product Strategy · *2025–present*
Market positioning, growth, and AI strategy across product and operations for the leading enterprise community platform. C-suite engagement across enterprise accounts.

**Khoros** — VP, Marketing & Chief Community Evangelist · *2024–2025*
Public advocacy and strategic influence across the community and AI space. Championed the Community Language Model (CLM) initiative — AI trained on community-native data and engagement patterns.

**Billtrust** — VP, Global Presales · *2023–2024*
Led 26 solution consultants and architects supporting enterprise sales cycles. Contributed to $30M+ in net new bookings.

**Khoros / Lithium Technologies** — VP, Solution Strategy → GTM → Worldwide Sales Engineering · *2010–2022*
A twelve-year progression across the go-to-market organization.
- Built and scaled the global Sales Engineering function from 3 to 18 across nine countries; supported company revenue growth from $20M to $95M at an 80% competitive win rate.
- Drove 30+ account executives toward quota as VP Solution Strategy; delivered 122% of a $16M quota in 2021. Key accounts: IKEA, Workday, Microsoft, Google.
- Led the go-to-market integration of the acquired Jive X product line: $34M in subscription revenue, 80% retention of 234 acquired customers.

**Earlier** — Sr. Director Sales Engineering (Lithium); Director Pre-Sales (OpenPages); Director Sales Engineering (Interwoven); Web Architect (Salt River Project); Founder (Acoustic Designs).
Enterprise relationships across Boeing, Intel, IBM, Disney, and Spotify.

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## Applied AI — I build what I teach

- **MVP OS** — a working, agent-driven personal AI operating system I designed and run daily on Claude Code, across professional and personal domains. The practitioner proof.
- **Beyond the Prompt** — founder and instructor of a cohort program teaching knowledge workers to move from prompting to real, human-in-the-loop AI workflows.
- **Human Traits Studio** — a creative house and applied AI think tank built around one question: how to stay human while building alongside the machine. Home of **The Accord**, a published framework for adopting AI while keeping a human in the loop.
- **Books** — *Human Traits* (novel, 2024) and the forthcoming *Memoir of a Machine*: a published point of view on our relationship with AI.
- **The Drop-In** — a weekly newsletter on AI, performance, and staying human.

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## Selected results

- 122% of a $16M quota (2021)
- Revenue growth from $20M to $95M while building the Sales Engineering org from 3 to 18 across nine countries
- 80% competitive win rate
- $30M+ in net new bookings (Billtrust)
- Jive X acquisition integration: $34M subscription revenue, 80% customer retention

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## Education & Background

- **B.S., International Business** — Grand Canyon University
- Internships: **The White House** (Presidential Personnel for National Security) and the **U.S. Air Force** Office of Special Investigations (Rhein Main Air Base, Germany)

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## Core competencies

AI Enablement & Transformation · Human-in-the-Loop AI Adoption · Sales Engineering Leadership · Go-to-Market Strategy · Solution Strategy · C-Suite Engagement · Product Strategy · Revenue Growth · Enterprise Account Management · Acquisition Integration · Curriculum Design · Thought Leadership