Avalanche Growth Partners is an advisory consulting firm dedicated to driving strategic business growth. In the start-up world, we help early stage start-ups accelerate growth, integrate AI use cases into the start-up’s product, and help raise funds from investors to fuel future growth. In the enterprise space, we help solution providers with their value-based selling effort, by aligning their solution to their customer’s business objectives through strategic sales coaching, planning, and training.
Tony Palladino is the founder and leader of Avalanche Growth Partners. Tony has many years of experience in technology sales leadership and operations, with more than two decades in senior sales and services leadership roles. Throughout his career, Tony has been a builder of high performance teams. He understands what it takes to earn trust with customer decision makers and deliver results. Tony has owned P&L responsibility ranging from $1M to $250M for both small and large technology solution providers — most notably AWS, Teradata, and EMC. His teams have been responsible for delivering over $2B in sales and services revenue. Tony’s background includes an emphasis on advanced analytics, machine learning and AI, Platform as a Service (PaaS), open source and cloud computing. Outside of work, Tony is a semi-pro musician and he enjoys hiking and riding his motorcycle on the canyon roads in the Rocky Mountains.
Jordan Cohen is a seasoned marketing executive with a track record of leading companies to industry dominance, VC raises, acquisitions, and IPOs. As a fractional CMO, Cohen spearheads marketing programs for start-ups ranging from launch phase to scale-ups gearing up for exit events. Tech start-up clients include CM Group (acquired by RedBricks), RevTrax (acquired by Neptune Retail Solutions), What If Media Group (PE investment by Abry Partners), Cordial ($50M Series-C), Zignal Labs, Delegate and Wellput. Jordan previously served as CMO of Fluent, a performance marketing platform, where he executed a strategic plan, driving 400% growth, while playing an instrumental role in its $225M acquisition and subsequent IPO — all in less than four years. Jordan also served as Movable Ink’s first VP of Marketing, catapulting the company from zero to $10 million in annual recurring revenue within two years, setting the company on a trajectory to become one of NYC’s highest growth SaaS companies ($1.4B valuation). Jordan’s insights have been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and USA Today. He has appeared live on CNBC and Bloomberg. He is a sought-after speaker on the future of marketing, media and CMO-related topics. Jordan has presented on global stages, including Mobile World Congress, LiveRamp’s RampUp!, Oracle’s Modern Customer Experience and DMA Annual. Jordan holds a BA in Communications from the University of Michigan. Outside of work, Jordan enjoys spending time hiking and exploring the wilderness of Maine, traveling the world with his wife and volunteering for causes that he’s passionate about in his community.
Bill Franks is the Director of the Center for Data Science and Analytics at Kennesaw State University, as well as the Chief Analytics Officer for The International Institute For Analytics (IIA). Bill also serves on several advisory boards, including ActiveGraf, Aspirent, DataPrime, DataSeers, Kavi Global, and Quaeris. Bill is a thought leader and author of the books Winning The Room, Taming The Big Data Tidal Wave, The Analytics Revolution, and 97 Things About Ethics Everyone In Data Science Should Know. He is a sought after speaker and frequent blogger who has been named a leading global artificial intelligence and big data influencer. Bill was an inaugural inductee into the Analytics Hall of Fame. His work over the past 20 years, including several years as Chief Analytics Officer for Teradata, has spanned clients in a variety of industries for companies ranging in size from Fortune 100 companies to start-ups and small non-profit organizations. Bill earned a Bachelors degree in Applied Statistics from Virginia Tech and a Masters degree in Applied Statistics from North Carolina State University. Outside of work, Bill enjoys cycling excursions throughout Georgia and the Southeast.
Bill Tingle is an accomplished C-Suite executive, advisor, leadership coach, speaker and workshop facilitator, with over 30 years of international experience. Throughout his career, he has spearheaded organizations in delivering innovative business solutions while nurturing high-performing teams at companies both large and small, including start-ups Skejul, PODS and MyEyeDr. Bill is fervent about collaborating with business leaders to elevate individual and group performance to unparalleled heights. His expertise encompasses working with both highly technical and creative professionals, exhibiting exceptional adaptability to diverse situations. As the founder and CEO of Tingle Leadership, Bill has established an advisory and leadership coaching practice based in Fairfax, Virginia. Recognizing that personnel challenges can manifest as revenue and profit issues, Bill has developed a proprietary leadership development and coaching program that optimizes profitability and operational efficiency. He has made noteworthy impact to organizations such as Deloitte, LinkedIn, Google, Stripe, Coinbase, and many more. Besides his professional pursuits, Bill enjoys reading, exercising and sharing his musical talent as the lead guitarist for a Northern Virginia cover band.
Sanjay Mazumder is an accomplished technology leader and entrepreneur with over 25 years of experience in the technology industry. He has held technology and product leadership roles at big tech firms, including Lucent, IBM, Ericsson, Infosys and Tech Mahindra, where he was the Growth Leader of their Verizon Data Practice. Sanjay also founded several Silicon Valley tech start-ups, including RiverMeadow, Veristorm and FS.AI, the latter being an AI and DataOps start-up where he currently serves as CTO. Sanjay has successfully raised seed and series A & B Venture Capital funds for his start-ups. He has developed complex Enterprise SaaS platforms and evangelized an AI-first cloud-native approach. Sanjay is passionate about developing solutions for complex issues emerging in the fields of generative AI and reinforcement learning in SaaS and edge applications. He holds an MBA in Private Equity and Entrepreneurship from Babson College; MS in Computer Engineering from Wayne State University; and B.Tech in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT). In his free time, Sanjay enjoys traveling, exploring different cultures and playing tennis.
Afshin Goodarzi is a brilliant Chief Data Scientist and leader that truly understands how to leverage data to impact the business. His Data Science leadership roles over the past two decades at Black Rock, Verizon, First American Financial, Equifax, and start-ups 1010data and Kargo, have forged him into an accountable business leader and advisor with a focus on scalable business relevant solutions. He has substantial experience in leading, mentoring and significantly scaling multi-office, multi-national Analytics and Engineering teams. Afshin has a strong background in Enterprise, SaaS and B2B serving several industries, including Financial Services, AdTech, Retail and Consumer Packaged Goods. Afshin continually nurtures his connection to academia by teaching and advising at Renssaeler Polytechnic Institute, where he had earned his Masters degree in Computer Science. Afshin is also an accomplished musician specializing in classical Persian setar.
Scott McCartney brings 20+ years of business development, strategy and customer success leadership across both B2B and B2C technology startups. He’s evangelized and sold diverse data and analytics offerings to hundreds of Fortune 1000 firms globally and built the cross-functional teams to deliver on the business value. He likes to call himself the Chief Dot Connector, as one of his key strengths is bringing together diverse teams, partners and solutions for creative client wins. Scott holds a B.Comm from the University of Sydney, Australia and MBA from NYU Stern School of Business. He’s also on the board of the Jazz Foundation of America. While he lives in NYC, Scott loves spending time with his family and dog in Montauk, visiting New Orleans to see live music, and staying healthy with CrossFit, mountain biking and snowboarding.
Dan Marcus leverages 25-years of executive and consulting experience to lead engagements that deliver innovative data solutions and maximize operational performance. Projects have included advising on capital investments, conducting financial and operations analyses, developing reinvestment strategies, restructuring sales efforts, delivering expert witness testimony and serving as interim general manager for a large casino. Recently, Dan led the development of a digital Sportsbook and gaming business for a large casino, selecting the relevant technology, driving the strategy and execution. While in the role of SVP-Revenue at Hard Rock, Dan successfully launched their digital Sportsbook and was responsible for reinvestment strategy, promotions, VIP and analytics. He has also held the role of VP-Operations (Retention Marketing & Customer Analytics) at unicorn-startup, DraftKings, where he established a unified data infrastructure for measuring reinvestment expense across the Sportsbook, Daily Fantasy Sports (DFS) and online verticals. Dan also served as VP-Commercial Strategy & Data Analytics at IGT, as well as EVP & GM at the Rainmaker Group. Dan earned his MBA from the University of Indiana Kelley School of Business. In his spare time, Dan enjoys travel, great food and sailing with his wife and daughter.
Cliff Carroll has served as Chief Executive Officer, Board Member, President, Chief Technology Officer, and Chief Revenue Officer for several Fortune 100 companies, including Wipro, CGI and Unisys; as well as several industry leading small and medium sized companies, including TCG Partners, Transparent Health Marketplace/Opyn Market. Cliff has decades of experience transforming businesses into industry leaders, as well as mergers & acquisitions. Outside of work, Cliff enjoys playing golf and helping others through his active participation in the Rotary Club in Maryland.