Drew Sechrist

Meet Drew Sechrist — CEO & Co-Founder, Connect The Dots (ctd.ai)

Drew Sechrist is a seasoned sales leader and startup founder who’s built a remarkable career by unlocking the power of personal and professional networks. Today, as CEO and co‑founder of Connect  The  Dots (ctd.ai), he’s on a mission to transform how teams engage and sell by making network intelligence central to pipeline success.

A Journey from Employee #36 to Billion-Dollar Pioneer

It all began in 1999 when a cold email to Marc Benioff landed Drew an account executive role at Salesforce—as employee number 36. That leap launched him into the heart of an explosive growth curve, where he became the company’s highest-producing seller and later the top-performing sales manager, helping guide Salesforce from zero to over $1 billion in revenue.

By around 2010, Drew had become VP of Salesforce’s High Tech vertical, working with marquee clients such as Apple and EMC.
The Entrepreneurial Chapter: Koozoo, Investing & Advising

In 2010, Drew launched Koozoo, a tech startup that raised a notable $2.5 million in seed funding in late 2012. Post‑Koozoo, he wore several hats—as Chief Revenue Officer, advisor, and investor—helping startups scale and refine their go‑to‑market approaches.

Founding Connect The Dots (CTD.ai)

In 2019, Drew co‑founded Connect The Dots (CTD.ai), a network intelligence platform powered by AI to map and manage enduring professional relationships. The platform’s goal: reduce reliance on cold outreach by empowering teams to leverage existing connections for faster, warmer engagement.
CTD.ai’s core philosophy hinges on making the invisible visible—helping professionals understand who they—and their org—know, and how those relationships can fuel pipeline growth.

Core Beliefs & Selling Philosophy

Drew’s philosophy blends relationship-first mindset with speed and strategic access:
Warm introductions, not cold emails – Drawing on his own experience at Salesforce, Drew champions leveraging relationships to shorten the sales cycle and deepen engagement.

Network intelligence is strategic advantage – Instead of broadcast outreach, he advises building a graph of trusted connections that enables precise, high-impact outreach.

Make the invisible visible – It’s not a matter of building a tool—it’s about shifting the mindset to recognize and leverage latent strength in existing networks.

Accomplishments & Standout Achievements
Salesforce growth – Fueled the company’s rise from startup to billion-dollar powerhouse.

Successful entrepreneurship – Founded Koozoo and secured significant seed funding, then guided other startups as revenue leader and advisor.

Innovating CTD.ai – Built a high-growth company rooted in real human behavior, backed by investors like Norwest, Cloud Apps Capital, Velvet Sea Ventures, and Aspenwood Ventures.

Empowering relationship-based sales – Helping organizations shift from ineffective cold outreach to network-driven, high-impact engagement.

What Makes Drew Tick?
In interviews and podcasts, Drew often credits a few early mentors—Marc Benioff, Jim Steele, Carl Schachter, Susan St. Ledger—for opening up their networks and championing him. That experience inspired him to build CTD.ai as a way to pay that forward at scale.

Quote from Marc Benioff:

“Early on at Salesforce, we needed imagination and grit. Drew realized the power of my network and put it to work for him in ways never done before. This motion became our GTM cheat code for Salesforce’s SUCCESS.”