Theo Pavlich is Director of GTM Operations at Edera, a deep-tech security company building a hypervisor that sits above the Linux kernel. Over seven-plus years in B2B marketing and revenue operations, they have been the operator pushing the boundaries of what ops can do at some of the fastest-growing SaaS companies. Theo's path is deliberately unconventional: roughly a dozen years in theater, artist website work on Squarespace, and a required seventh-grade Excel class they credit for much of their career, before falling 'sideways' into marketing operations and then RevOps — often doing the work under titles like 'digital marketing specialist' and 'digital librarian and information architect' before it was ever called RevOps. They landed the Edera role by cold-emailing the CEO before the company needed the hire, a pitch the founder called the single best she'd ever received. Theo's thesis: hire for curiosity and teachability over pedigree, treat an unconventional background as an edge, and be intentional about tools because familiarity beats fluency in a landscape that adds roughly three new tools a day.
“If it's someone who has an innate curiosity about RevOps, about tools, about technology, we can figure the rest of it out.”
“I personally come from an unconventional background. I worked in theater for a dozen years before I came into marketing operations and RevOps, and I will die on the hill that that unconventional background is what helps me succeed constantly.”
“I'm looking for first and foremost curiosity and a desire to learn. I'm not looking for the specific tools that I'm using.”
“We can do ourselves harm by getting stuck in defining RevOps as having a title that says RevOps.”
“If you've got five years of experience with Marketo and I'm a HubSpot shop, you'll be able to figure it out — as long as you want to.”
“Tell me about a time you used a tool in an unconventional way, because it tells me that you're going to make it work with what you have.”
“I love to make your mess tidy. Give me your messy CRMs, give me your messy data — I'm going to make it so nice.”
“I joke that 80% of my career is thanks to that Excel website, and 15% is thanks to the technical theater background — a world where you always have to make it work with what you have.”