🤝Turning Sales into Comedy - Corporate Bro (Ross Pomerantz), a content creator, corporate speaker, entrepreneur, and investor

Who are the outside the box Syndicate GP’s and how do they think about allocating capital via SPV’s?

Today, we are super excited to interview Ross Pomerantz, more commonly known as Corporate Bro. Corp is a content creator, corporate speaker, and entrepreneur. He combines comedy, business, and sales into short-form sketches. He recently launched Corp Capital (an angel syndicate for salespeople) to invest in early-stage startups, and also advises companies like Scratchpad, Bravado, HockeyStack among others.

Corps Bio:

Ross is an enterprise sales veteran, comic, and corporate stand-up speaker. A graduate of Stanford’s School of Business, Ross also consults for start-ups and tech companies. Ross has an uncanny ability to find the humor in every situation and his character “Corp” sheds light on the sales grind and the ups and downs of life in Silicon Valley.

As seen in the New York Times, “Corp” inspires sales savages and techies alike with his outlook on life and motto “SADNESS - Sales Are Dope, Never Ever Stop Selling”.

“Doesn’t matter your industry or product, Sales people across the world will always complain that Quota is too high, the product is broken, and marketing doesn't do SHIT!”

Our interview with Corporate Bro below:

Where did you start your career post college?

I started my post-college career leasing luxury apartments in Oakland. I had originally thought I’d be drafted by a major league team, but that fell apart after I tore my lat during my senior year. Shocking that no team wanted an undersized, injured left-handed pitcher - not. But, while I was doing the apartment leasing job I learned about a new minor league team that was coming to San Rafael in Marin county. They were having open tryouts and I decided to give it a shot. I had to find out if I could play at the next level. I started training during my lunch breaks and at night after work. I had to work weekends so I didn't have a lot of friends to play catch with. I set up a net in the parking garage and would just throw into it for hours. I'll never forget the smell of gasoline and concrete 3 floors underground. Months later I showed up to spring training and didn’t give up a single hit. I made the team. I pitched professionally for 2 years before deciding it was time to use my college degree. I knew I wasn’t going to make the big leagues. That's when I found myself selling in my first tech sales job at Oracle.

How did you get the idea for Corp Bro?

I remember walking around Twin Dolphin in Redwood Shores (Oracle’s HQ) and talking to my friend Matt. I was like, “dude everyone here is such a ‘corporate bro’ why is no one talking about this?” Like, how are these 22 year olds selling million dollar deals despite knowing nothing about the technology their selling? That's when I decided to start making 6-second Vine videos. (I’m old). From there I just started documenting my experiences. From the small things like shotgunning cans of V8 to big things like closing deals.

What’s been the highlight of your experience in the Corp Bro persona?

Probably just the fact that Sales transcends culture, language, and geography. It’s the oldest, largest profession on earth. Doesn’t matter your industry or product, Sales people across the world will always complain that Quota is too high, the product is broken, and marketing doesn't do SHIT! So when I hear from folks in Brazil, or the UK, or Australia, or India, or Romania, Ukraine etc etc etc it’s really cool and validating that what I do has a purpose.

What was the highlight of attending Stanford Business School?

1. Being the only person who came from a Sales background. Now all these extremely intelligent people who have founded companies call me and ask how to run a Sales call. Lol.

2. In a more literal sense I got to write and direct the big theater production. There were over 250 people involved and took over a year to create.

Where do you see your Corp Bro career in 5-10 years?

This is a great question and unfortunately for me, there is no template or model for what I do. I am very ADD about the projects I’m working on and I could see myself in a million different directions. As of now, I do a ton of digital brand partnerships, I’m an advisor for 4 separate startups, I run an investment syndicate (corp capital), last summer I shot an 8-episode TV series, I’ve been doing more non-corp bro acting work, and I do a ton of public speaking. Short answer is: I hope I’m still doing all of these things just at a grander scale.

How does the Corp Bro business model work?

Here’s my revenue breakdown:

• 65% brand partnerships

• 15% Public speaking (comedic & brand workshops)

• 5% merch

• 5% Cameos

• 5% paid acting

• 5% consulting/advisory work

Note: this is all cash-based and doesn’t include any equity. If I were to include equity it would represent about 40% of the total value.

What is Corp Capital?

Corp Capital is the angel investing syndicate I started with my friend Matt Prusak whom I met while at Stanford GSB. Basically the thesis was/is: As salespeople we have a high risk tolerance, we have disposable income, but also lack access and understanding of angel investing.

Why did you start corp capital?

For most salespeople, the assumption is that the only way to “get equity” is to be employed somewhere for 4 years. Obviously that’s not true. Too often salespeople get screwed on cap tables. I wanted to bring some financial literacy and access to my social media following as well as create a group of GTM folks who could actually add value to startups.

Who would you want as an LP for Corp Capital syndicates?

Honestly, anyone from the GTM world who wants to join an engaged group of Angel Investors.

What type and stage of companies does Corp Capital invest in?

We typically invest in Series-A companies, but we’ve done a couple seed and Series-B as well.

What are founders most excited about in getting you on their cap table?

Well, they know they’re getting an engaged group of Sales Savages who are going to backchannel sell their product. Afterall, who better to have on your side than a bunch of salespeople? We tend to help companies with their launch announcements, GTM advice, product feedback, and even hiring at times.

Have you been stopped in public because people recognize you? If so, how frequently?

Haha! Yeah quite frequently now. It’s really quite flattering that people care about the work I do. Most random time I got stopped was in Buenos Aires Argentina. That and Rio, Brazil.

You were a professional baseball pitcher. Tell us more about that?

Baseball was my first love. I still play in a competitive wood bat league. In fact we just lost in the championship (sad…). But, baseball is the perfect metaphor for life. It breeds a very process oriented mentality and the ability to handle adversity and take a long term outlook. It's the absolute best.

Follow Corp Bro:

• Corp Capital Syndicate: https://www.corpcapital.vc/

• Website: https://corporatebro.com/

• IG: instagram.com/corporate.bro/ 

• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@CorporateBro/about

• Facebook: Like on: facebook.com/Corporate.Bro/

• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/corporatebro

If you enjoyed this post, please share on LinkedIn, X (fka Twitter), Meta and elsewhere. It goes a long way to support us!

We’ll be back in your inbox next Wednesday on our next topic. Thanks for tuning in!

Questions? Comments? Feedback? We welcome all, and would love to hear from you!

Follow the Last Money In authors on LinkedIn

✍️ Written by Zachary and Alex