John Grosshandler

About John Grosshandler

I\'m the Founder and Board Chair of a nonprofit called The GenderCool Project. GenderCool\'s mission is to foster hope, visibility, inclusion and joy for transgender and nonbinary youth by amplifying the voices of these young people and their families.Before GenderCool, I built a career as a top 1% enterprise software sales executive, including the last 13 years at Pivotal/VMware/Broadcom. My superpower was helping Fortune 500 companies turn emerging technology into a genuine competitive advantage, driving revenue growth, reducing costs, and managing risk at scale. I\'ve always gravitated toward technologies that fundamentally change how businesses operate, and the most interesting chapter may still be ahead.I\'m also a calculated risk-taker, having skydived 5 times, flown a fighter jet, scuba dived with 20 swarming sharks, driven NASCAR race cars and raised 4 children!

Experience

1. Founder & Board Chair

   The Gendercool Project

   Feb 2018 — Present · Chicago, IL, US

   I am the proud father of a 19-year-old transgender daughter, a gift that inspired me to help launch a first-of-its-kind nonprofit storytelling campaign called The GenderCool Project. We highlight the stories of more than 20 incredibly successful trans and nonbinary young people to change hearts and minds, including within the world\'s most inclusive firms, and it\'s working!The GenderCool Project has been featured on The TODAY Show (with an audience of 3+ million); MSNBC, New York Times; Rolling Stone, People Magazine and more. Our young \"Champions\"(diverse trans youth who are living their best lives) have an award-winning documentary on ABC/Hulu, been on the front page of USA Today 3 times, met with a president, vice-president, cabinet secretaries, legislators, governors and mayors, authored books, presented to tens of thousands of employees across our 50+ corporate supporters, won numerous awards and made the world a better place. By simply sharing their stories, these young leaders are helping humanize and demystify what it means to be transgender.Learn more at and follow us on LinkedIn at

Education

• University of Iowa

  BA, Psychology

  1983 — 1987

Skills

• Business Strategy
• Sales Presentations
• Product Management
• New Business Development
• Direct Sales
• Marketing
• Business Intelligence
• Software Industry
• Channel
• Sales Operations
• Professional Services
• Mobile Devices
• Selling
• Start-Ups
• Sales Process
• Leadership
• Pre-Sales
• Big Data
• Sales Enablement
• Virtualization
• Go-to-Market Strategy
• Middleware
• Strategy
• Public Speaking
• Business Development
• Lead Generation
• Management
• Cloud Computing
• Saas
• Online Marketing
• Solution Selling
• Predictive Analytics
• Strategic Partnerships
• Enterprise Software
• Sales Management