Kirsten Byron

About Kirsten Byron

Fifteen years in B2B SaaS, with a decade in partnerships and business development. I\'ve built partner ecosystems, led GTM motions, and managed teams across some fast-moving companies—starting from the ground up as an SDR at Box and working my way into roles I couldn\'t have predicted, but have loved.At Box, I spent seven years growing from SDR to manager, finally finding my home in Business Development. Those seven years were a masterclass in how enterprise partnerships actually work—the strategy, the operations, and the occasional heroics required to keep a major partner relationship on track.At Asana, I built the enterprise product partnerships function from scratch—40+ integrations, new partner categories, and a few creative bets that earned enterprise credibility.At Gem, I lead technology, revenue, and startup partnerships. That means everything from landing integrations that matter to customers, to building the programs and cross-functional infrastructure that make partnerships a real part of how the business grows.I care about the work being real: deep relationships, pipeline impact, meaningful collaboration. Partnership work is genuinely complex, and I find that energizing—turns out I\'ve always liked a meaty problem to solve.

Experience

1. Head of Partnerships

   Gem

   Sep 2024 — Present · San Francisco, CA, US

   Leading Gem\'s partnerships across technology, strategic, and startup partnerships.Scaling Gem\'s integration ecosystem to 100+ partners, growing Gem ATS ecosystem at a rapid pace, and building our product partner program from the ground up—including the scoping and onboarding process that enables partners to build with Gem.Managing Gem\'s formal partnership with Workday and leading strategic partners relationships for Enterprise.Gem\'s Startup Program and partnerships with top-tier VCs (General Catalyst, Accel, a16z) and key offer distribution partners (HubSpot, Mercury)—making it our most cost-efficient acquisition channel and the largest source of new signups.

Education

• Stanford University Graduate School of Business

  Sloan Fellow (MSx)

  2018

• University of St Andrews

  Masters of the Arts, International Relations and Affairs

Skills

• Solution Selling
• Operations Management
• Crm
• Negotiation
• Strategy
• Cloud Computing
• Email Marketing
• Customer Relations
• Software as a Service (Saas)
• Business Development
• Enterprise Software
• Leadership
• Sales Management
• Lead Generation
• Social Media
• Hoovers
• Account Management
• Management
• Team Leadership
• Salesforce.com
• Strategic Partnerships
• French
• Start-Ups
• Sales Process
• Mac
• Customer Service
• Saas
• Microsoft Office
• Sales
• Globalization