About TrainYo
We built TrainYo to enable people from all backgrounds and experiences to break into a well paid, diverse career in tech. Our mission is to build a world where it doesn't matter where you are from, the country you're born in, financial situation, everyone should have the same access to practical education & actual opportunities.
Coming from under-represented backgrounds ourselves, we understand the lack of awareness around the industry across the wider population and the difficulties breaking in, whether it's a lack of belief, biased screening processes & the difficulties around challenging the status quo.
Our Core Values:
NO BULLSH*T . ALL PEOPLE FIRST . THAT'S IT .
Meet the Team
Our Co-founders
Sunil Kumar
(Late) Co-founder & CEO
Sunil started his career in recruitment (with Omar!!) in manufacturing & then SaaS sales before moving to Amsterdam to get into tech. Getting into tech was tough at the time, even though he had great sales experience, he had no degree and this seemed to be a massive deterrent. However his then recruitment client, Alasdair Henderson took a chance on him at Optimizely and referred him as an SDR.
After he got sacked from a role (yes this happened multiple times), he was determined to find the right role. It was May 2020 at the peak of the pandemic. Despite a down market, within a week he had a ton of interviews and following that, multiple job offers during a time were everyone was struggling for work. he realised he had knowledge on how to navigate this market, but he also saw a lot of flaws in the recruitment process for sales talent e.g requirement for a degree.
Sadly, Sunil passed away in February 2023, he had a huge passion to change the world and make it better for everyone, he'll always be remembered and his desire to change the world burns in all of us. Forever the CEO of TrainYo ❤️
Omar Sadik
Co-founder
I started my career in sales, before moving into recruitment and then tech (yes, Sunil followed me😆). When I was recruiting for SaaS talent and when I actually moved into tech, I saw obvious hiring biases based on degrees, everyone was pretty much from the same backgrounds etc.
I also saw a lack of training for an SDR (it took me about 2 months to get used to the tech stacks!). When Sunil approached me about TrainYo, I saw an opportunity to make a real difference to how companies source sales talent and help people across all backgrounds get into tech and build meaningful, well paid careers.
I'm determined to build a world where it doesn't matter where your born, your background, financial situation everyone should have the same access to practical education & opportunities.
Meet the Rest of the Team
Liam Sant
Account Executive & Customer Success
My first sales job was in recruitment, but I had experience in industries like hospitality, retail and events during my time at University.I found my degree didn’t break down as many doors as first thought and ended up ‘falling into sales’.Luckily for me, I loved it!Eventually I wanted to break into an SDR role and I came across TrainYo! I was a part of their first ever bootcamp and was lucky enough to land a role with them after the bootcamp finished!Now I help people who like me, feel as though they’ve not got enough out of their degree and looooads of other amazing people break into the world of tech sales as an SDR.Any questions about the bootcamp or life as an SDR in general?
Ping me on LinkedIn 😀
Paula Ospina
Operations & Recruitment Lead
Hailing from Colombia, I am a proud representative of the Latin American community in the tech industry. I studied Psychology at university and then started my career in recruitment, where I've been working for almost 5 years.Last year, I joined TrainYo, a company that perfectly aligned with my personal mission of helping people better their lives. During conversations with Sunil, I quickly realized how much TrainYo's core values and mission resonated with me.Being a part of TrainYo, I'm excited to contribute to a company that is focused on making a positive impact on the world. With firsthand experience in the struggles that Latin Americans and non-native English speakers face, I'm committed to supporting individuals from diverse backgrounds, like my own, in the tech industry.
Jordan Bend
Head of Training & Social
Hey I’m Jordan!I was part of TrainYo’s second ever cohort, back in November 2021!I joined the TrainYo team not long after as a recruiter, helping to find more people who want to break into tech sales but, like me didn’t know where to start. Then I moved into training helping to prepare our awesome TrainYo students for the world of SaaS sales.I’m super passionate about supporting people from all backgrounds, and helping you to take advantage of the amazing opportunities tech sales has to offer!SO, if you need any support on your TrainYo journey, don’t hesitate to reach out!!
Meet the Advisors
Alasdair Henderson
Board Member & Founders Coach
Alasdair is a proven sales leader, coach and mentor with almost 2 decades of GTM success Alasdair has been part of 2 acquisitions, experienced growth from 0-50M and 0-200 employees, and most recently led Airbnb’s B2B enterprise expansion in EMEA following one of his consulting clients being acquired by them.
Jonathon Ilett
Strategic Advisor
Jonathon is currently the Head of Sales of Cognism, a LinkedIn recognised Top 10 UK start-up. He was the 3rd sales hire as a SDR after numerous promotions he led the company from $8m to it's current $18m ARR. Outside Cognism, Jonathon angel invests in early-stage organisations like Reachdesk and PlayterPay.
Bharat Kumar
Strategic Advisor
Bharat is a globally networked technology professional with 25 years of experience of driving revenue for companies like Splunk, Microsoft and IBM. He is well versed in raising investment and been part of Executive teams to have achieved 4 successful exits.
Kalpesh Baxi
Strategic Advisor
Kalpesh has over 26 years working within the staffing industry, over the past few years he has been involved as COO, investor, advisor and NED within HRTech/RecTech. Kalpesh joined the TrainYo advisory board, as he was attracted by our passion to help those wanting to break into sales through our bootcamp programme and then help them secure their first role in a sales career.