Laurie Mascott

What Laurie does is start from nothing, or from last, and make it work. At webMethods he took a business ranked dead last, eighth of eight, to number one on revenue in three years. He's repeated the pattern since: building EMEA businesses from zero, landing names like Vodafone, Tesco and Diageo on the way.

He works across markets and cultures by instinct, French and Economics by training, and he's closed complex enterprise deals from the UAE to the Nordics to Singapore. He's also been on the other side of the table, as an investor and board advisor who's exited three companies. These days he does it alongside founders.

His litmus test, from a recent session: if you've done the early work properly and built real rapport, there's no good reason someone wouldn't take the next meeting. If they won't, something went wrong earlier in the deal, not at the end of it.