Baglan Rhymes

Silicon Valley Operator · Portfolio Growth Partner

Strong technology doesn't guarantee commercial success.

I work with investors, boards and leadership teams when product potential isn't translating into revenue performance. I diagnose where the commercial engine is breaking, determine what needs to change, and help leadership turn that into an executable growth plan.

Palo Alto · İstanbul · London · Miami

How I help
Portrait of Baglan Rhymes

350M+

Users scaled

$65M

Capital raised

$295M

Exit

17

Cloud-security products led

Built. Scaled. Exited.

My perspective comes from operating companies — not observing them from the sidelines.

At Docyt, I lead the commercial strategy for an AI accounting business — connecting what the technology can do with problems customers will pay to solve: reducing manual accounting, keeping books current, and giving owners visibility into profit and cash. I consolidated a fragmented go-to-market around a priority customer segment — hospitality — and rebuilt the positioning and demand engine around hotel owners’ financial and operational needs. That included shifting investment toward field sales, industry events, and relationship-led outreach to match how these buyers evaluate and purchase technology.

At Qualys, as SVP & General Manager, I was brought in to lift renewal and upsell across a 17-product cloud-security portfolio. Redesigning customer onboarding raised retention by 15% and renewal/upsell by 5%; restructuring sales incentives shifted the team from quick wins to strategic multi-product selling.

At AnchorFree / Hotspot Shield, I built the revenue engine from zero — subscription, advertising, content distribution, and partnerships — launched four products that grew to 60% of company revenue, ran a multimillion-dollar global P&L across the U.S., Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, and helped scale one of the world's largest consumer VPN platforms to 350M users and a $295M exit.

I subsequently co-founded and exited Eddi.ai, an education tech platform.

Where I step in

Different challenges.
A common opportunity.

From early-stage companies to global enterprises, the patterns are similar. Strong technology. Real market demand. And a gap between potential and performance. Here are the three situations where I make the biggest impact.

01

Growth has stalled.

The technology is good. Customers exist. Capital has been invested. But revenue isn't scaling as expected — and adding more marketing doesn't fix a broken commercial engine.

  • —Market & ICP — are we selling to the right customer?
  • —Positioning — does the market understand why this matters?
  • —Revenue model & pricing — are we monetizing correctly?
  • —Sales motion — does it fit the product and the buyer?
  • —Marketing — commercial outcomes, or activity?
  • —Organization — do structure and incentives support the strategy?

The outcome

A prioritized commercial plan identifying what to stop, what to fix and where to invest next.

02

AI can analyze. I have operated.

AI produces a go-to-market framework in 30 seconds. It hasn't carried a revenue number, built the organization, raised the capital, changed course or lived through an exit. Companies are adding AI faster than they answer what customers will actually pay for.

  • —What problem does it solve, and for whom?
  • —What is the economic value?
  • —How should it be packaged and priced?
  • —How does it change the GTM motion?

The outcome

AI positioned around measurable customer value — with a business model capable of monetizing it.

03

The numbers say something is wrong. Management can't agree on what.

A portfolio company misses its plan. Sales needs more leads. Marketing says sales isn't converting. Product blames feature adoption. Management wants more budget. The board needs to know what is actually happening.

  • —Independent assessment of market, ICP and positioning
  • —Pricing, monetization and sales motion
  • —Marketing effectiveness, acquisition and retention
  • —Commercial organization and product-specific KPIs

The outcome

What's working, what's broken, why — followed by a prioritized 90-day commercial action plan with decisions, owners, priorities and metrics.

Experience that changes the conversation

Selected operating experience.

I've built, scaled and exited companies — and now help investors and leadership teams achieve similar outcomes.

AnchorFree / Hotspot Shield

Startup → Global scale → Exit

Builder of Hotspot Shield, the world's largest consumer VPN, giving people uncensored access to the internet — including in markets closed to Western services. Acquired in 2018.

350M users · $65M raised · $295M exit

  • Built global revenue, sales, business-development and monetization strategy.
  • Launched four new products that became 60% of company revenue.
  • Built subscription, advertising, content-distribution and partnership revenue streams.
  • Managed global P&L across the U.S., Europe, Middle East and Asia, with partners including Google, Facebook, Symantec and McAfee.

Qualys

Enterprise SaaS at scale

Publicly traded cloud security and compliance platform serving enterprises worldwide across vulnerability management, threat protection and asset inventory.

SVP & General Manager

  • Led strategy across 17 cloud-security products spanning product, sales and product marketing.
  • Improved customer retention by 15% and renewal/upsell by 5% through onboarding changes.
  • Restructured commercial incentives and built the infrastructure for an India sales-development organization.

Eddi.ai

Founder → Fundraise → Exit

AI career-guidance platform that matched students to the right education and career path by combining psychometric profiling with their real-life circumstances. Acquired in 2023.

Co-founder

  • Co-founded an AI platform in Palo Alto and built its proprietary technology.
  • Raised approximately $1M from top philanthropic organizations.
  • Took the product to market and successfully exited through acquisition.

Docyt

AI → Commercialization

AI-powered accounting automation platform whose proprietary AI classifies transactions and flags discrepancies in real time, reducing human review by over 80%, focused on multi-entity property management companies.

Chief Marketing Officer

  • Leading GTM for an AI-powered accounting platform serving hotel and property management companies.
  • Consolidated disparate ICPs into one ICP focus and rebuilt positioning around it.
  • Re-strategized demand generation from online reach to field and in-person events to match how legacy customers actually buy.
  • Defined the product-specific metrics that reveal whether the strategy is working.

Selected advisory experience

KorbytEnterprise Digital Signage & Comms
Winmill PPM (acquired)Project & Portfolio Management
Clarizen PPM (acquired)Project & Portfolio Management

Beyond operating companies, I have worked with technology leadership teams on marketing, growth, positioning, go-to-market and strategic inflection points — including businesses that went on to successful acquisitions. A recurring part of that work is identifying the KPIs unique to the business—metrics that reveal what actually moves revenue, growth and enterprise value—rather than relying on generic industry KPIs simply because everyone else measures them.

For private equity, growth equity & venture investors

Portfolio commercial diagnostic.

I independently assess the commercial engine — market, ICP, positioning, pricing and monetization, sales motion, marketing effectiveness, acquisition and retention, commercial organization, and product-specific KPIs. I work directly with the CEO and commercial leadership, then give the investor and management team a clear assessment.

The deliverable

  1. 01

    What is working.

    I validate the commercial strengths that are already driving revenue and can be scaled.

  2. 02

    What is broken.

    I pinpoint the gaps in positioning, demand, pricing or sales motion that are holding growth back.

  3. 03

    The root cause.

    I trace the issue to its source rather than treating symptoms.

  4. 04

    Our joint action plan.

    I deliver a prioritized set of decisions, owners and metrics to fix it.

I've had to make the number.
I've built the team.
I've raised the money.
I've changed the strategy when it wasn't working.
And I've lived with the outcome.

Operator. Entrepreneur. Educator.

I’ve built companies, scaled them, raised capital, navigated exits—and helped others do the same.

Alongside my operating career, I’ve taught entrepreneurship, technology, product strategy, go-to-market, and funding at UC Berkeley and Harrisburg University, and worked with founders as a mentor, board member, and venture partner.

Those experiences have given me a perspective from multiple sides of the table: operator, founder, investor, board member, and educator.

I bring that perspective to investors and leadership teams facing the decisions that determine what happens next.

Selective by design

Let's build what's next — together.

I work with a limited number of private-equity, growth-equity and venture investors, boards and technology leadership teams where my operating experience can materially affect the outcome.

  • —Portfolio company growth underperformance
  • —GTM transformation
  • —AI commercialization
  • —Revenue-model redesign
  • —Commercial due diligence
  • —CEO & board partnership