Matt Curl Joins From Checkr and Rich Bessel Hails From Affinity, Facebook, Robinhood, and Intuit, Bringing Valuable Expertise to Advance Innovation and Customer Experience
Apollo.io, a leading go-to-market (GTM) solution for sales and marketing teams, has appointed two new executives to its leadership team: Matt Curl as Chief Operating Officer (COO) and Rich Bessel as SVP of Design. These strategic hires will lead the company’s next phase of growth and help shape the future of go-to-market.
“We are excited to welcome Matt and Rich to our executive team, who each have a proven track record and reputation for maximizing GTM innovation and team excellence,” said Apollo’s CEO Tim Zheng. “Rich’s human-centered design expertise will enhance our platform and help us deliver the best user experience and Matt’s expertise driving revenue growth will help us scale operations. Together, they will play key roles in driving our business forward as Apollo continues to expand globally.”
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Matt Curl joins Apollo.io with a strong background in operational excellence and deep expertise in B2B SaaS. In his previous role as SVP, General Manager at Checkr, one of the largest consumer reporting agencies valued at $5 billion, Curl brought impact and growth to the company. During his tenure, he led and launched ‘Checkr Self Serve’ which now has over 100,000 unique customers, and served in a CEO capacity for Tessera Data, a wholly owned Checkr subsidiary consolidated from four distinct company acquisitions. Prior to Checkr, Curl was the SVP of Operations for Fivestars, a Y Combinator backed Bay Area startup, where he built and grew the sales, operations, business systems, and product analytics departments from seed round to a $317 million acquisition by SumUp.
As Apollo’s SVP of Design, Rich Bessel brings nearly two decades of design expertise from leadership roles at Affinity, Facebook, Robinhood, and Intuit, where he created award-winning designs reaching billions of people. As one of the founding members of the Design Executive Council, Bessel has a vast network with the world’s most influential corporations, dedicated to fortifying the relationship between design and business. He will lead Apollo’s product vision to ensure a cohesive and engaging user experience across the brand and platform. “It’s a really exciting time to be joining Apollo,” said Bessel. “I look forward to collaborating with the team and with users, to deliver a customer experience that makes world-class go-to-market simple and accessible to all.”
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Apollo enables revenue teams to operationalize their GTM strategy, generate pipeline, win deals, and improve team performance with AI-driven guidance — all in one place. The company was recently ranked by Forbes as one of America’s Best Startup Employers 2024, employing over 600 full-time team members who are fully distributed across more than 30 countries globally. Apollo is currently hiring across all departments including marketing, engineering, customer success, product, and sales.
