Meet the Ripplers: What drives Aakarshan, early Rippler and F1 enthusiast
Name: Aakarshan Chawla
Role: Manager, SSB Sales Team
Location: Bangalore, India
Rippler since: 2018
Role + responsibilities
An SSB (Super Small Business) Sales Manager helps sell Rippling to the emerging businesses in the US that are setting up payroll for the first time. The company can be a sole proprietorship of one employee/the owner, or a 100-plus employee multinational enterprise starting operations in the US.
This Rippler’s journey
I started as a developer in a startup fresh out of college; moving to sales happened by chance when I interacted with (and sold to) many existing clients in that organization.
I joined Rippling in 2018 when the team was about 30 people. We didn’t plan to have a sales team in India, and I joined purely because of the amazing people that were building the product. With founders like Parker and Prasanna and sales leaders like Matt Plank, I was sure that the company would be a leader in the HR Tech space.
My journey has been nothing less than a rocketship ride. Starting as the sole SDR in India to managing a team of Account Executives has provided me with an opportunity to learn and grow on both the professional and personal fronts—the last four years have been pretty exciting.
Memorable Rippling moments
Rippling has given me some amazing memories over the years. The best (and the most joyous) one was being able to view Rippling’s company insights on LinkedIn.
LinkedIn only populates (or used to) company insights once a company reaches 30 employees on the platform. Although we had a little over 30 employees at that moment, a few didn’t update their LinkedIn profiles with Rippling as their current employer. Curious to see what the data looks like (I’m a big-time data nerd), I picked up the phone numbers of all of the employees who didn’t update their LinkedIn profiles and requested them to update them ASAP. The numbers weren’t surprising, but the memory would last forever.
We have numerous co-workers that have been founders of some great companies/startups in the past. My colleagues' entrepreneurial spirit is contagious, and I guess that’s what I acquired while working with them.
Work + life
Rippling is an organization that promotes entrepreneurship. We have numerous co-workers that have been founders of some great companies/startups in the past. My colleagues' entrepreneurial spirit is contagious, and I guess that’s what I acquired while working with them.
The Sales Enablement Team has also been pivotal in my team’s success. The partners on the sales enablement team not only support us but empower us to sell better.
The ethos of “Never not my problem” is deep-rooted in all Ripplers, making it super easy for me to collaborate with anyone and everyone on the team. Of course, the conversations (and hence the partnership) are more online than offline, more asynchronous than live, but that hasn’t affected the way we come together and work to be a part of each others’ success.
I have been fortunate enough to work with multiple functional and departmental leaders at Rippling. All of them have been very supportive when it comes to taking time to rejuvenate and relax. Leaders like Shea and Mihir make sure I take my time off to recharge and spend time with family and friends, even when the pandemic has made the line between work and personal life a blur.
We have also been going on team outings so we can come together and not work with each other, for a change.
The ethos of “Never not my problem” is deep-rooted in all Ripplers, making it super easy for me to collaborate with anyone and everyone on the team.
When I’m not selling Rippling…
I’m an avid F1 follower and a driving enthusiast—I have driven along the length and breadth of India over the last ten years. The longest drive spanned 12 hours at a stretch without a break. I am also an intermediate DOTA player and a micro drone pilot during the weekends.
Tips for future Ripplers
Rippling unites enterprise applications into one platform and connects it with employee data, saving companies time and money. It gives me immense satisfaction when I see potential customers’ happily surprised reactions upon discovering that fact after looking at the product—and I’m sure all members of the sales team have the same reaction!
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