Hi, I’m Anil. I didn’t start my career in a shiny SaaS office. I grew up in a small village, became the first person in my joint family to even finish high school, and have been away from home since 2005 just to access better schools and basic infrastructure. I was supposed to follow the “safe” path: get a technical degree, become a developer, and be satisfied that I’d made it out. But watching my small business family up close taught me something different. I saw how relationships, trust, and genuine customer service could change a person’s life in ways a job title never could. That’s when sales stopped looking like a backup plan and started feeling like a craft worth dedicating my life to. My first exposure to tech sales was almost accidental. I was an engineer on paper. The only thing I was sure of was this: if my life was going to be hard anyway, it should at least be hard for something I care about. I’ve always been that person who quietly questions the status quo, who doesn’t copy what everyone around is doing, and who chases excellence over comfort. So when sales showed up as a scary door, I chose to walk through it. Over the last 10+ years, that decision took me from zero sales experience to closing multi-year deals in DevOps, QA and test automation, cybersecurity, and MarTech with global SaaS companies. I learned how buying committees actually think, what separates average SDRs from the ones leaders fight to promote, and how to negotiate salary, ESOPs, and growth without burning bridges. None of this came from shortcuts or “hacks”. It came from a simple system: - Get radically honest about where you are. - Design where you want to be in 3 years. - Build skills, habits, and relationships that make that future non‑negotiable. Now, this is what I do on Topmate: - Help aspiring and early SDRs from all kinds of backgrounds (small towns, non-tech degrees, career switchers) break into tech/SaaS sales and build a portfolio that speaks louder than a resume. - Work with mid‑career AEs and SDRs to move into higher‑ticket SaaS, better geos, and better compensation without losing themselves in the process. - Help experienced sellers tell a sharper, more honest story on LinkedIn and in interviews so they stop underselling the journey they’ve actually lived. If you’re here, you probably don’t need motivational quotes. You need clarity, feedback, and a safe space to ask the questions you can’t ask your manager or peers. That’s what this page is for. Come with your questions, doubts, or messy story—whether you’re sitting in a metro city office or a small town hostel like I once was. We’ll turn it into a path you can actually walk.