Leadership Team
Promise Phelon,
CEO
Promise brings extensive experience leading high-growth technology companies in rapidly evolving industries with a history of attracting winning talent. Her expertise includes software-as-a-service (SaaS) growth, raising institutional capital, product innovation, and building loyal teams that drive market transformation. Prior to TapInfluence, Promise served as Chief Revenue Officer of the Resumator, CEO of The Phelon Group, and served as CEO at UpMo, an enterprise talent management SaaS system used by some of the world’s largest enterprises.
Rustin Banks,
CPO / Co-Founder
Rustin has an MS in Electrical Engineering and left his position in Aerospace to start TapInfluence in 2009. Banks is a contributing author to Wired, Tech Cocktail, Entrepreneur.com and has been named by Forbes as one of the top Ten Leaders Changing Content Marketing.
Eli Gild,
CTO
Eli joins TapInfluence from HDS Global where he also served as CTO and was instrumental in building the core software architecture, plans and partnership ecosystem. Prior to that, he held a CTO position with talent management startup UpMo, and was president and CTO of KickNation, a social gaming company that was acquired by EA. Eli was also previously the CTO of Rondavu, and spent several years in a senior business operations role with LexisNexis. He holds several patents, and received his bachelor’s degree in computer science and engineering from MIT, and his MBA from Harvard Business School.
Frank Sette,
CRO
Frank has spent his entire career as a revenue leader, and is known for his energetic, curious, and strategic approach to solving his clients business problems. He has 25 years of proven results in business acumen and agility, causing extraordinary impact on top and bottom line growth for organizations of all sizes and industries including IT services, construction, and SaaS. Prior to TapInfluence, Frank served as a COO as well as VP of sales and business development for several successful SaaS organizations. During which time he increased revenue by over 300% and expanded revenue teams by 5X. He has also proudly served on the Board of Directors of several organizations including HomeAid, a charity whose mission is to end homelessness in the U.S.
Francesca Cruz, VP Account Management / Revenue Ops
Francesca is a Sales leader with a passion for implementing new processes, researching best practices, and managing and developing people. She enjoys performing quantitative analysis that generates business intelligence so that she can create or revise sales programs based on her findings.
Our Investors
Our Anchor Tenets
Gritty
Success is not easy, it’s not meant to be. If it were, it would be meaningless. And it’s because it’s not easy that we strive for it. However, the desire for success and the willingness to do what it takes to achieve it are entirely separate. We understand what it means to truly achieve great things. We go the extra mile because it’s in our DNA and it’s the right thing to do. We don’t just talk about what needs to be done, we roll up our sleeves and do it. We look at each challenge presented to us as an opportunity. We embrace the fact that success is hard work.
Authentic
We’re honest, open, and genuine. We know we don’t have all the answers and we’re not embarrassed to lean on each other. We share our successes and failures and learn from our mistakes.
Valuable
We’re here because we’re the best of the best. We have autonomy to contribute, are challenged to learn, and believe in empowering consumers and revitalizing our industry.
Agile
We are driven to succeed with an open-mindedness to get to the right solution. We use the past to inform the future and are fearless in evolving to meet new and changing market needs.
Accountable
We own our role and the contributions we make. We are building something greater than the sum of its parts and we owe it to ourselves, our team and our company to show up and deliver every day.
