Chris Cabrera
Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Xactly Corporation

(5.0)
Review

Awards:

  • Top SaaS CEOs 2021

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Rating

Profile

Chris Cabrera is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Xactly Corporation. Xactly has helped thousands of companies and millions of sellers around the world beat their revenue targets. Cabrera has nearly 31 years in the software industry. He began his career in 1991.


Before joining Xactly Corporation, Cabrera was an SVP of operations – sales compensation automation, commission incentive, employee engagement at Callidus Software and before that a Director of Sales, inside sales, and channel sales at SGI.


Cabrera graduated from Santa Clara University with an MBA and from the University of Southern California with an undergraduate degree in business.


Reviews

2 COMMENTS


  1. An ambitious spirit runs in Chris Cabrera’s family–his father, a Columbian immigrant was a serial entrepreneur who instilled both the value of education and the importance of ambition and business ownership in Chris and his other four siblings from a young age. Cabrera started his first venture in the form of a vegetable stand on the family farm at age nine. Prior to founding Xactly, Cabrera was SVP of operations at Callidus Software, where he acquired 100+ customers, grew annual revenues, and led a successful IPO. He authored Game The Plan and co-authored Xactly Sales Compensation for Dummies. He holds a B.S. and M.A. in business administration from the University of Southern California and Santa Clara University, respectively. He was recognized by USC as Alumni Entrepreneur of the Year, and by The Software Report as a Top CEO of 2020, and was one of Business Intelligence Group’s Executives of the year in 2021. Chris Cabrera founded Xactly, the leader in Revenue Intelligence Solutions, in 2005. Since then, he has led the company from startup to IPO and now private equity, while amassing major customers across enterprise technology, like Salesforce, Zoom, LinkedIn, DocuSign, and Slack, as well as leading brands like Louis Vuitton, American Express, PayPal, and Hyatt. Cabrera is a known expert on intelligent revenue, sales performance, compensation, commission, and employee motivation. Shortly after founding Xactly, Chris established the XactlyOne Foundation, a 501C3 that organizes volunteer opportunities and projects for employees in their local communities. To date, XactlyOne has raised and donated over $160,000 and more than 4,000 volunteer hours to organizations in need. Cabrera has upheld and strengthened Xactly’s vibrant culture, rooted in respect and care for its employees and surrounding communities. Despite new challenges brought on by the pandemic, Xactly hosted its most successful C.A.R.E. Week in 2020, donating to influential organizations like Black Girls Code and Doctors Without Borders, and encouraging employees to volunteer their time to help individuals in need. Our 2021 C.A.R.E. Week, to be hosted in September, is expected to be a record year for both fundraising and volunteer hours. Chris is incredibly innovative and adaptable—16 years ago he founded Xactly, out of a then-contrarian belief in cloud-based software. This is particularly commendable when statistics show less than 25% of founders still hold the CEO position. He’s led Xactly from startup to public holding, secured a $564 million private equity deal, expanded its core product offering from an incentive compensation tool to a holistic Intelligent Revenue solution, and ensures Xactly maintains 1200+ enterprise customers. Chris is also an action-oriented leader and an advocate for pay equity. In 2014, he noticed a pay discrepancy among his staff and mandated an internal review to better gauge equity across Xactly teams. Using Xactly’s data, his team uncovered a direct pay gap between men and women across the sales team and immediately took action to create pay equity across the company. His transparency and candor on gender pay inequity have been elevated by publications like The Wall Street Journal and Fast Company. In 2019, he directed the team to develop the State of Gender Equity in Sales Report to share new insights about the pay gap between men and women within sales organizations. Given that exposure, other leaders like Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, followed suit and led initiatives that tackled pay disparities within their own organizations. Running a company for 16 years is no easy task. Leading a company long-term takes grit and determination, which Chris has exemplified throughout his tenure as the founder and sole CEO of Xactly. Cabrera’s ability to create an engaging and flourishing environment is evident in the numerous workplace awards that honor the company’s culture and deep core values. Over the past 16 years, Xactly has won over 20 workplace awards including being recognized as a top workplace by The Denver Post and Fortune Magazine. Additionally, Chris has embodied both determination and courage in leading Xactly through challenging times. In the midst of unprecedented market conditions, in both the 2008 recession and the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, Cabrera has focused on leading with empathy, applying a genuine desire to take care of his employees and customers. In just one example, in the wake of the pandemic, Cabrera has instituted a mental health day off, giving each employee a day each month to disconnect and focus on themselves and those they care about. Additionally, Cabrera has remained steadfastly focused on delivering exceptional value to Xactly customers, working to ensure each team is on a path to success – which is especially important during times of uncertainty. Our customers were tasked with the enormous responsibility of changing every sales plan, quota, and territory to react to COVID-19. Every carefully laid sales plan essentially went out the window. To assist with these challenges, Cabrera led the team to launch a free trial of AlignStar, a Xactly product designed to optimize territory planning. Cabrera and the entire leadership team went above and beyond to give our customers the support and solutions they needed to navigate pandemic-related disruptions and remain agile in the face of new business challenges.

    Staff, submitted on

  2. Chris Cabera is incredibly innovative and adaptable—15 years ago he founded Xactly, out of a then-contrarian belief in cloud-based software. This is particularly commendable when statistics show less than 25% of founders still hold the CEO position. He’s led Xactly from startup to public holding, secured a massive $564 million private equity deal, expanded its core product offering from an incentive compensation tool to a holistic sales performance management solution that encompasses planning, execution and optimization, and ensures Xactly maintains 1600+ enterprise customers across a wide variety of industries including Flowserve, Hyatt, Salesforce, and Louis Vuitton. Another key strength is his passion for creating a caring community with a focus on philanthropy and giving back. Shortly after founding Xactly, Chris established the XactlyOne Foundation, a non-profit that organizes volunteer opportunities and projects for employees in their local communities. To date, Xactly has raised and donated over $250,000 and more than 1,000 volunteer hours to organizations in need. C.A.R.E (Customer Focus, Accountability, Respect, and Excellence) Week is an annual, international, and company-wide initiative that fosters Xactly Corporation’s Core Values, enhances company culture, and is aimed toward giving back to the communities that surround our organization. While our mission is unchanged, 2020 has presented us with new opportunities and challenges in the way that we bring this vision to life. As a company, Xactly plans to give back through fundraising for Doctors Without Borders, Black Girls Code, and the World Health Organization. Cabrera’s ability to create an engaging and flourishing environment is evident in the numerous workplace awards that honor the company’s culture and deep commitment to our core values. Over the past 15 years, Xactly has won 17 top workplace awards including being recognized as a top workplace by The Denver Post and by Fortune Magazine as a Great Place to Work’s 100 Best Workplaces for Millennials. Additionally, Chris has the determination and courage needed to lead a company through challenging times. During both the 2008 recession and the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic he has led by example and focused on empathy, and a genuine desire to take care of his employees and customers. Chris is also an action-oriented leader and an advocate for pay equity. In 2014, he noticed a pay discrepancy among his staff. Using Xactly’s sales performance data, his team was able to analyze a direct pay gap between men and women across the sales team, and immediately took action to create pay equity across the company. His transparency and candor on gender pay inequity have been elevated by publications like The Wall Street Journal and Fast Company. In 2019, he directed the team to develop the “State of Gender Equity in Sales Report,” to share new insights about the pay gap between men and women within sales organizations across 13 industries, and to shine a light on the pervasiveness of this issue. Given that exposure, other leaders like Marc Benioff at Salesforce followed suit and led initiatives that tackled pay disparities at their own organizations. Chris continues to be an advocate—at Xactly and beyond—for equal pay. Additionally, Cabrera has coined himself a “learn it all” a phrase that has dispersed throughout the organization. He is always ready to pivot, meet the moment, and gather new insights that inform his choices, opinions, and leadership. He’s author of Game The Plan (River Grove Books, 2014) and co-author of Xactly Sales Compensation for Dummies (Wiley Publishing, 2006), as well as a contributing writer to industry publications such as Forbes, Inc. Entrepreneur, Selling Power Magazine, and DestinationCRM. Last and certainly not least he was named the “Alumni Entrepreneur of the Year” by the Lloyd Greif Center for Entrepreneurial Studies at the USC Marshall School of Business.

    Mid-level professional, submitted on

  3. NA

    NA, submitted on

See All Reviews >