Imagine practicing a sales pitch like a professional athlete – perfecting your approach and response to an endless variety of real-life situations. That’s the beauty of Brevity, an AI-powered role-playing software designed to help large and medium-sized enterprise sales teams onboard sellers more rapidly, enhance their skills, increase win rates, and improve overall revenue performance.
From Consulting to Entrepreneurship
Kelvin Johnson, co-founder and CEO of Brevity has a unique blend of operations, management consulting, and entrepreneurial experience. His journey from a CPA at Ernst & Young to a tech CEO is driven by a passion for innovation and a relentless drive to succeed.
His career trajectory took a turn when he realized that consulting wasn’t fulfilling his desire to see his ideas come to fruition. He left the comfort of a top-tier consulting firm to join ThrivePass, a tech startup in Denver as employee number five. There, he witnessed and participated in massive revenue growth.
“I loved consulting, but I didn’t love offering recommendations that didn’t get implemented. I wanted the satisfaction of seeing my ideas get actualized,” explained Kelvin. “So, I made the career jump to ThrivePass. The CEO and co-founder there told me I had the makings of a tech CEO, and that If I had a good idea, he’d be one of the earliest investors. And he’s one of our most notable angel investors in the Brevity journey.”
Perfecting the Pitch
Founded in 2020, the original idea for Brevity was born from Kelvin’s early realization that AI would be a market-moving technology and his real-world experience advising other early-stage entrepreneurs on how to achieve their next major milestone. The first direction for the company was to help people craft and develop a persuasive pitch and presentation, and their sales focus was primarily colleges, universities, and startup accelerators. Together with his co-founder and CTO, Eric Nelson, they grew their platform and pivoted to enterprise sales.
Today, the Brevity platform leverages AI to simulate realistic sales interactions and provides actionable feedback to improve strategies, tactics, and talk tracks. By simulating real-world sales conversations, Brevity enables reps to practice, receive feedback, and refine their techniques in a safe and controlled environment.
With broad use case versatility, Brevity delivers realistic scenarios for cold calling, discovery and qualification, pricing and negotiations, differentiation and avoiding the commodity trap, closing complex B2B sales, gaining access to economic and influential buyers, and winning the calendar war. The platform is industry agnostic, allowing clients to have their own knowledge base and vocabulary, and include sales methodologies they want reinforced.
The Power of AI-Role Playing
As a first mover in the market, pioneers in leveraging AI to simulate human activity, strategic alliances that validate the efficacy, and high-powered endorsements, Kelvin and the Brevity team know they have a superior product. The growth of the business in just a few short years, an enviable list of clients like SAP, Honeywell, Comfort Systems USA, and Siemens, and numerous customer testimonials point to continued success.
Brevity’s vision extends beyond simply providing a software tool. The company aims to revolutionize the way sales teams approach their work by fostering a culture of continuous learning and improvement. Kelvin believes that by empowering sales reps with the right tools and training, companies can achieve unprecedented levels of success.
“Just like pro athletes like Steph Curry, consistent practice and using effective tools will help sales teams achieve peak performance,” explained Kelvin. “We have a highly effective product, so our goal with Brevity is to inspire people to use it and use it consistently – to win the war of sales habitualization. That, in turn, will continue to fuel our growth.”
Building Leadership Muscle
In a short period of time, Brevity has attracted a strong bench of institutional investors and honed its go-to-market strategy. As a venture-backed CEO, Kelvin realized he needed an additional sounding board to help him navigate Brevity’s growth and relationships. The desire for honest, authentic, and unfiltered conversations and the perspective of someone who’s been in the trenches as an operator caused him to seek mentoring.
Kelvin discovered MESA and joined the MESA Mentoring Program in 2023. Working with his mentor Jack Dempsey and now joined by Josh Cutler, he specifically wanted to focus on leadership development, operational effectiveness, and board governance and structure.
Kelvin explained, “Jack Dempsey has been a major player in private equity for a very long time and has a tremendous understanding of what great looks like. He helps us with those honest conversations, brings a long-term perspective, and provides us with good insights and implications for where we want to go with the business.”
To grow, Kelvin wanted a mentoring relationship to keep him accountable and offer insights as the company works quickly to hit its growth targets. He found that in spades with MESA and Jack Dempsey, including important connections to help his business.
“Kelvin is one of the most positive and enthusiastic Founders/CEOs I have worked with, and he has developed a very effective business development/sales management process,” mentor Jack Dempsey shared. “He is a great leader with a terrific vision for Brevity. I look forward to seeing what Brevity can become!”
Looking Ahead
Brevity’s future is bright, and Kelvin is excited about the company’s potential to transform the sales industry. He and the Brevity team know that the quickest and most meaningful way to have a big impact on their client’s growth and revenue is to have better and more effective sales conversations. Bottom line, with as little as 10 to 15 minutes of practicing and using the feedback the Brevity provides, sales professionals and their companies can increase their sales velocity and wins.
Hear more from Kelvin Johnson on the value of his MESA mentoring relationship and how it’s helping him grow his leadership skills and steer Brevity’s growth.
