Wonolo
Let’s meet Kevin!
Hello- My name is Kevin Ori! I am the Senior Regional Sales Manager based in San Francisco for Wonolo. My team and I are responsible for the acquisition of businesses in our Southern California, Phoenix, and Mountain Regions, including Salt Lake City, Denver, and Las Vegas. The primary goal of this team is to acquire businesses that can bring jobs to our great community of workers. Oftentimes, these jobs are in warehouse distribution and food production facilities. They give a wide variety of different jobs for our Wonoloers to view, hopefully accept, and find great work.
What events in your life have brought you to your current role today?
There’s been a number of different events that have brought me to where I’m at today, particularly on the sales side. Graduating from the University of Nevada Las Vegas, I was extremely fortunate to get selected to what they call the corporate sales management trainee program, CMT. That program was actually the reason why I ended up moving to San Francisco in the first place. I had never been here before, but they really gave me a chance coming out of college to learn what sales was about, learn the hotel industry, and the different dynamics within the industry. After a few years, I was able to successfully complete that program. I was able to gain a couple of different jobs which lead to a sales manager position. From there, having been in San Francisco I was looking for a unique opportunity that was a little bit different, something that I felt like I could hang my hat on.
I got introduced to Yong Kim, the CEO here at Wonolo, who after a few conversations, really sold me on the idea of what Wonolo was about, the mission, and culture that he was looking to build in this company. Ultimately, even after a great stint at a company like Hyatt, I decided that joining a company like Wonolo was a unique opportunity to change lives and make businesses’ lives easier. The sales side really gave me a unique perspective. From there I was able to join the team in March of 2015. I’ve had several roles in the company. I started as an individual contributor on the account executive side. I moved up a couple of positions from there and ultimately landed in my current role now. I use those things that I learned in those early days to help our sales team achieve their goals and find more working opportunities for our Wonoloers.
When you have to make a difficult decision, what do you lean on?
Difficult decisions are a part of being in a young start-up. Our company is fast-growing and moving, so we face difficult decisions often. Luckily, I think at Wonolo we have a really great support structure for when difficult decisions need to be made. I’m very fortunate to have my boss, the VP of sales, Lori Macias, helping us to make the right decisions at the correct time. Whenever we have a difficult decision to make, it never feels like we’re making those as individuals. It feels like as a team we are able to make the decisions that are best for not only the business, but also for everyone that’s involved in it as well. Everyone really takes a great stand and comes together when difficult decisions need to be made. Oftentimes, you never feel like you’re making those decisions alone. In those times and places where you do feel like you have to make a quick decision that may be difficult, I think all the learnings that you have from being in a position and working with such great quality people gives you a unique perspective to be able to make those decisions quickly and effectively. The support structure at Wonolo makes difficult decisions a lot easier, which I’m certainly fortunate to have.
What is one life advice you can give to anyone?
The life advice I would give everyone and hopefully, this doesn’t sound like it’s coming right off of a Hallmark card, is to never stop learning. Learning does come in a variety of different functions. That could be inside of your work, learning a new tool, grabbing someone who’s doing something unique and feeding off of their information. It could be taking in what their process is or what their talk track is in sales. On the other side of the coin is how you continue to learn and continue to develop in life. What are the things that you’re doing outside of the office that are helping you personally learn and grow? Certainly, we always like to do those things in the office and learn and grow in the office. However, outside of work, what are you striving to do? What are your outside goals? What are the things that you want to achieve in life? Those things could be simple. I’ve recently had a big goal in golf to achieve a milestone and hone my craft. I know that it doesn’t directly translate into the office. However, it helped me focus, learn , and gain discipline. Those are the things that I felt like could translate back over to work. You could do many things. Learn a new language- there are apps for that. Learn a new sport- I’m sure you can tap on a friend or a network of people who could help you. It could be anything. It’s really important to never stop learning!
Please finish this sentence: If you really knew me, you would know that ______.
If you really knew me, you would know a couple of things about me. One is that I am very competitive regardless of what that is. It may be in a bowling league, which I’m in. Golfing on Saturdays or Sundays, which I do very frequently. Or even in a bocce ball league. Or working on the sales team. I think certainly in sales you have to be somewhat competitive and I don’t like to lose.
You’d also know that I’m somewhat hard to impress. Growing up, recognition came in a lot of different forms, which is one thing I haven’t done a great job of taking from. I don’t show a lot of recognition. I certainly have a very high standard and expect a lot. That’s one of the things that you would know about me.
I also really love history. I love learning about the past and being connected to the past. That has turned into some of the unique hobbies for me. I really like history reading and being a part of something that happened a long time ago.
