Join us in welcoming Aaron Riley as our new VP of Sales
Discover AI Summary
• A new focus on personalized engagement: Aaron Riley, the new VP of Sales at Almabase, is championing a vision to help institutions deliver modern, personalized experiences that make your alumni and donors feel truly valued.
• Addressing real challenges in engagement: His passion for building lifelong alumni communities means Almabase is even more committed to helping you simplify communication, manage events, and run donor campaigns more effectively.
• Proven leadership from the field: Aaron brings a decade of experience from other fast-growing tech companies, including ThankView and EverTrue, where he helped scale revenue and teams significantly. This background means he understands the tools and strategies that drive real growth in alumni engagement.
• A customer-centered approach: Expect Almabase to double down on ensuring their product empowers you to achieve measurable impact, by focusing on what your institution needs most to foster vibrant donor and alumni networks.
• Driving growth for your mission: His strategic blueprint focuses on optimizing processes and aligning with your institutional goals, ensuring Almabase continues to provide the best tools for growing donor participation and alumni connections.
• A shared vision for the future of advancement: Aaron's commitment to transforming alumni and donor engagement aligns perfectly with Almabase's mission, promising exciting developments for how you connect with your community.
Almabase is thrilled to welcome Aaron Riley as its new Vice President of Sales. With a decade of experience leading high-growth SaaS sales organizations, Aaron brings deep expertise in scaling revenue, enabling teams, and delivering enterprise value to customers.
Aaron joins Almabase at a pivotal moment. As the company continues its mission to empower advancement teams with modern, unified digital tools, Aaron’s leadership will play a crucial role in accelerating growth and strengthening customer impact.
Over the years, Aaron has led sales at multiple fast-scaling technology companies. At Cirrus Insight, he helped drive growth from $3M to $12M in ARR. At PerfectServe, he joined at around $30M ARR and contributed to significant growth. Most recently, he served as VP of Sales at ThankView and EverTrue, leading revenue expansion from $5M to approximately $35M in ARR. His proven ability to scale teams and revenue makes him a valuable addition as Almabase charts its course toward the next growth milestone.
Aaron joins Almabase with a shared passion for building enduring alumni connections. As he puts it:
“Community has always been a big part of my life. My alma mater gave me a strong connection through athletics, but as I moved through my professional career, I realized how much more alumni communities can offer. In today’s world, building those connections isn’t easy—but Almabase makes it possible. That mission really resonated with me, and I’m excited to help institutions create communities that add value long after graduation.”
This commitment aligns perfectly with Almabase’s mission to provide a unified platform that simplifies communication, event management, and donor campaigns—giving advancement teams the tools they need to cultivate vibrant, lifelong networks.
In his new role, Aaron will focus on ensuring that Almabase continues to deliver the most personalized and modern constituent experiences in the industry.
“Almabase has an incredible team, a strong culture, and the best product suite in the market,” he notes. “Over the next 6–12 months, our focus is simple: make our customers proud of the modern, personalized experiences their constituents receive when interacting with the organization.”
With a product that already empowers hundreds of institutions to run digital engagement, fundraising, and event campaigns from a single platform, Aaron is poised to deepen Almabase’s value to advancement teams.
At the heart of Aaron’s approach is a belief that great outcomes start with great people. His experience leading successful sales organizations has taught him that talent, enablement, and a sharp customer focus are the foundation of any scalable system.
“True growth comes from bringing the right people together, empowering them to succeedexcel, and making customer needs the centerpiece of every decision,” says Aaron.
He plans to prioritize sales process optimization, proactive enablement, and aligning closely with institutional goals—ensuring that every engagement delivers measurable impact for Almabase’s partners.
Aaron was equally drawn to the culture and values at Almabase. In his first conversations with co-founder and CEO Kalyan Varma, he found a shared belief in transforming how fundraising and alumni engagement should work in the modern world.
“It wasn’t just about building great software; it was about changing an entire approach to alumni and donor engagement,” says Aaron. “Combined with Almabase’s commitment to care deeply for both colleagues and customers, it was clear this team leads with both heart and ambition.”
That alignment—both in values and vision—made it clear that this was the right next step in his journey.
As Almabase moves into its next phase of growth, Aaron’s leadership will be instrumental in scaling operations and deepening relationships with advancement teams. His arrival strengthens Almabase’s commitment to helping educational institutions engage alumni meaningfully and grow donor participation through data-driven, personalized experiences.
Kalyan Varma, Co-Founder & CEO of Almabase, shares,
“Aaron brings exactly the kind of experience and leadership we need right now. His track record of scaling revenue, deep understanding of enterprise sales, and alignment with our mission make him an ideal fit. We’re excited to have him guide our next chapter of growth.”
Aaron began his journey with Almabase in April 2025.
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