Founding Partner·Dealion
Sales Director Europe·Crunchr
He is one of the most experienced SaaS sales leaders the Western Balkans has produced - and one of the few who came back to make sure the next generation doesn't have to figure it out alone.
Bosnia · Serbia · Croatia / Western Europe / Malaysia · Singapore · Bangladesh
B2B SaaS · People Analytics · HR Tech / FinTech · Payments / Community · Events
Building SaaS sales functions from zero and mentoring founders and operators on how revenue actually works in the region
SaaS founders who need sales leadership, HR tech buyers and vendors, Balkan tech community, scale-up operators across Western Europe
Faris Šehović has a civil engineering master's degree he has never used. What he used instead: nine years on the radio at BHRT, a one-way ticket to Dhaka, and a willingness to go where the map was blank. His first job at Infobip ended with him opening their first local office in Bangladesh - not as a manager arriving into an existing structure, but as the person who had to build one. That pattern has repeated itself throughout his career. He does not join things that are already working. He builds the thing that should exist.
From Bangladesh he moved across Southeast Asia as Regional Manager for Infobip's APAC operations, covering Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, and Myanmar. Twenty-five sales reps. Markets with different languages, different buyer behaviours, different decision cycles. He overachieved targets by 15% in 2018 and 23% in 2019. Southeast Asia is not an easy market. Those results came from knowing how to build a sales approach for a context that no playbook was written for - which is also a precise description of what selling SaaS from the Western Balkans looks like.
Back in Europe, he joined Fortumo and built their first sales team in the company's history. Boku acquired Fortumo. He ran the merged team managing AAA merchants with over a billion dollars in combined revenue. He joined Orgnostic to lead global sales strategy. Culture Amp acquired Orgnostic. Two acquisitions in three years. He is now Sales Director Europe at Crunchr, a Gartner Cool Vendor in people analytics. He has seen what happens to sales functions before, during, and after a company changes hands - and he can tell you exactly what to protect and what to let go.
That depth of experience is rare in the region, and Faris takes it seriously enough to share it. He hosts Founder Sessions at SaaStanak, produces TalentPool Retreat, won the Toastmasters International Speech Contest in 2021, and mentors early-stage founders on sales strategy and team building. At Dealion he leads the community pillar - the layer that makes the room worth coming back to. Not because it is well-organised, but because the conversations inside it are honest, specific, and led by someone who has actually done the work.
Most founders from this region don't have a product problem. They have a sales problem they haven't named yet. Wrong hire, wrong motion, wrong market sequencing. I've made those mistakes. That's why I can help someone avoid them.
Two acquisitions taught me one thing clearly: the people who survive them are not necessarily the best performers. They are the ones who understood what the business actually needed and stayed useful through the uncertainty.
I wanted Dealion to exist because every useful conversation I've had about SaaS sales in this region happened by accident. We're just making that systematic - and keeping it honest.
Faris is one of the most operationally deep SaaS sales leaders the region has. These are not general introductions. They are specific conversations that only happen inside Dealion.
A direct mentoring session with a SaaS sales leader who has built revenue functions from zero - twice - for anyone who is about to make their first sales hire and wants to know what to get right before the contract is signed.
A working session with someone who has been through two acquisitions as a sales leader - what happens to your pipeline, your team structure, your compensation model, and your own role when the deal closes.
A conversation with an operator who has sold to enterprise buyers across Southeast Asia - for any Balkan founder entering APAC and wanting to understand how buying decisions, procurement chains, and relationship timelines actually work there.
An introduction to the people analytics and HR tech ecosystem in Europe - buyers, vendors, and the operators who understand what HR leadership actually signs off on, from someone currently active in that market.
A direct line into the SaaS community across the Western Balkans and Adriatics - SaaStanak speakers, TalentPool operators, and founders who are building in the region and have no reason to be visible on the broader European circuit yet.
A conversation with someone who has sold payments and fintech infrastructure at the AAA merchant level - for anyone navigating enterprise procurement complexity and wanting a framework for how those deals are actually structured and closed.
The conversations inside Dealion work because they don't happen in public. If Faris's profile made you want a seat in that room - there's one way in.
You can find Dealion members on LinkedIn. You can sit next to them at a conference. You won't get what we get from each other.
The conversations that move deals happen in a different room. That's the one we built.