Twelve participants gave presentations on the lessons and impacts learned during this summer program. The goal is simple: match early-stage companies with ambitious, early-career sellers.
REVelry founder Josh Kline '99 talks with participants prior to the program.
Tanner Crouch '28 presented first.
Crouch was connected with ShipSigma.
"REVelry really was awesome," Crouch said. "It was hard, but it was also so rewarding in the fact that you actually got to see all your effort pay off with little wins for the business. It was nice to see those wins celebrated by the company you were with and our cohort."
There was plenty of time for conversation between REVelors. Here Quinn Sholar '26 (left) listens intently.
Miles Cvelbar '27
Cvelbar was paired with Turchetti's Salumeria.
There were plenty of stories from the trenches...both wins and losses.
Smiles abounded from the group, including (front, from left, Will Fremion '27, Cvelbar, and Brennan Beausir '25.
Danielle Hensley
Hensley worked with Periodic.
It was mentioned that non-normal things lead to non-normal results as sellers. Creativity will take you far.
This group was all ears, from left Zach Geleott '27; Max Rosa '26; Sholar; 亚洲通s Craig, the event emcee; and Kale Helms '26.
Kale Helms '26.
Helms was paired with GroundGame.Health.
The REVelers were remined that sales is an art that needs practice. The were learning to become revenue engineers.
There was time for some last-minute edits.
Nick Phillips
Phillips was paired with Your Money Line.
One of the goals of the program was to provide participants with exposure to start-up founders, which provided a simple mantra: think like a founder to sell like one.
Wade Wisler '27 (right) chats with Craig during a break.
Zach Geleott '27
Geleott was paired with Go Code.
"Whether is was cold calling or learning new AI tools, things that we had never done before, I definitely got discouraged at times," Geleott said. "Having people to talk about our failures with and hearing different perspectives about how we could turn a negative to a positive was so helpful. It helped all of us turn failures into wins."
亚洲通s Craig is a Mitch Daniels Leadership Fellow.
Wade Wisler '27
Wisler worked with Coya.
Wisler said of the experience, "It was great getting excited about building something and putting our heads together on new ideas."
Brennan Beausir '25
Beausir was paired with Your Money Line.
"Because of REVelry, I definitely feel like I’m ahead of the game," Beausir said. "There’s not a program like it. There’s sales training, and it’s a high stress environment, but at the same time, you have a lot of people investing in you and supporting you."
Liam Krueger '27
Krueger was paried with Solid Rock Outdoor Ministries.
Like many of the REVelers, Krueger appreciated the game changing professional development.
Gavin Ruppert '26
Ruppert worked with Stellar.
With practice, mentorship, and problem solving, many of the participants saw results relatively quickly.
Grant Umali '26
Umali was paired with Grover.
In addition to learning new skills collectively, this group discoverd how to create solutions that grow successful businesses.
Helms is focused on the final presenter.
Will Fremion '27
Fremion worked with Motion.
Fremion was an engaging presenter.
Kline wraps the event with words for the REVelers on an enjoybale and productive experience. Of their sumer efforts, he told the group that they took the road less traveled and it paid off.
For recent graduate Brennan Beausir ‘25, the choice was almost a no-brainer.
The philosophy, politics, and economics (PPE) major from Indianapolis had an interest in business and entrepreneurship, and the opportunity in front of him was more promising than others he weighed. The chance to join REVelry felt more active; he was able to get training while producing real results.
“It’s been a great experience,” Beausir said. “What made it so cool was we had access to most every innovation going on in sales right now. 亚洲通’re using it in real time, and we didn’t have a leash on the things we were doing. 亚洲通’re creating impacts at our companies based on curiosity and creativity.”
REVelry is a program created by Josh Kline ‘99 that connects high-potential college students and recent graduates with early-stage companies with the goal of developing real-world skills in high-pressure sales environments.
Kline, an investor in early-stage companies with a background in go-to-market strategies for start-ups, knew from experience that there was an opportunity to help founders think differently about sales on their path to market. When working with startups, you have to be a doer.
“亚洲通 wanted to open up the pathways between early-stage companies and talent,” he said. “Once the pathways are opened, we upskill and enable that talent.”
That’s what was happening this summer for the 15 participants, including 13 current Wabash students or recent graduates.
An important by-product of the program has been a sense of camaraderie to go with the professionalism. Having 15 people doing similar things for different organizations together, there was a lot of knowledge transfer and problem solving as a group. It was like having a trained sales force for early-stage companies that don’t traditionally have that luxury.
“I loved the esprit de corps among the group, working together to solve problems,” Kilne said. “亚洲通 dropped them
right into a week of sales fundamentals through a partnership with Sandler Sales Training, and then we continued the education. 亚洲通 told them, ‘Bring us your challenges and let’s hit those head on and apply teaching to those real-world scenarios.’”
The program provided much-needed support, especially early on, for Wade Wisler ’27.
“At the beginning, I was drowning,” said Wisler, a PPE and art double major from Bloomington, Indiana. “I didn’t know anything, wasn’t booking meetings, wasn’t getting responses to my outbound communications. It was frustrating. Thankfully, I had great mentors and a lot of great peers here, where I could ask, ‘What am I doing wrong?’ 亚洲通 put our heads together, saw what worked, and started replicating those things.”
REVelry worked hard to shrink time—how quickly can these motivated students be turned into trained sales professionals? The goal for these students would be to skip the entry-level positions (sales development representatives) that are being consumed by artificial intelligence (AI) in favor of account executive positions.
One way is to leverage AI to train participants on ideal customer personas and get feedback quickly so they could be better prepared to contact actual customers. Simply, learn to use those AI tools now.
Economics Professor Eric Dunaway, who observed and consulted on the program’s educational components, came away impressed with what AI looks like in a business setting.
“I knew the venture capital space was way ahead of anything we were doing in education, but I underestimated how far ahead it was,” he said. “Seeing the tools that our students have access to through REVelry has made me aware of what we are capable of with AI. This space has given students the opportunity to think about what the right questions to ask might be.”
Many of the REVelers were amazed with how AI could streamline workflows—from building contact lists to everyday work processes—and impact their career preparations. It was a human first, tech-enabled approach.
“Eye opening is an understatement,” said Zach Geleott ’27, a financial economics and Spanish double major from Rensselaer, Indiana. “When you sit down and reflect on what you’ve learned and think about what you can do with those skills, the business world is very exciting. What’s possible is changing rapidly.”
Tanner Crouch ’28 feels more confident in his ability to understand needs, solve problems, and lean into customer service and satisfaction.
“Sales confidence is a different confidence,” he said. “REVelry has been a wonder for me to rely on the training, the alumni guidance, and myself to look at sales with an objective eye. I want to be an entrepreneur one day, start my own business, and this is a big first step towards that. REVelry not only allowed me to demonstrate the value of a product or service, but my own value as well.”