PerformLine Acqui-Hires Silverback Social; Chris Dessi Named VP of Sales

The Acqui-Hire Accelerates Performline’s Sales And Marketing Growth

PerformLine, the leading RegTech company that delivers automated compliance solutions, announced the acqui-hire of leading social media technology company Silverback Social, with former CEO Chris Dessi joining as VP of Sales. Former Silverback Social CMO John Zanzarella will be joining PerformLine as Director of Sales and Marketing Operations.

The acqui-hire of Silverback and appointments of Dessi and Zanzarella will help PerformLine meet the accelerated demand its sales and marketing functions are facing for their RegTech and compliance SaaS platform. The deal comes at an ideal time for the company, with PerformLine recently announcing a $4 million debt facility from Bridge Bank to build on the milestone of sustained profitability and high growth.

Dessi was CEO of Silverback Social since 2012 and brings 20 years of sales leadership expertise in the software and tech sector. He’s written three highly regarded books on digital marketing, and is a regular contributor to FOX, CNN, MSNBC, and CNBC. Zanzarella is a natural marketer with a background in events who will assist in the growth of PerformLine’s industry leading RegTech and compliance conference COMPLY. He joined Silverback Social as CMO in 2013 and acted as CEO of the Westchester Digital Summit.

“This acqui-hire is a clear sign of how intelligently PerformLine is growing. When your customers are the largest and most complex financial institutions in the world, you recognize the need to bring in highly skilled A-level talent quickly. After closely tracking the success of Dessi and Zanzarella for the past five years, we knew that the most impactful way to further enhance our sales growth and COMPLY event was to integrate their leadership into the PerformLine team,” said Alex Baydin, CEO of PerformLine.