About the Founder

The vision behind SUN – We Grow You, named as an homage to “Here Comes The Sun,” comes from Dana’s passion for helping business leaders grow their businesses, and grow their teams, from his own early sales experiences. Like many founders and business owners, Dana learned to “build the airplane while flying it,” navigating the urgent need to generate sales immediately while simultaneously discovering what truly works (and what doesn’t) to build repeatable, scalable revenue streams.

As a proud member of the Sandler Sales President’s Club, Dana is “classically trained” in sales methodologies. However, through conversations with hundreds of founders, business owners, and sales leaders, he recognized that traditional training and “off-the-shelf” playbooks alone aren’t sufficient. Growing sales skills, refining processes, uncovering opportunities, and closing deals demand REAL “customer conversations” coupled with trusted, hands-on guidance from someone who has successfully done it. This is where Dana’s “performance and passion” truly intersect: being entrepreneurial, being a problem solver, having intellectual curiosity, being adept at storytelling, coaching, and the relentless pursuit of “awesome” – not afraid to do hard things to achieve the results needed.

Dana has served as a pivotal advisor and mentor in a number of business and startup ecosystems. His contributions extend to roles as an Entrepreneur-In-Residence at JumpStart/JumpStart Ventures (Cleveland, OH) and the Youngstown Business Incubator (Youngstown, OH). He is also a Preferred Partner in the JumpStart Trailblazer Software Accelerator and has mentored with Alloy Development’s OhioXcelerate (Cincinnati, OH), the University of Akron Resource Foundation ICorps (Akron, OH), Venture for America (Detroit, MI), Rev1 Ventures, Fintech71 and RevTech Labs Fintech and Insurtech Accelerator (Charlotte, NC). He actively partners with other incubators and accelerators, including MAGNET (Cleveland, OH) and the Bounce Innovation Hub (Akron, OH). His commitment to the entrepreneurial ecosystem is further underscored by his membership in the Angel Capital Association, Ohio Angel

Collective, and OhioX, along with acquiring certification from VC University. Along the way, he has also collaborated with numerous economic development partners, including Greater Cleveland Partnership, Team NEO, and JobsOhio.

Dana lives in Rocky River, just outside of Cleveland, Ohio, with his family and dogs, Lance and Loki (yes, Loki from the Marvel collection!). His coaching passion extends beyond sales, as he also coaches kids’ travel basketball. He’s also still learning to play the guitar, which you can often spot prominently displayed behind him during Zoom calls, and is always happy to karaoke anytime—just ask!