Her Story
About Nicole
Nicole Friedman has spent nearly 15 years in software sales and business development. She began her software journey after working in medical devices at Dexcom and transitioned following an opportunity that led her to build a business development department from the ground up with limited prior experience. Her career accelerated as she started entire sales departments in the United States, taking on roles as an account executive, mentor, coach, and partnerships specialist, with responsibilities expanding significantly after COVID. Currently responsible for the entire North America sales presence at her company, she handles full-cycle sales, process simplification, resource dedication, product roadmaps, deal closing, and lead generation while working with international teams. Friedman earned her business degree from the Leeds Business School at the University of Colorado Boulder after growing up in California. She attributes her success to being forced into competitive sports by her father, which fostered a numbers-driven, strategic, and competitive personality, balanced by compassion from her mother. She advises that a no is not necessarily final and emphasizes staying hungry while leveraging any advantages in male-dominated fields. Her values center on continuous self-pushing, learning new things, and sticking to proven patterns, and she notes challenges in startups where she has felt siloed, capped, and underutilized despite building robust teams.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Nicole
01What do you attribute your success to?
I would say there's a couple aspects... Bless my father for not having a son and me being forced into competitive sports. I'm a very numbers-driven person, very strategic, very competitive. I like to say I'm competitive by nature, but compassionate by my core... between those two personality types, I feel like I've accumulated this very interesting personality and mental type, where I don't think that a no is a no, but I also don't say yes until it's done.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
No is not a no... Being in sales sometimes someone will respond and tell you not right now, or absolutely not... For me, that's always an opportunity to then look and say, hey, if they took the time to say no... keep them in the pipeline, hit them up right in the future.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Get it, girl. Be hungry... don't underestimate yourself just because you might have a slight advantage... I always see that as a path of acceleration. I'm like, if you're trying to prove a woman case, like, I'm freaking there. I'll do what needs to be done.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
My biggest challenge is being siloed and capped... in startups... under capped and underutilized... I have hired such a robust team that I wasn't really being utilized anymore... I'm not a complacent person... I need goals, I need aspirations, I need something to chase.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
I feel like I'm always pushing myself, feel like I'm trying new things, learning new things, but then also noticing patterns that are tried and true and sticking to them... having that tier of curiosity and forward intelligence, I think, is an interesting mix that just made me successful.
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