David Dorman

Energizer
DISC Type : I

VP Marketing / Growth at Modal

New York, New York, United States

Overview

David Dorman is the VP of Marketing and Growth at Modal, specializing in self-serve and product-led growth for developer-focused companies. He has a track record of leading marketing at firms like Grafana Labs and DigitalOcean. He holds a Bachelor of Science from the University of Marylands Robert H. Smith School of Business.


He is an expert in scaling self-serve go-to-market motions within modern SaaS companies.

Personality Overview

Imaginative

Informal

Relationship Oriented

They are really good at seeing what the long-term impacts of their decisions could be.  They are not always early adopters but can be pursuaded by leveraging strong relationships. Unlike C or D types, they are vocal with their opinions but not so much with their questions.

Topics They Care About

Product-Led Growth
He frequently speaks on podcasts about using product-led growth (PLG) as a primary marketing strategy for developer-focused companies.
Self-Serve GTM
Previously VP of Self-Service at Grafana Labs, he has deep expertise in building and scaling self-serve, bottom-up adoption models.
AI Infrastructure
His current role at Modal and recent posts focus on the infrastructure behind production AI workloads, including sandboxes and inference engines.

Media Appearances

David has no verified media appearances

Work History

11-2025
VP Marketing / Growth at Modal
11-2021 - 11-2025
VP, Self-Service at Grafana Labs
4-2020 - 11-2021
Head of Self-Service at Grafana Labs
9-2016 - 4-2020
Director of Growth Marketing at DigitalOcean
9-2015 - 9-2016
Director of Product Marketing at DigitalOcean

Education

2004 - 2008
Bachelor of Science (BS) from University of Maryland - Robert H. Smith School of Business

More Information

Social Presence :

Prographics :

Exp : 16 Location : New York, New York, United States Job Level : Senior Designation : VP Marketing / Growth at Modal
URL has been copied!

Insights For Selling To David

During A Call Or A Meeting

DO's

  • Talk anecdotally about the customer experience that your product offers
  • Invite them for a lunch or a drink/coffee
  • Use phrases like ‘people will love’, ‘massive impact’ etc.

DONT's

  • Don’t push them to make a decision too fast, let them get comfortable first
  • Avoid ifs and buts, don’t talk too much about the risks etc.
  • Don’t be excessively objective, be a storyteller

When Cold Calling

When Writing An Email

While Negotiating & Closing

    The secret to closing fast with David is

  • Relationship and rapport can play an important role, sometimes more than the other factors.
  • Will you ever get a clear answer from David

  • They will probably never say no directly, you have to make that decision yourself.

Insights For Deal Planning

    How fast (or slow) will David move?

  • They are not the quickest decision makers, their friendly attitude could be misleading.
  • Can David take some risk or not?

  • They can accept limited risks, ones that they think will not impact them personally.

You And David

Personality Compatibility


Other Modal Employees

Explore more public profiles from related professionals at the same organization.

More Profiles

Discover additional public profiles from our index.

Search more profiles

Looking for someone else? Search here for anyone.

Or visit Humantic AI to know more.