Ernst Van Nierop

Questioner
DISC Type : c

Senior Director, Segment & Strategy at Sila Nanotechnologies, Inc.

United States

Overview

Ernst van Nierop serves as the Senior Director of Segment & Strategy at Sila, focusing on engineering advanced battery materials. A Harvard PhD graduate, he excels at building functions from the ground up, having established both the Product Management and Strategy teams at Sila after a role as VP of Scaling at GitLab.

The unifying theme of his work is building for whats needed most in ambitious startups, whether that involves developing new teams and processes or owning critical problems that might otherwise be overlooked.

Personality Overview

Price-Sensitive

Cautious & Analytical

Not Easily Convinced

While they don't hesitate to ask questions, they are generally risk-averse and tend to be late adopters.  They generally do not appreciate an overfriendly approach and prefer to stay to-the-point. They prefer to analyze every situation thoroughly.


Topics They Care About

Battery Technology
He leads strategy at Sila, a company engineering materials to set a new standard for batteries and power the future, particularly for electric vehicles.
Go-to-Market Strategy
He built and leads the strategy function at Sila, focusing on market analysis, competitive intelligence, and designing the company's commercial approach.
Scaling Startups
His career theme is building necessary functions from scratch, highlighted by his experience as VP of Scaling at GitLab and establishing multiple teams at Sila.

Media Appearances

Ernst has no verified media appearances

Work History

10-2025
Senior Director, Segment & Strategy at Sila Nanotechnologies, Inc.
7-2020 - 10-2025
Director of Strategy at Sila Nanotechnologies, Inc.
1-2018 - 7-2020
Head of Product at Sila Nanotechnologies, Inc.
3-2025
Board Member at Monte Caldera Technologies Inc.
9-2015 - 1-2018
VP of Scaling at GitLab, Inc.

Education

2004 - 2009
PhD from Harvard University
1997 - 2003
MSc from University of Twente

More Information

Social Presence :

Prographics :

Exp : 16 Location : United States Job Level : Senior Designation : Senior Director, Segment & Strategy at Sila Nanotechnologies, Inc.
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Insights For Selling To Ernst

During A Call Or A Meeting

DO's

  • Share as much information as possible regarding your product
  • Keep some extra margin in hand as they will likely negotiate the pricing
  • Tell them that you will come back if you don’t have a good answer for a question

DONT's

  • Don’t try to be too friendly or informal with them
  • Don’t overhype the product/pitch, keep it measured
  • Avoid phrases like ‘do not worry about’, ‘no one compares to’ etc.

When Cold Calling

When Writing An Email

While Negotiating & Closing

    The secret to closing fast with Ernst is

  • Ensuring that the product delivers ROI, cost-effective pricing and process compliance are very important for them.
  • Will you ever get a clear answer from Ernst

  • It doesn’t come naturally to them but they can say no if they are not convinced.

Insights For Deal Planning

    How fast (or slow) will Ernst move?

  • If they have the information that they need, they can move fast at making their decisions.
  • Can Ernst take some risk or not?

  • They can take risk if they are convinced that they have analyzed the circumstances well.


You And Ernst

Personality Compatibility


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