How Jeremy Hy Went from Valet to Vice President of Sales in Just 16 Months at OneThirtyFive

When Jeremy Hy joined OneThirtyFive, he was looking for an opportunity to build a career in sales. Just over a year later, he was hired by one of our clients as their Vice President of Sales. Here’s how he got there.

Before joining OneThirtyFive, Jeremy Hy worked as a valet and attended Ohio Technical College with plans of working on trucks. It didn't take long for him to realize that it wasn't what he wanted to do for the rest of his life. Watching his brother-in-law build a successful business showed him that sales is a key part of building a company.

(Left) Jeremy in 2024, working as a valet at Marble Room in downtown Cleveland.

That's when Jeremy decided he wanted to learn the skill of sales. Through a friend of a friend, he was connected with OneThirtyFive employee, Owain Crute. Soon after, he interviewed with OneThirtyFive founder, Kevin DeFranco, and joined the company as the company’s 4th full-time Business Development Representative (BDR) in February 2025.

When Jeremy first started at OneThirtyFive, things didn't come easy. During his first three months, he struggled with cold calling, wasn't seeing success on the phones, and wasn't consistently hitting his goals. After being put on what he jokingly referred to as the "hot seat," Jeremy knew he needed to improve. Over the next several months, he worked on a few different client campaigns before Kevin DeFranco assigned him to a brand-new client, Cleveland-based b atomic, in September 2025. At the time, Jeremy had never worked in the insurance industry and never imagined he would, but that quickly changed. As he settled into the role, he began hitting his goals month after month and quickly became the top performing BDR at OneThirtyFive.

(Right) Jeremy’s first day at OneThirtyFive in February 2025.

Jeremy's success with b atomic didn't go unnoticed. After seeing the results he consistently delivered, b atomic founder Seth approached OneThirtyFive founder Kevin DeFranco about bringing Jeremy onto the team full-time. Since the opportunity to hire your BDR full-time was already built into the contract between the two companies, Kevin welcomed the discussion. Within a few months everything aligned perfectly and Jeremy officially joined b atomic as Vice President of Sales in June 2026.Jeremy says he was excited for the opportunity because it allowed him to continue growing in his career. As Kevin often reminded him, "You don't want to be cold calling for the rest of your life." At b atomic, Jeremy now manages the full sales cycle, starting the conversations, running his own demos, managing the sales pipeline, and helps to make key decisions about the company's sales strategy.

(Left) Jeremy’s last day at OneThirtyFive before beginning his next chapter as Vice President of Sales.

Looking back on his time at OneThirtyFive, Jeremy says one of the biggest lessons he learned is that sales isn't always easy. There are highs and lows, and it's important not to get too caught up in either one. "When you have a bad month, you want to stay level-headed and vice-versa." Jeremy said. He also shared that sales is a unique career where results matter. "If you're not performing in sales, you shouldn't be in sales," he said. Another lesson that has stuck with him is the importance of betting on yourself. "If you're the highest-paid rep and you're not performing, you're going to be the first one cut since you’re just burning a whole in the company’s wallet," Jeremy said.

Although Jeremy is excited for his next chapter, he says the people are what he'll miss most about OneThirtyFive. Jeremy says everyone is either fresh out of college or in their mid-twenties, which made it a fun group of people to work with every day. His advice to new BDRs is simple. First, get off the script as soon as possible and make every conversation feel natural. "People don't like to be sold to," Jeremy said. "The more conversational you can make it, the better." He also encourages new reps not to beat themselves up. Sales comes with both hard days and good days, but in Jeremy's experience, the good days always outweigh the bad. 

OneThirtyFive founder Kevin DeFranco has watched Jeremy's journey from the very beginning and is proud of everything he's accomplished.

"I'm extremely proud to see how far Jeremy has come. From literally joining OneThirtyFive off the street downtown as a valet to pushing through his early struggles and figuring things out for himself, and to crush it with b atomic. Jeremy's trajectory has been forged by his hard work and determination to find success, and he'll no doubt continue on that same path internally with b atomic," said DeFranco.

While everyone at OneThirtyFive will miss having Jeremy on the team, they're excited to watch him continue growing his career and can't wait to see where his journey with b atomic takes him next.