Owain Crute’s Journey from BDR to Rep2x Account Executive

Owain Crute joined OneThirtyFive in November of 2024 and has excelled since the day he started. Coming from a former sales job at a car dealership, Owain knew exactly how to talk to people and how to build relationships through sales.

(right) Owain in 2024 during the car dealership days.

While working at the dealership, Owain had an encounter with a customer named Steve Struble, who was an ex-coworker of OneThirtyFive’s founder, Kevin DeFranco, from their days at SaaS company OnShift. The car deal didn’t end up being the right fit, but something more valuable came out of the encounter instead. Steve told Owain that he was impressed by his performance as a young salesman and that he would be a perfect fit for the company Kevin was starting. They exchanged numbers, and soon enough, Owain was interviewing with Kevin at the OneThirtyFive offices in downtown Cleveland. He was later hired as a full-time Business Development Rep in November of 2024.

When Owain started at OneThirtyFive, the business was still young, having opened its doors only six months prior. Owain saw the opportunity for growth that the company had and has been here since. In the beginning, when times were slower, Owain found it easy to stay positive. He viewed it as a great opportunity to grow himself while also seeing his direct impact in helping the company grow.

After being with OneThirtyFive for a little over a year, Owain was promoted in January 2026 to become the first Account Executive of OneThirtyFive’s first product, Rep2x, a tool that developed internally since the company’s inception to put BDR candidates through realistic cold call scenarios with a voice-enabled AI as the prospect on the other end.

“From day one, Owain hit the ground running and quickly became one of the best-performing BDRs we’ve ever had. Month over month, he was always at the top of the monthly leaderboard. After seeing him consistently book meetings across multiple client campaigns, he quickly became someone the team trusted with new scripts, new markets, and harder conversations. I knew he was exactly what we needed in an Account Executive for Rep2x, which was very much still in its Minimum Viable Product stage,” said OneThirtyFive and Rep2x founder Kevin DeFranco.

(left) Owain Crute at OneThirtyFive next to the office artwork he selected.

Owain’s promotion brought significant changes. As a BDR, his main goal was to schedule meetings that turned into new business pipeline for OneThirtyFive clients. After the promotion to AE, he became much more hands-on with the sales process and now had the deeper goal of closing full sales cycle deals for Rep2x. Repetition played a huge factor in Owain’s success. He says that continuously selling, practicing, and using Rep2x has helped him excel overall, from working at a car dealership to becoming a Rep2x Account Executive.

Owain greatly enjoys the people and work environment at OneThirtyFive. He says that being able to work with a group of people who all get along and enjoy seeing each other in and out of work is a huge factor in what made him choose this company. Being surrounded by this type of environment is what helped Owain excel in his career at OneThirtyFive.

When asked for his favorite quote, Owain struggled to think of one, but said something more meaningful instead. Owain said that in sales, he could not have succeeded if he did not truly believe in the product he was selling. He says that his belief in the product makes him feel as if he is not selling anything to anyone, but instead transferring his passion for the product to somebody else. He believes this helps others believe in the product as well, so they do not feel like they are being sold to, but instead feel like they are buying something they also believe in.

Owain enjoys sharing his passion with others and helping them with their businesses through his product knowledge. His journey from car sales to BDR to founding Rep2x Account Executive shows how much can happen when talent, resilience, and the right opportunity come together.