DoGood Member Spotlight: Gareth Hughes
"You're looking at vendors on your terms rather than necessarily their terms."
Gareth Hughes
VP of IT, Americas · Samsonite
Based in New Jersey · Covers 8 brands across Canada to South America
In this Member Spotlight, Gareth Hughes, VP of IT for Samsonite Americas, shares how the constant volume of cold outreach and LinkedIn pitches turned vendor discovery into a balancing act — and how DoGood flipped the model, letting him engage with vendors on his own terms and surface partners he would never have encountered through traditional procurement.
What We Learned From Gareth
Enterprise IT leaders are overwhelmed by vendor noise. LinkedIn cold messages and hard-sell sequences dominate outreach — but rarely produce meaningful connections. Gareth receives constant unsolicited pitches and has learned to tune them out entirely.
Smaller vendors struggle to reach large enterprise buyers directly. Without a reseller or systems integrator, niche solutions rarely make it onto a VP's radar. DoGood creates a direct channel that bypasses the traditional gatekeeping layer.
Opt-in conversations drive better outcomes than cold pitches. Gareth found real value through Keebo.ai and LaptopReturn, two vendors he would not have encountered through traditional procurement. The LaptopReturn partnership is already moving toward implementation.
Two real partnerships from ten introductions — with one already moving toward implementation. Because both sides opt in, every introduction is high-intent: buyers raise their hand, vendors show up vetted. That's the signal-to-noise ratio that makes DoGood different — and why Gareth would recommend it to fellow tech leaders.
In Gareth's Own Words
Can you introduce yourself and share a little bit about your current role?
I'm Gareth Hughes. I'm the VP of IT for Samsonite for the Americas. I cover everything technology-wise for the group, we own eight different brands. My role covers Canada all the way down to the bottom of South America. Everything IT-related, I own everything apart from ERP, which is run as a separate program at the project level still at the moment.
Given your seniority, you have a lot of competing priorities and people trying to reach you. What do most vendors get wrong when they try to reach out to someone at your level?
I think it's a difficult balance. We're looking for solutions all the time, we've got challenges and issues we need to deal with, but we don't want things thrust on us. LinkedIn is almost the worst at that, where people just randomly send you stuff. I'm never going to outsource my whole Salesforce platform to a guy I've never met somewhere.
It's about pitching at the right level and going in a bit slower than the hard sell, three messages on consecutive days when you don't even know the person doesn't work.
"It's about pitching at the right level and going in a bit slower than the hard sell."
Gareth Hughes, VP of IT, Samsonite Americas"LinkedIn is almost the worst, people just randomly send you stuff. I'm never going to outsource my whole Salesforce platform to someone I've never met."
Gareth Hughes, VP of IT, Samsonite AmericasGiven all that noise, what does it mean to you to be able to choose which conversations you have through DoGood?
For a company like ours, it's often difficult for smaller companies to engage with larger enterprises — we'd typically go through a reseller or a service integrator. DoGood means we're making the move ourselves, going "okay, that's interesting," rather than things necessarily being thrown at us.
Tell me about the vendors you've met through our meetings. Are you working with any of them, or thinking about working with any?
We're looking at a few. There were a couple I wanted to meet that turned me down, so I need to find another way to reach them. But we had a really good conversation with Keebo.ai, and a really good conversation with LaptopReturn. The LaptopReturn one is moving quite quickly, or will move. There's definitely some value there, and they're probably partners we would never have met if we'd gone through how we traditionally procure vendors.
"These are probably partners we would never have met if we'd gone through how we traditionally procure vendors."
Gareth Hughes, VP of IT, Samsonite AmericasIf a fellow tech leader asked you about DoGood, would you recommend it and what would you tell them?
I think yes, I would. It's like, you're looking at vendors on your terms rather than necessarily their terms. The introductions: if you have an issue or something where you don't quite know where to go, or you're looking for someone outside of a big enterprise organization to work with, then I think that's a really good place to start.
And like I say, if I look at 10 vendors and I can find two, that's a pretty good hit rate for me.
"If I look at 10 vendors and I can find two, that's a pretty good hit rate for me."
Gareth Hughes, VP of IT, Samsonite AmericasExplore Vendors on Your Terms
Join IT leaders like Gareth and discover vetted partnerships without the noise.
Request an InvitationReach Buyers Who Want to Hear From You
Connect with VPs of IT like Gareth who are actively looking for partners outside their usual channels.
Become a DoGood Vendor