Peter Cohan
Peter E. Cohan is the founder and principal of The Second Derivative and the author of the Great Demo! and Doing Discovery methodologies, focused on helping software organizations improve their presales, sales and marketing results – primarily through improving organizations’ discovery and demonstration skills.
Thousands of practitioners have been trained and apply his methodologies around the world, enjoying the rewards of crisper sales cycles, reduced waste, and delighted customers. His team of Partners in the Americas, EMEA and Asia Pacific sell, deliver, and evolve the methodologies, providing an evergreen positive feedback loop for the Great Demo! & Doing Discovery community.
The bulk of his experience is with complex, enterprise software and strategic systems sold to varied audiences in a range of vertical markets. He has enjoyed roles in technical and product marketing, marketing management, presales and presales management, sales and sales management, senior management and the C-Suite – as well as serving on Boards of Directors.
He has executed and delivered thousands of discovery conversations and demos – and has been on the receiving end of thousands of discovery calls and demos from a broad variety of vendors around the world, from start-ups to the world’s biggest software vendors, and verticals from accounting to zymology.
In 2003, he authored Great Demo!, defining the methods to create and execute compelling demonstrations. The 2nd edition of Great Demo! was published March 2005.
In July 2004, he enabled and began moderating DemoGurus®, a community web exchange dedicated to helping sales and marketing teams improve their software demonstrations, which was subsequently transitioned to the Great Demo! LinkedIn Group in 2010-2011.
In August 2022, he published Doing Discovery, a methodology providing a structured approach to discovery for B-to-B software vendors. Over 9000 copies of Doing Discovery have been purchased to date. He has been dubbed “The Father of Modern Discovery” by practitioners.
In July 2023, he released the substantially updated and expanded Third Edition of Great Demo! Over 45,000 copies of Great Demo! have been purchased to date.
His third and latest book, Suspending Disbelief: A Collection of Sales, Presales, and Marketing Stories (and Lessons Learned) was released in May 2025.
Before The Second Derivative, Peter founded the Discovery Tools® business unit at Symyx Technologies, Inc., where he grew the business from an empty spreadsheet into a $30 million per year operation. Prior to Symyx, Peter served in marketing, sales, and management positions at MDL Information Systems, a leading provider of scientific information management software. Peter currently serves on the Board of Directors for Collaborative Drug Discovery, Inc., is an advisor to IN2SV, Inc., ReactWise, and other startups, and a mentor to StartX, the Stanford University start-up accelerator. He holds a degree in chemistry.
Peter has experience as an individual contributor, manager and senior management in marketing, sales, business development, and as a member of the C-suite. He has also been and continues to be a prospect and a customer.
