Strategy, Marketing and Product expertise from someone who’s actually been there.
Helping you navigate your biggest challenges with tailored advice and hands on help.
I’ve founded startups and I’ve been a CEO. I’ve worked at Facebook as a Product Manager and Adobe in Product Marketing. I’ve raised money, sold a company, and shut another one down. For over seventeen years I’ve built and sold everything from eCommerce platforms to consumer video apps, programmatic advertising to video infrastructure.
Chances are, if you’re in a situation, I’ve been there too. I love helping founders solve some of their biggest challenges. Maybe I can help you, too.
I’m happy to chat with founders, investors and product people looking to grow - just get in touch via the contact form.
Consultation and Advice
This is a small selection of the areas I have advised my clients on.
Market Diagnosis & Strategy
A strategy is a sequence of focused actions to achieve a goal given certain market conditions. I can help you diagnose your market and define what you need to do to win.
World-class Product Processes
Most startups want to improve their process to achieve consistent excellence but don’t know how to do it. I can help you design a process that meets you where yo are and works for your team.
Product/Team Turnarounds
Sometimes founders, teams, and products can get into an unproductive state. I’ve led many team turnarounds and can share lessons learned from hard experience on how to diagnose and fix the root cause of dysfunctions.
A note on advice.
Startup advice is everywhere. Everyone likes to dish it out. I bet you’ve read many of the blogs and books I’ve read.
The thing is, your context matters; strong advice for growth stage companies probably won’t work for pre-launch startups. Processes that work spectacularly at Facebook or Google may be a waste of time for your company. And if you’re running out of cash, all bets are off and now you’re a war-time CEO.
Finding advice is easy. Making it work for you is complicated. That’s where I can help.
Example Projects
Here’s a few examples of the types of projects I typically help with.
Interim Product Management
Many startups are too small to need a full time product manager, but the founders are too stretched to execute on all their initiatives. I can take one of those initiatives on, set it up for success, and hand it off once the heavy lifting is done.
Hiring Product Managers
I’ll work with you to hire a great Product Manager, using the playbook I learned and practiced for years at Facebook, customized for your specific needs. I can take on the screening calls, interviews and more, according to your needs.
Product Research
What is your market and how should you approach it? How can you design a product that truly meets the needs of its users? How do you know your product is achieving its goals? I’ve run hundreds of research projects across my career, for my own companies, and for Adobe and Facebook.
How I work
I work closely with a small number of handpicked companies where our interests and needs align. I keep this number small so I can be an effective coach and teammate.
I love to roll up my sleeves and get involved, but my goal is to leave clients with the skill and confidence to carry on without my help.
I work with startups in London and Silicon Valley via a mix of in-person meetings and video conferencing.
If it sounds like I might be able to help your company or a company you work with, please get in touch - I love to meet founders and startup leaders and hear their stories.