I'm a strategic advisor to founders and CEOs making a big growth move: launching a product, scaling a startup, or taking an established company into a new market, including into the US. On retainer, alongside you, for the decisions that matter most.
Startup or large company, it's the situation that matters: a leader accountable for a big growth move, who wants a senior partner alongside them rather than a one-off project.
You have a product and early traction. Now it's growth strategy, go-to-market, positioning, and partnerships... while every big decision still runs through you.
Right now I'm advising a founder building software for the trades.
How I work →Often it's a company entering the US, where the playbook from home doesn't quite transfer. You need someone who knows how things work here, and who has brought products to market before.
Right now I'm advising the head of the Americas for a large company expanding into the US.
How I work →I founded FastPencil and sold it to Courier Corp in 2011. Then I built an advisory practice of my own, paid in cash and often equity; three of those clients went on to billion-dollar exits... an IPO, a merger, and a private-equity deal. I was on the team, not the reason it happened. Four exits: one as a founder, three as an advisor.
I've brought products to market at Accellion (Kiteworks), Shape Security (Blackfish), and Yubico (YubiEnterprise Delivery Service). And I teach entrepreneurship, operations, and international business at San José State, where I've taught since 2018.
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Founders and CEOs are usually very good at solving problems... the trouble is we're often solving the wrong ones, and working harder on the wrong problem just gets you busier. What looks like a growth problem might really be positioning. What looks like a market-entry problem might be assumptions from home that don't hold here. So first we find the problem worth solving, then the simplest next step in the right direction, then the one after that. I don't sell plans. We agree on where you want to go, and we move.
How I work →Neither of these started with a plan that survived. They started with a direction.
Not a project with a deck at the end. A standing rhythm, and I'm there for the decisions as they come.
Thirty minutes. You tell me about the move you're making. I'll mostly listen, and I'll tell you honestly if I'm not the right person.
A working session to agree where we're going, and what "meaningfully further along" looks like twelve weeks from now.
A standing cadence, plus a call whenever a big decision lands. In the room where I can, at a whiteboard with the people who have to make it happen.
What we've learned decides what's next. The plan changes; the direction holds.
I won't promise the exact destination... nobody honest can. We may find the path is different from the one we pictured at the start. That's part of the work.
Thirty minutes to see whether I'm the right person to help. Bring the direction... you don't need the plan.
Book 30 minutes with meJust want to follow along? Connect on LinkedIn.
