Vetted Market Research Professionals

Alexandra Esparza

Screened ReferencesStrong rec.

Executive Investment Banking & Capital Markets Leader specializing in TMT and Digital Health

Brooklyn, NY15y exp

“Private-capital-focused investment banker (former sports/health-tech banker) building a two-sided wellness coaching marketplace plus SaaS platform to help coaches run their businesses and consumers discover/vet/book non-regulated wellness modalities. Has an MVP, landing page, and waitlist, and is running a data-driven traction plan (ads, surveys, alpha testing, Discord/Reddit) before pursuing fundraising channels.”

“Early-stage investor with PropTech exposure who sources founders through conferences, VC networks, and thesis-driven outbound. Demonstrated ability to turn cold founder interactions into multi-month relationships by providing practical support on financial models and pitch decks, while applying a thoughtful lens on product-market fit and ICP in investment decisions.”

“Clean energy founder (Ishan "Summer") who built an energy storage/battery materials venture in 2022 focused on data centers and factories, raising $10M split between venture capital and government funding. Demonstrates end-to-end venture execution: multi-year market observation, team formation, customer/market validation, research collaboration, prototyping, and channel-partner-led go-to-market.”

“Consulting-style leader (McKinsey context) driving data- and AI-enabled transformations across healthcare, QSR, retail, and services. Has built AI-powered analytics tools for marketing ideation, led agile operating models with client-side counterparts and external coaches, and navigated highly sensitive competitive retail engagements by isolating teams and delegating pricing work to avoid conflicts.”

“Chief of Staff / PMO leader at CAIS who built a firm-wide product & technology roadmap and delivery governance from the ground up, partnering directly with the executive committee to define OKRs and prioritization. Led cross-functional GTM readiness tracking and delivered major platform modernization (monolith to microservices) plus trade lifecycle automation in the alternative assets/independent financial advisor space, while also instituting financial discipline and vendor negotiations that saved millions.”

“Brand strategist and business builder with startup experience at Betterment pre-launch, operational and revenue strategy work at Patch, and 15 years at McCann delivering 10 AOR wins including Qualcomm, HomeGoods, Air Wick, and Kroger. Particularly strong at entering unfamiliar categories, uncovering overlooked customer insights, and turning them into clearer positioning, smarter targeting, and winning pitches.”

“Early-stage founder building a service business targeting small clinics, already with one client. Identified the opportunity by helping a family member and then validating needs through direct client conversations; uses AI (including AI agents) for content generation and plans deeper workflow automation to scale cost-effectively.”

“Entrepreneur and senior executive who has raised capital and built a sophisticated, integrated agency platform spanning PR, design, exhibitions/live environments, and media placement; the business is currently in a sale process due to a major shareholder exiting the U.S. Strong premium-market positioning experience, leveraging C-suite access to validate opportunities and building human-centric, data-driven, AI-enabled service offerings across luxury/hospitality/culture/real estate/wellness.”

“Former Special Assistant at the National Security Council with experience supporting senior federal executives and handling national-security-sensitive information. Helped stand up and standardize operations for a large-scale refugee resettlement effort (60,000 people), creating an executive-driven exception/escalation process and partnering with dev and data teams to prioritize agile sprint work and improve reporting accuracy.”

“Operations leader/advisor focused on rapid, data-driven optimization and scalable org/process design. Has rebuilt internal structures, automated and streamlined customer-journey workflows, and delivered measurable cycle-time improvements (cut onboarding from 90–120 days to under 30). Previously built a new operations team that scaled to over $4M in revenue and frequently mentors non-operations executives using tailored, practical coaching.”

Dhaya Lakshminarayanan

Screened

Executive Operations Leader specializing in AI, climate tech, and high-growth organizations

San Francisco, CA20y exp

“Operator who has repeatedly stepped into founder-level, cross-functional ownership at startups—running full HR (recruiting, onboarding, benefits) with AI-driven process automation, and later serving as interim VP People & Culture during an executive transition. Also managed cap table, 409A, equity grants, and day-to-day investor relations, and built company-wide ELT goals/KPIs and operating rhythms tied to board-approved strategy.”

“BCG consultant with repeated "founder-level" ownership of large, cross-functional initiatives, including a financial services data management transformation delivering +30% client satisfaction and -60% issue resolution time. Also led portfolio strategy for a $160B biopharma client, building board-level models and aligning stakeholders across five segments to drive a 23% price increase and improved post-merger cost structure.”