Vetted Mentoring Professionals

Tolulope Akinlabi

Screened ReferencesStrong rec.

Mid-level Cyber & Cloud Security Analyst specializing in AI/ML and cloud risk

Lanham, MD6y exp

“Built a production AI security compliance assessment system using the OpenAI API that ingests company policy documents, performs RAG over embeddings stored in Supabase/FAISS, and generates executive-level gap and maturity reports mapped to NIST CSF, SOC 2, and PCI DSS. Also developed a multi-agent trading assistant orchestrated with LangChain, combining live market data (Yahoo/Polygon.io), sentiment/technical indicators, LSTM-based forecasting, and LLM-generated recommendations.”

“Senior engineering/technology leader who has defined and delivered a multi-year roadmap to modernize platforms and embed AI, leading global teams through cloud-native and microservices migrations on AWS/Azure. Demonstrated measurable outcomes including 99.99% uptime, 40% fewer incidents, 25% faster delivery, 5x scalability, and $30M in new business opportunities, while scaling a 100+ person distributed org with strong OKR-driven execution and mentorship culture.”

Gayatri Puwar Mahendroo

Screened ReferencesStrong rec.

Director-level Product Leader specializing in AI, platforms, and B2B SaaS

San Francisco, CA19y exp

“Senior product leader with 15+ years spanning FAANG-scale platforms and early-stage startups, from Skype’s bot framework at 300M MAU to AI-native enterprise products in fintech, banking, and data center operations. Particularly strong in human-centered AI, trust and transparency UX, and turning ambiguous 0-1 opportunities into shipped MVPs that win pilots, awards, and business traction—including a GenAI observability platform that earned a Google Accelerator award and later led to acquisition.”

“Growth marketing and marketing ops leader who joined a PE-owned SaaS business after $150M in annual sales and built the demand gen function from the ground up (roles, processes, tech stack, and reporting). Implemented SiriusDecisions-based lead processes, Salesforce-driven lead scoring/routing, and multi-touch attribution, then enabled sales via Challenger training—driving $231M in pipeline and improving marketing ROI to $6 pipeline per $1 spent.”

Karen Yan

Screened

Staff Product Manager specializing in platform and AI-driven consumer products

Chicago, IL13y exp

“Product leader with experience at Apple and Earnin, focused on redesigning core user journeys with strong UX judgment, experimentation, and applied ML. Notable wins include leading Apple Support's search-first triage experience that increased search usage from 3% to 40% and improved solution reach from 54% to 62%, plus a web onboarding redesign that lifted activation by 12%. Thoughtful about human-centered AI, especially using automation to guide users and support people rather than replace human relationships.”

“Engineering/tech leader with experience spanning major platforms (mentions Microsoft and AWS) and leading ML-driven product architecture (ranking systems). Describes driving a shift to a layered, API-standardized service architecture (including vector database components) that materially increased delivery speed (weeks to hours) while improving scalability and security, and emphasizes rigorous execution reviews (QDR/OKRs) plus transparent remote-team operating rhythms.”

“Senior product leader with experience at Constant Contact, Retention Science, eBay, and Ticketmaster, spanning PLG transformation, AI-driven marketing automation, UX turnarounds, and complex platform migrations. Particularly compelling for roles needing a product executive who can tie user insight, experimentation, and cross-functional execution directly to conversion, revenue, and team growth.”

“Product leader with experience at Disney, Hallmark Media, and Storytelling Tech who has led both streaming and AI-powered content products. Notably shipped VERP, a generative AI "prompt-to-publish" video platform, and brings a clear human-centered AI philosophy focused on augmentation, trust, and fast user outcomes rather than full automation.”

Zheng Liu

Screened

Executive engineering leader specializing in AI platforms and FinTech

Seattle, WA13y exp

“Engineering and product leader who currently owns both functions at Enzzo and previously served as a founding/head of engineering leader at Imprint, helping scale the company from seed to Series C. Stands out for combining customer-driven product strategy with hands-on technical execution, including an early AI/open-source LLM solution to reduce the time and cost of persona-based user research.”

Joseph Vito

Screened

Principal Technology Transformation Executive specializing in cloud modernization and data platforms

New York, NY35y exp

“AWS advisory leader and long-tenured (4 decades) execution-focused operator who helps startups and enterprise "startup-like" business units scale operations through customer-centric mechanisms (Working Backwards/PRFAQ) and tech-enabled modernization. Delivered concrete process gains (e.g., ~30% faster mortgage workflow and ~10 manual handoffs eliminated via automation/microservices) and advises VC/startups on data/infra ops, AI-driven differentiation, and go-to-market positioning across multiple industries.”

Martin Bom

Screened

Director-level Engineering Leader specializing in cloud services and large-scale delivery

Amsterdam, Netherlands31y exp

“Engineering leader with a hands-on developer background who has launched and scaled cloud services at AWS (CloudShell) while also leading AWS Cloud9. Built multi-year roadmaps and cross-org stakeholder alignment (product/marketing/mobile), and has a track record of scaling teams (3x growth) by implementing operational excellence, automated quality gates, and security champion programs; advocates serverless architectures to minimize maintenance and accelerate global expansion.”

“Senior product engineering and data architecture leader who has owned end-to-end solutions for enterprise analytics and legal search platforms, including work for Sony Pictures Entertainment and Accenture Legal. Combines executive-level architecture and team leadership with hands-on experimentation in modern AI systems, recently building a multimodal Hugging Face agent that significantly exceeded its benchmark score.”