DEBORAH LINDSAY - is an operations professional who started her career in the entertainment industry putting on large-scale musical events, such as the San Jose Jazz Festival and the Robert Mondavi Winery Musical Series, to the Co-Founder and COO of a digital media company, to her most recent SaaS/ PaaS tech ventures as COO of pre A round startups. Deborah has made it her business to bring a deep knowledge of strategy to build the structures to support and leverage solid process principles while keeping the team on target and customers happy.
She holds an MBA in Sustainability Management from Presidio Graduate School and more than a decade of experience in tech startup operations in Silicon Valley. She also holds a Certificate in Social Enterprise Management and Impact Investing (Frontier Market Scouts Fellowship) from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, a Human Resources Management Certificate from the University of California Santa Cruz, and a Sustainable Capitalism & ESG certificate from Berkeley Law Executive Education.
MY WHY
To build long-term success for mission-driven businesses to “move the needle” and make the world a better place.
I am a futurist; meaning I think about the future (a lot) and I believe it’s possible to build the future we want to see. However, this requires more than just good ideas and well-conceived strategic plans, but real actionable methods to achieve the results we seek. I bring this kind of practical application to startups, scaleups, nonprofits, and small businesses so success is possible.
I am also an activator. I bring people together to do good work. People are excited to work with me, they thrive and are inspired, as I am with them. I love supporting individual and team growth. It energizes me and creates a positive feedback loop. Together, we can do what needs to be done.
A thriving bottom line is positively linked to your structure, process, culture, and care of your people. I take it upon myself to work with companies to develop the best version of themselves using all the time-tested tools for success now and into the future.
With my experience with Exec Team Building, Strategy & Annual Planning, Cross Functional Operational Building, Defining and Implementing Culture, Financial Control, Legal, HR, ESG, Customer Service, Board management, Cap table management, team development, app design and development, DEI, HR, P & L management, consumer and affiliate sales, customer service, data management, investor relations, and culture creation, you are in excellent hands.
MY APPROACH
Deborah's words:
It’s essential to begin with an overall analysis of your company, from the strategic plan to a deep dive into your financials, mapping supply chains, and partnerships, and assessing your marketing funnels, sales channels, and the health of your customer service department. Additionally, the ability to future-proof your business depends on how well we can mitigate the legal and financial risks associated with your company's operations.
I draw from several schools of thought to do this, both traditional business practices to holistic counseling to sustainability / circular economy methods.
Businesses work best when using strong EQ (Emotional Quotient) practices. We are all connected and need to collaborate on the most critical societal and environmental issues while building our companies. We thrive better, together.