Williams College

Environmentalist entrepreneur with operations, growth, and strategy experience at early-to-enterprise deep tech companies

As Sr. Manager, Launch & Special Initiatives, I transitioned from initially leading teams of teams launching new micromobility markets to managing a wide array of special projects and organizational transformation initiatives following Spin’s acquisition by Tier Mobility in April 2022. 

Between the fall of 2022 and winter of 2023, I launched 15,000 C1s—Spin’s most technically complex vehicle—in 16 markets, leading to a 30% increase in revenue per ride. C1 required extensive Engineering program management; integrating the new hardware onto Spin’s software backend and rider frontend was a complex technical challenge. I was responsible for coordinating diverse stakeholders representing our supplier, internal business partners, and our new parent company. I worked directly with functional teams to define success metrics and interim milestones and with our CEO on multiple aspects of this program, including deployment strategy, QA, and safety. I built out a multi-month, cross-functional workplan in SmartSheet and held twice-weekly TPM syncs to ensure all risks were escalated and addressed in time.

Between January and April of 2023, in addition to my existing responsibilities, I took on Spin's long-dormant Product Operations function (with no prior Product background) and deployed Tier’s suite of internal operational software tools across 43 US markets. This included features roadmap & development support, backend technical setup & sustainment, and training for our hourly and salaried teams. I mediated between end users and Tier’s Engineering organization, filtering new feature requests and supporting the planning and prioritization of key features development.

In April, I onboarded to the Sr. Business Operations Manager, Demand Conversion role, which entailed me supporting markets with tools, data, and tactics to improve operational profitability, efficiency, and compliance. I served in this role in addition to my prior responsibilities for the balance of my tenure.

Spin

Senior Manager, Launch & Special Initiatives

I worked within Spin's Central Operations team on the Launch, Asset Management, and Special Initiatives team, which served the organization as a cross-functional project management task force. We managed the launch of Spin's mobility services in new city and campus markets throughout North America, as well as market closures, new hardware demonstrations, and other programs with no obvious home.

I launched 15 markets representing more than $5.5 million in revenue between my start date in April ’21 and my promotion in July of 2022.  My scope of responsibilities included the following sample of workstreams: 
+ leasing a warehouse in which to charge and repair scooters, 
+ hiring a team of hourly Fleet Operations drivers and mechanics,
+ coordinating logistics to ship new or used scooter fleets,
+ marketing our service to existing and prospective new users, and
+ configuring our backend fleet management platform to enable our services and compliance with city and campus requirements. 

In February 2022, I absorbed Spin’s Sustainability operations, covering all scooter and battery recycling operations and circularity partnerships including a $180K sale of 10K+ new-in-box obsolete batteries to an R2E-certified downstream recycler. I also served as the co-lead for Spin's Pride@Spin employee resource group (ERG) for LQBTQIA+ employees throughout 2022.

Manager, Launch & Special Initiatives

I helped build Cascadia Carbon's marketing and public relations strategy, redesign and deploy their 2nd-gen website, conduct competitive research, customer discovery, and partnership development, and coach their executive team on fundraising and leadership.

Cascadia Carbon

Chief Growth Officer

As Numina's Founding Chief of Staff I supported all nontechnical functions of the business, with centering on operations and growth, but also touching organizational and business development, customer success, product, agile project management, human resources, investor relations, and executive assistance.

For my core operations work, I set up and continuously improved the foundation of Numina’s operations, including hiring two distinct teams throughout three years, establishing and iterating team structure, and managing a companywide agile project management workflow. I also managed client project planning, installation, customer success, and community partnerships for our municipal deployments, and ensured financial & regulatory compliance with city, state, and federal governments for business & field operations. On a biannual basis, I was responsible for organizing Numina’s strategy summit, which included coordinating our team's schedule, securing an offsite venue, capturing notes, and contributing to long-term strategic roadmapping with the resulting insights.

In a growth capacity, I led outbound sales, including market research, analysis, and segmentation, CRM design and maintenance, and email campaign planning, execution, optimization, and follow-up strategy. I also developed our federal, private, and philanthropic grant proposals and RFP responses, including a now-live program funded by NYSERDA (the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority) for >$400K of sensors & analysis to measure bike & pedestrian traffic along the Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway. I presented at domestic and international conferences on behalf of the organization and served as a first point of contact for inbound business opportunities.

Numina.co

Founding Chief of Staff

I served as a venture analyst for Cultivation Capital, conducting due diligence on startups soliciting seed-stage investment from Cultivation and its industry-specific funds. I evaluated new investment opportunities for them across their industry focus areas in digital health, fintech, edtech, enterprise IT, agtech, and cybersecurity, and designed & refined updated financial diligence research & reporting materials for future volunteer analyst teams.

Cultivation Capital

Analyst

I reviewed new startups on a quarterly basis applying to the Arch Grants incubator from across the globe and across industry verticals. I evaluated submissions for their viability, scalability, and competitiveness, and submitted briefs on whether or not I recommended Arch Grants advance applicants to the next round or decline.

Arch Grants

Judge

In my role at Boeing Ventures (now HorizonX Ventures), I acted as a new venture analyst and program manager for business concepts that came to the organization from across The Boeing Company. I developed market assessments, market entry strategies and business model prototypes for teams addressing precision agriculture, wave energy and energy storage, IIoT, commercial trucking and rail, satellite network monitoring, advanced manufacturing, and data analytics. Most notably, I developed and validated the business model and go-to-market strategy for a remote civil & commercial infrastructure inspection business with a $300K project-specific R&D budget and an elite team of four strategists.

I also served as the innovation challenge focal at Boeing Ventures, managing the process of scoping, executing and sustaining multiple crowdsourced innovation competitions to solve business problems and solicit new business ideas. I modified external business acceleration tools like Ash Maurya's Lean Canvas, which were proliferated and institutionalized throughout the innovation community within Boeing, to suit Boeing's internal business acceleration needs.

Boeing

Program Manager, Ventures

Venture For America is a two-year fellowship that provides exceptional postgraduates with the opportunity to work for a startup company in a post-industrial American city with high-growth innovation economies.

As a Fellow, I received 6 weeks of multidisciplinary training in June-July of 2014 provided by companies like McKinsey and IDEO and by thought leaders in the V.C. and startup community. These were reinforced with weekly challenges where teams competed to test our training by rapidly fundraising and prototyping new websites, products and services.

Paul de Konkoly Thege