Business Development & Partnerships Experts

I bring a unique blend of investment banking, private equity, corporate development, and founder-led deal sourcing experience to my Business Development & Partnerships coaching. I’ve worked across the full lifecycle of BD, from sourcing and qualifying opportunities, to building outbound engines, managing multi-channel pipelines, conducting executive-level outreach, and negotiating strategic partnerships. I’ve helped founders, operators, and job seekers break into BD roles across finance, healthcare, and technology through structured playbooks, personalized coaching, and proven outreach strategies. As the Founder of an independent sponsor investment platform, I build and manage a high-volume sourcing engine (800–1,000 outbound touches per month) and lead deep-relationship development with operators, bankers, brokers, and executives. I also coach clients on Leland across IB, PE, Corp Dev, and BD, with 40+ five-star reviews and a “Supercoach” distinction. My approach is highly tactical, detail-forward, and designed to help you stand out, whether you're pursuing BD roles, refining your sales/storytelling pitch, or developing a strategic partnerships motion from scratch.

With experience across client strategy, account management, and relationship-driven growth, I’ve spent my career helping businesses build stronger client relationships, identify opportunities, and drive revenue. At ShopMy, I work closely with brands on strategy, retention, and growth. I’ve consistently exceeded revenue and retention targets, contributed to a 206% increase in client engagement, and driven more than $1M in incremental client spend each quarter. A big part of my role is understanding a client’s goals, identifying opportunities to expand the relationship, and building strategies that create value for both the client and the business. Previously, at Bloomberg, I managed relationships across a portfolio representing more than $30M in annual revenue. Through hundreds of client conversations and tailored strategies, I learned how to understand different business needs, build trust with stakeholders, and identify opportunities to strengthen and grow partnerships. I’ve also mentored junior associates and new account managers, helping them develop their communication, relationship management, and strategic thinking skills. If you’re looking to strengthen your approach to business development, improve your client and partner relationships, identify growth opportunities, or become more confident in relationship-driven roles, I’d love to help you build a practical strategy and put it into action.

I am a 20+ year sales & marketing executive that has worked at Fortune 500 companies (P&G, Google, and Meta), and have been a Chief Revenue Officer at an AI analytics startup. I have interviewed and managed people at all ends of the spectrum from new hires to VP / excecs, in the US and APAC. I have a passion for developing others and helping the next generation of leaders to succeed. My purpose in life is to help people connect the dots to breathe life into their imagined futures. I believe my frameworks can also help people figure out what they want out of their careers and personal success / happiness.

I spent 10+ years working in business development and partnerships with Microsoft, Okta, Google, Amazon. I built a multi million co-sell revenue partnership from the ground up that won many global industry awards.

I'm a General Partner at the world's most active AI investor, Antler. I broke into VC after an operating career as a C-level tech exec at multiple unicorns. My firm have raised >$100M over two top-quartile performance funds and we have made >150 investments. Personally I've made over 50 angel investments. Across these investments I've invested BEFORE Sequoia, 20VC, a16z, Accel and YC multiple times. In my operating career, I was Chief Commercial Officer for Adzuna (a global job search engine) running their business across 16 global markets. Prior to that I ran the B2B2C business for SeatGeek, a ticketing marketplace, working with major sporting franchises like Manchester City, Liverpool and Dallas Cowboys. I joined SeatGeek after spending several years as GM UK and Northern Europe for Airbnb, overseeing their rocketship growth across Homes and launching Experiences. I also spent eight years at Google in London, Sydney and Singapore; most recently running their APAC Emerging Markets business, launching YouTube across Southeast Asia.

Welcome to my profile! With a robust background in strategic partnerships and business development, I currently serve as a Manager of Strategic Partnerships at Microsoft, where I drive revenue growth and develop go-to-market strategies for AI and security partners. My experience extends to mentoring founders at Microsoft, helping them validate business ideas and accelerate product development. As a former Teach For America corps member, I have a proven track record of mentoring students and teachers, which has honed my ability to guide others toward success. I hold an MBA from Kellogg School of Management, where I was an F.C. Austin Scholar, and an A.B. in Economics and French from Harvard University. Let's connect to explore how I can help you achieve your business development goals!

In my work as Vice President at Panasonic, we were constantly looking for smaller to large companies to partner with on new business ventures. From our getting into Battery Storage Devices, to our early pioneering of Home Telemedicine, to our working on whole home ventilation and energy systems, I headed a team that worked with partners to bring to market solutions in areas that we could not do on our own. A lot of this work is empowering staff to do the ground work for setting up a successful venture, and a key to doing that is hiring the right type of person. They are not just sales people, or product people, or managers. They are innovators and project management, with technical backgrounds and an understanding of marketing. In this sense, who you put in key positions is a key to getting successful ventures, as well as defining clearly the work of leadership in cementing relationships. I can help advise on doing this successfully.

Business development is not something I stumbled into; it has been the thread running through my entire career since leaving university. I have worked every part of the process, from full sales cycle selling to booking meetings with VPs, Directors, and C-suite executives. Along the way I have built a track record that speaks for itself, averaging 150% of quota as a rep and over 200% of quota as a manager of business development. I know what it takes to perform at a high level in this discipline and, more importantly, I know how to break that down and teach it to others. When I coach in business development, I am drawing on real, proven experience at every stage of the journey.

I’m an experienced business development and partnerships professional with 4+ years of experience across Fortune 500 companies in entertainment, streaming, and tech. I began my career at Disney, working across Marvel Studios, Disney+, Hulu, and Disney Channels, where I built global marketing partnerships and supported the growth of the streaming business. I later transitioned into advertising technology, where I became the youngest manager in company history and led multi-million dollar partnerships across industries including tech, travel, automotive, and retail. I have negotiated and secured first-of-their-kind deals with leading technology companies. Today, I work at Walmart, building strategic partnerships with some of the largest tech and social platforms in the world within a multi-billion dollar retail media ecosystem. Alongside my corporate career, I have helped students, early career, and experienced professionals land interviews and secure roles at companies like JP Morgan, Robinhood, Disney, Amazon, Google, Netflix, and Microsoft. I truly believe most people are far more capable than they realize, but often need the right guidance to unlock their potential. I help people refine their narratives and connect the dots across their experiences so their story is clear, compelling, and impossible to overlook. At the end of the day, the people who land the job are not always the smartest, but the ones who know how to tell their story best.

As the founder of Startup Sales Consulting, I work closely with founders, AEs, and BDRs at startups to generate more meetings within their Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) and convert interested prospects into paying customers. I've twice been the first sales hire at venture backed startups (Arc Technologies and Trunk Tools - both now with 9-figure valuations) where I help each company scale from seed to beyond series A. Now I work as a sales coach full-time to help more startups do the same. You can check out my training classes on my website (www.yourstartupsales.com) to get an idea of skills that I teach.