Startup Coaches, Events, and Resources

I help scientists and engineers navigate the lab-to-boardroom transition as startup founders. I work with technically-trained founders in industries ranging from AI to materials to biotech, helping them grow as high-performance executives. I was founding CEO and later CSO of a venture-backed Silicon Valley AI startup (citrine.io). Northwestern PhD, Stanford MBA. Served on the engineering faculty at both Stanford and Northwestern.

I’ve worked across multiple startups, helping founders build products, hire early teams, design systems, and make decisions in the middle of chaos. I’ve taken on fractional executive roles, built AI-enabled workflows, shaped product and go-to-market strategy, and supported teams through the messy but important zero-to-one stages. My background blends strategy, operations, product thinking, and real hands-on execution — which means I can help you work through whatever you’re facing as a founder. My coaching focuses on clarity, momentum, and sustainable decision-making. Whether you’re validating an idea, building an MVP, sharpening your GTM, navigating early hiring, or trying to scale yourself as a leader, I help you break things down, see the blind spots, and move forward with a plan that actually works. You get a mix of strategic thought partnership and practical operator-level support.

I founded TalkMaze, a public speaking and education platform that grew to 20,000 members, 4 million video views, and over 5,000 participants across North America. I raised $150K in funding, delivered 4 TEDx talks, won the national Global Student Entrepreneur Awards, and placed as a national runner-up in a venture capital investment competition. Every one of those outcomes came down to storytelling and pitching. I help early-stage founders take complex or technical products and turn them into clear, compelling pitches. Whether you're preparing for a demo day, a VC meeting, a competition, or an accelerator application, I help you find the version of your story that makes people lean in. I've coached thousands of people through high-stakes moments where the story has to land. If you have a great product but struggle to communicate why it matters, that's exactly where I come in.

As an entrepreneur with a proven record of scaling companies from inception to multimillion-dollar valuations, I have led ventures in robotics, life sciences, and sustainable technologies. My leadership experience spans: Founding two companies with a combined valuation increase of 30x, raising over $25M in financing. Securing 6 successful exits through IPOs and M&A, driving cumulative valuations exceeding $600M. Developing global business strategies, managing cross-border teams, and establishing partnerships with Fortune 500 companies. Holding MBA credentials with honors from Columbia Business School and a Forbes recognition for outstanding entrepreneurship. My clients gain access to: Practical strategies for fundraising, scaling, and market penetration. Expertise in navigating international business landscapes, particularly in AI, robotics, and ESG-driven ventures. Tailored guidance to achieve their unique entrepreneurial goals.

Welcome to my profile! I'm Pedro, a passionate entrepreneur and startup coach with a rich background in both founding and scaling businesses. As the CEO and Co-Founder of Aloi Tech, I bring firsthand experience in navigating the challenges of launching and growing a tech company. My previous roles as a Product Manager at Minu Fintech and an Associate at Advent International have equipped me with a deep understanding of product development and financial strategies in the startup ecosystem. With an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business, I am passionate about helping aspiring entrepreneurs turn their innovative ideas into successful ventures. Let's connect and explore how I can support your startup journey!

I've been mentoring and coaching founders on communicating the value of their venture since 2019. Leveraging storytelling principles, we develop a pitch that showcases their idea and locks in the minds of prospective investors and clients. Once the story is written, I'll help you deliver it with polish and poise.

I help CEOs and operators as they prepare to raise capital by translating investor expectations into clear, practical fundraising guidance. I have 4+ years across Private Equity, Growth Equity, and VC, and most recently served as an investor on Summit Partners’ flagship $10B fund, focused on technology investments. I also spent a year at Griffin Gaming Partners, where I evaluated earlier-stage gaming companies and infrastructure businesses. I graduated from Harvard, where I taught the largest Venture Capital club on campus to 100+ undergraduates. I designed the curriculum myself and mentored students on investing fundamentals, company analysis, and how to think like a VC or growth equity investor. I bring that same investor perspective to helping founders sharpen their pitch, anticipate diligence questions, and communicate their business more effectively.

As a Founder you can outsource almost anything you struggle with - except your mindset. My approach to coaching stems from the belief that the relationship we have with ourselves reverberates across every other part of our lives. To succeed in your startup, therefore, requires conscientious cultivation of healthy, enabling self-partnership. My practice combines Alderian and Applied Positive Psychology with a focus on human flourishing. Some of the primary pain points I address are: negative self talk, limiting beliefs, burn out, lack of self trust, purposelessness, unhealthy communication patterns, uncertainty about next steps, stress management, decision making under duress, and failure to take consistent action to achieve goals. Prior to coaching, I spent 8+ years as a 3x founder in B2B climate fintech, consulting, and fiscal literacy, 14+ years as a workshop facilitator & educator, and 5 years as an international speaker. Since starting Mountain Tops Consulting, I have coached 18 professionals and facilitated 200+ hours of executive masterminds, 60 development workshops, and 5 retreats. I currently lead programming at the Entrepreneur House of San Diego, the mission of which is to maximize founders’ personal and professional growth.

I run two AI companies while finishing my master's at Harvard. Demystifyd, a career platform serving 2,000+ international students across 38 countries. Aware.ai, an AI maternal health platform. Before founding, I shipped product at Apple, NVIDIA, and Tesla. The U.S. government awarded me an EB-2 National Interest Waiver green card for my work in AI and entrepreneurship. I coach a specific kind of founder: international builders who want to start, scale, and stay in the U.S. — without losing their visa, their company, or their runway in the process. Most founder advice assumes you're a U.S. citizen with no clock running. International founders are operating under conditions almost no startup advice accounts for. The visa decisions you make in years 1-3 of your company shape whether you're still building it in year 7. The fundraising decisions you make affect your immigration options in ways most lawyers and most advisors don't connect. The structure of your company, your role inside it, the timing of when you incorporate, who you raise from, when you file what — all of it interacts with your visa pathway. What I help international founders with: - Founder-track immigration strategy: O-1, EB-2 NIW, and the long game beyond H-1B - Company-building decisions that protect your visa runway (incorporation timing, role definition, fundraising structure) - Positioning your venture for credibility — with investors, with USCIS, with universities and accelerators - Navigating the school question: when grad school helps your venture, when it hurts it, when to defer - AI startup positioning specifically: category, go-to-market, narrative for the current funding climate - Deciding what to build, what to kill, and what to delay — through a founder-with-a-clock lens I'm not an immigration attorney. I'm a founder who built and structured my way through this system, and now I help a small number of others do the same. I take very few founder-track clients per cohort because the work is intensive and the stakes are high. If you're an international builder serious about scaling a U.S.-based company and protecting your future here, book a free 30-minute consult.

Most founders don't fail because their idea was bad. They fail because no one around them knew how to build the machine behind it. That's the gap I close. Hey - I'm James. I help founders build operating models, sharpen GTM strategy, and execute like a firm - without the firm price tag. My background is BCG, Accenture, and Goldman Sachs but I coach from the founder side of the table, not the consulting deck. I'll help you: ▪️Build your operating model before you scale and lock in bad habits ▪️Structure your go-to-market, org design, or fundraising narrative with investor-grade rigor ▪️Pressure-test your strategy the way a board or investor would ▪️Turn your vision into a 30/60/90-day roadmap you can actually execute I've been a founder. I know what it feels like when everything is on fire and the deck is due Thursday. Let's build something that holds.