all things product | STRATEGY | GROWTH | RESEARCH | DESIGN

I am currently taking a break from full-time tech work, after four years of growing a small startup and getting it acquired. But I can't quite resist an interesting product/growth problem, so reach out if you you'd like to work together.

Most recently, I was Head of Product & Growth at Going Merry, an education finance company that helps students pay for college, via scholarships and financial aid. As of my final day, our products were used by over 2 million people, including 20% of all American high school seniors, and 50% of all high school counselors. I joined the company when we were 7 people, so I was responsible for the full gamut of product, including UX research, design, sprint management, copywriting, marketing, and growth experimentation.

Prior to that, I built and led the Growth Team at Zoona, a mobile money startup backed by leading social VCs like Acción and Omidyar. I also product managed the launch of Zoona's award-winning savings account product.

However, since December 2023, I've taken a pause from full-time work to focus on other things. Even so, I've found myself excited by the AI revolution and found myself cofounding a side project, Let's Talk AI Tools.

📄 Full CV | 🔗 Linkedin Profile

Or see below for a run-down of my work/study experience.

Education

University of Oxford: Blavatnik School of Government - Master of Public Policy, with distinction (highest honors) - 2015

Stanford University - B.A., International Relations - 2010

And short courses in: Data analysis, Behavior change, Copywriting, Digital marketing, and Digital financial services.

Global citizen

I've lived & worked in 10 countries across 5 continents: USA, Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Argentina, UK, Spain, India, Sri Lanka, and South Africa. I am a US citizen and a South African permanent resident.

I speak 3 languages: English (native), Spanish (advanced/proficient), and Cantonese (native/elementary)

Work experience

I have worked in both the public and private sector, spanning roles in data, research, business development, marketing, and product management.

My accomplishments include:

Leading all due diligence and business forecasting/modeling for startups — helping Going Merry to be acquired in 2021, and Prodigy Finance to land a $100m+ Series A in 2015.
Designing and launching the "FAFSA® Made Easier," through which students have received over $600 million in financial aid.
Growing the Going Merry user base from 200k (when I joined) to over 2 million (when I left), covering over 20% of all high school seniors and 50% of all high school counselors in the United States.
Bringing a savings product from conception to market in Zambia, and taking it to c 150,000 customers, for Zoona
Landing a $25m annually recurring impact investment deal with Credit Suisse, for Prodigy Finance
Product managing the launch of a new revenue stream for Gimlet Media, a podcast network soon after acquired by Spotify
Building a data-driven marketing & communications team, from the ground up
Publishing articles on climate change in peer-reviewed academic journals
Delivering a keynote address at a scientific conference in Colombia, on behalf of CGIAR-CCAFS

Skills and toolset

Product management (agile): Jira (but also have experience in Pivotal Tracker, Asana, and Trello)
Product design: Figma, Balsamiq, Miro
Research: Pitch tests, focus groups, personas, ideation, rapid prototyping, PSMs
Financial modeling / structuring: Excel
Data analysis / visualization: Alteryx / SPSS, SQL, QlikView, Superset
Analytics: Google Analytics, Kissmetrics, Firebase, AppSee, Fullstory, Amplitude

Awards

Sep 2023 - Won the "Exceptional Earnie" employee of the year award (given to 10 of 300+ employees at the organization)

June 2017 - Zoona Sunga (the savings product I developed/managed) won the 2017 Bank of Zambia Innovation Award.

June 2015 - I graduated with distinction (highest honors) from Oxford's MPP program.

May 2015 - My team (of 3 people) won the Skoll Center for Social Entrepreneurship's Social Innovation Case Competition.