Strategy & Operations
The operating rhythm you build when there isn't one yet.
What the role actually is
Strategy & Operations, as its own discipline rather than something adjacent to an executive office, is what's needed when there's no existing system to plug into. A new venture, a new entity, a new product portfolio & someone has to design the plan, the budget, the governance and the go-to-market from a blank page.
Four roles, one pattern: build the operating system before anyone else has, because nobody else has yet.
What I do in the role
Zero-to-one venture building. Co-founded Elev8te from day zero; entity structuring, business plan, GTM strategy and operating budget. Built a 12-advisor network across business development, venture funding and fractional resourcing, securing the firm's first client contracts spanning three continents.
Turnarounds & corporate structuring. Co-led the management buyout of BitMEX Academy and relaunched it as XD Academy, running legal, finance and product operations through a $1M seed raise during the post-FTX downturn, on a 2-week cash-review cycle, including designing the entity structure that held both fiat accounts and digital wallets.
New business unit design. Took BitMEX Academy from concept to a live platform in under six months. Operating model, growth strategy, marketing plan and technology roadmap. Negotiating over $1.5M in vendor and partner contracts along the way through RFPs.
Portfolio-level GTM & annual planning. At Tata, I built the GTM strategy, market segmentation and annual operating plan for the Mobility and IoT product portfolio across APAC, EMEA and the Americas, supporting enterprise wins including Jaguar Land Rover, SIA Group and SATS.
What you should expect from me
Structure where there was ambiguity, and a clear view of what's signal and what's noise. I won't produce a framework for its own sake. Every artifact should change a decision.
Where this fits
Founders and operators standing up something new; a business unit, an entity, or a portfolio strategy where the plan and the operating system have to be built at the same time, not sequenced one after the other.
Related Service: See how this works as an engagement » Strategy & Annual Operating Plan