Elderberry.work helps your vision come to life faster, achieving higher valuation with less dilution when you raise funds. Because Elderberry.work cost-effectively and efficiently solves the talent constraints that startups and SMBs face.
We also provide wraparound support, so we help remove the fear factor we all face as founders.
Our plaform matches age 45+ proven business experience with startups and SMBs to inject knowledge to complement your employees through consults, contracts, fractional, freelance. All functions, seniorities, industries. From a couple of feedback/brainstorming meetings to longer term fractional work. There’s an extensive set of use cases and massive benefits.
Our unique, untapped talent pipeline plus our on-demand, self-serve access to it makes it quick to shortlist and to action and results. Our growing pool of experience means we are a one stop shop for you: whatever function you need now and over time as you scale we have the experience you need to get to the next level. Elderberry.work is your competitive advantage, accessing big experience to challenge big companies.
Our Unique Talent Pipeline
Our lean, curated, pre-qualified talent pipeline is efficient to tap into for deeper experience and knowledge, whether for small quick hits or larger more complex solutions. We focus on the proven experience of age 45+ businesspeople and champion the 5 ways they create value for you: beyond subject matter expertise to knowledge/judgment/wisdom, soft skills, multigenerational team productivity, and cost-effectiveness.
There is no correlation between:
(1) age and productivity: in fact the OECD found there’s an age-performance paradox: older people almost always out-perform younger ones. Because they have timeless knowledge, not just timely information. A MIT-Wharton study found that age 50 founders are 2X more successful than age 30 founders. We take that experience, and instead of using it to found businesses, we make it easily available to help younger founders be more successful.
(2) how easy it is to find a consultant and the value they create. Experienced businesspeople may not be social media stars nor have a big online presence. But they’ve got strong experience. We find, connect, and aggregate them to make them easily discoverable by you.
About our Founder & CEO
My vision for Elderberry.work as a pragmatic business solution comes from a deep understanding as a business practitioner. I have hired talent as an executive in large companies, I have started and participated in tech and non-tech startups, and have been a consultant and fractional executive for clients across the value chain, all in Canada and the USA. I have driven 5 trends to the mainstream: WiFi, organic, health, sustainable, agetech.
As VP/General Manager with P&L responsibility, I grew a new division to $100 million in sales, as VP Marketing & Communications I developed products, brands, go-to-market strategies, launches, sales and profit results. As VP Sustainability for a large retailer, I drove sustainability and transparency into global supply chains.
I led marketing for a Northern California WiFi startup 1997-2000, which raised US$60m, won best of show at CES, and Cisco planned to buy us until the dot com implosion. As VP Marketing for Whole Foods Market, Austin TX, I led the creation of a consistent brand identity, sales promotions, community engagement, and public relations – the latter I led to 400 million media impressions in 18 months.
I have a MBA from McGill and an environmental science degree from U of T.
