Archita Fritz

Assurance Services International

Member of The Supervisory Board

hubble

You can book a 1:1 with me here:
 https://www.hubble.social/architafritz

Advice on everything:
✔️ Build Commercial Engines
✔️ Product Marketing
✔️ Scale Founder-Led Growth
✔️ Position for Multiples
✔️ Workforce Planning & Leadership
✔️ Building a Boardroom Career
✔️ Career Transitions

Advisor

Ready Set Bold

Fractional Executive Partner
—————————————
I embed with mid market PE- and VC-backed portfolio companies for focused, 4- to 11-month sprints, turning strategy into measurable results.

Typical challenges I solve
	•	Mis-aligned Product Vision → Execution
I bridge the gap between roadmap, build, and commercialisation so every feature ships with a revenue story.
	•	Quality Whiplash
I create frameworks that balance urgent customer issues with long-range innovation—no more trade-offs between delight and disruption.
	•	Silo-Driven Slow-Downs
I replace hand-offs with hand-shakes, bringing Product, Sales, Support, and Finance into one transparent cadence.
	•	Ghost GTM Plans
I install a pragmatic, metrics-first GTM engine that prioritises, sequences, and launches for maximum speed-to-money.

⸻

Workplace Culture Strategist
——————————————
Using a data-backed diagnostic rooted in research and lived experience, I help organisations move from awareness to action on:
	•	Psychological safety & “speak-up” culture
	•	Cross-team communication loops
	•	Team health → performance → profit

⸻

By the numbers
	•	25+ product launches
	•	$2.1 B cumulative revenue impact
	•	128+ countries served
	•	20+ years leading global, cross-functional teams

⸻

Selected client roster
BlueMountain · CluePoints · ResMed · Sparking Capital · Adidas · NHS Lincolnshire · Verity HealXR · Spookfish Innovations · Bright Spaces · Vatis Tech · FlaminJoy

⸻

If you need a high-impact operator who can land both product and people wins—fast—let’s talk.

Strategic Growth Catalyst : People and Product (Fractional CMO)

DfX (Deal Flow Xchange) is rethinking how private capital moves.
It’s not a fund or a network — it’s infrastructure.
A transparent, intent-driven platform where founders, investors, and lenders connect directly to get deals done. If you're raising, deploying, or lending capital — this is where you should be.
→ Learn more or request access: www.dealflowxchange.com

Sign up for our newsletter → https://lnkd.in/ebsicefQ
Are you a service provider? Plug into our network → https://lnkd.in/dJQsCCGm

Advisory Board Member

Veblen Director Programme

Chairperson of the 11 member Board of VDP. 

Through the Veblen community we work with Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SME’s) to help place Board members that can move forward innovation, impact and growth. Additionally support aspiring Board members in building and landing Board Roles.

Chairperson of the Board

Rose Equity Partners

Non Executive Director

BetterLogiq

Board Member

Brydge Club

Brdyge Club is a private angel investing network for women who want to write checks, build wealth, and shape the future of innovation.

We’re reimagining what access looks like — not just for founders, but for female investors ready to move from the sidelines to the cap table.

If you’re an accredited woman looking to invest in early-stage companies with purpose and upside, apply to join the club. → https://brydgeclub.com/

Founding Member

Institute of Directors (IoD)

Member

Open-Intro

I am available for 1:1 direct meetings on Open-Intro. Book me at: https://open-intro.com/expert/archita-fritz

Expert on Open-Intro

Fractional Product Marketing Leader | I help operationalize product roadmaps for commercial success | Strategic Board Advisor | Workplace Culture

I’m a Fractional CMO for PE-backed, mid-market companies and founder-led teams in the middle of growth, pressure, and transition.

→ I identify the gaps: people, product, and process
→ I build the commercialization system they forgot to build
→ I help teams launch, enable sales, and scale—fast
→ I create clarity, culture, and structure so the full-time hire can succeed
→ I step out once the system works without me

This is not “marketing.”
This is what makes a business commercial—and scalable.

Where I’ve Done It
→ Took a company from $1.5M to $350M in revenue
→ Launched 25+ products across 80+ markets
→ Opened a $2.1B market opportunity through positioning and system-building
→ Built product marketing functions from scratch for 7 companies and 15 founders
→ Advised founders through post-acquisition transitions and culture realignment
→ Partnered with CROs and CPOs to align product, marketing, and sales enablement

Who I Work With
→ PE-backed CEOs who don’t have time to figure it out alone
→ Founders stuck between what worked and what will scale
→ Boards that need more than “just another hire”—they need traction
→ Teams that need clarity, coordination, and accountability yesterday

Why It Works
Because founder magic burns out without structure.
Because the board doesn’t want more activity—they want results.
Because clarity beats chaos, every time.

I build what should have been built six months ago.
And then I help you hire the person to run it long-term.

If you would like to chat or need advice, you can book a 1:1 with me here: https://www.hubble.social/architafritz

What Others Say
“Archita’s strategic vision opened a $2.1B market for us. Her leadership was crucial to our expansion.”
— Shiva Ralapalli, CEO, Verity HealXR

“She helped us connect the dots and activate our teams. She built our Product Marketing function and aligned commercial with product.”
— Patrick Hughes, CRO, CluePoints

“Archita activated me and the audience to lead better for my team and myself.”
— Katie Reget, VP of Sales, ResMed

“She had high expectations of the team, and I of her—and she exceeded all expectations.”
— Vlad Panait, VC Partner, Sparking Capital

Chief Marketing Officer

We rise by lifting others! Driven by a commitment to build psychologically safe workplaces where people can unapologetically be themselves Archita is resolutely focused to work with partners who want to look beyond metrics to help shape cultures of belonging and cancel out the silent acceptance of bullying and harassment in the workplace.

Archita is the strategy and marketing lead on campaigns, partnerships, products and promotion. If you want to partner with Speak Out on organisational campaigns or partnerships please connect with her.

Grateful to be named one of Product Marketing Alliance’s Top 100 Product Marketers globally, for the second year in a row.

For almost 20 years I did product marketing without knowing it had a name.

In med device we just called it:
“Get the product launched and don’t screw it up.” Or Upstream marketing! 

Only later did I realise there was a whole discipline behind what I was doing in the middle:

- between product and sales
- between the investment thesis and the actual customer
- between the board deck and the front line

Over those ~20 years, I’ve helped bring 45+ products to market across:
	•	medical devices
	•	life sciences
	•	B2B tech & SaaS
	•	manufacturing

While they have been across different industries, I have noticed the same patterns. 

👉🏽 𝑽𝒂𝒍𝒖𝒆 𝒊𝒔 𝒄𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒅 (𝒐𝒓 𝒅𝒆𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒐𝒚𝒆𝒅) 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒔𝒍𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒍𝒂𝒚𝒆𝒓.

When nobody truly owns that layer, you get:
- beautiful products that never hit their number
- sales teams improvising a story that doesn’t match reality 
- leaders wondering why the plan works in Excel, but not in the market

In PE-backed and high-growth companies, product marketing is not “nice-to-have marketing”.

𝐈𝐭’𝐬 𝐚 𝐯𝐚𝐥𝐮𝐞 𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐟𝐮𝐧𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧. 

- pressure-testing the thesis against real customers
- choosing which problems to solve first
- arming GTM teams so revenue doesn’t depend on heroics

That’s the work I care about.

The recognition is just a visible signal of an invisible job a lot of us have been doing for years.

To the team at Product Marketing Alliance – thank you for shining a light on this craft and for putting me on the list again this year. 🙏🏽

Read up about all the other 99 here: https://lnkd.in/d7qWTUBX

And to the CEOs / value creation leaders reading this…

𝘐𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘵 𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘴 𝘴𝘭𝘪𝘥𝘦 𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘨𝘯, 𝘺𝘰𝘶’𝘭𝘭 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘴𝘭𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘴.
𝘐𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘵 𝘢𝘴 𝘷𝘢𝘭𝘶𝘦 𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯, 𝘺𝘰𝘶’𝘭𝘭 𝘨𝘦𝘵… 𝘷𝘢𝘭𝘶𝘦.

PS: Congratulations to the other Product Marketing leaders recognized for this. Honoured to be amongst this cohort. Full list in the comments below.

——

Hi 👋🏾 I’m Archita. I spent 17 years in MedTech and now partner with investor- and private equity–backed CEOs, boards, and commercial leaders to build growth plans their teams can actually execute.

Archita Fritz 

Partner to Private Equity CEOs | GTM & Value Creation | Board Member | 2 x Top 100 Product Marketing Leader

Archita Fritz, Top 100 Global Product marketeer as recognized by Product Marketing Alliance. Archita Fritz Value Creation Partner to Private Equity CxO‘s and PE firms 

Last weekend I went back to Kellogg-WHU Executive MBA to teach the leadership module I sat in 8 years ago.

While it was a new cohort with senior EMBA leaders from multiple countries, industries, and P&Ls.

One thing hasn’t changed as much in these 8 years.

When I asked where they feel the most pressure right now, the top answer wasn’t “strategy” or “performance.”

It was this:

“𝘚𝘵𝘢𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧-𝘢𝘸𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘐’𝘮 𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘦.”

I see the same pattern in my private equity client work too. 

We still don’t really train our current or next generation of leaders to stay self-aware under pressure.

And yet it’s self-aware leaders who quietly build:
	•	better teams
	•	healthier organisations
	•	stronger communities

In the room, we had a lot of healthy debate as the leaders could describe the system ‘issues’ in perfect detail…

promotion rules, politics, cultural norms, short-term targets.

But when the pressure hits, the behaviours they tend to default to, looked familiar:

↳ hovering and micromanaging
↳ snapping
↳ telling instead of listening
↳ those “devil emails at midnight” Mita Mallick  writes about

Often followed by this sentence I hear in almost every geography: 

“In a high-performance culture, you have to be more direct.”
“In my country, this style of leadership doesn’t work.”

𝑪𝒖𝒍𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒙𝒕 𝒂𝒃𝒔𝒐𝒍𝒖𝒕𝒆𝒍𝒚 𝒔𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒆 𝒉𝒐𝒘 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒅.
𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝒅𝒐 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒆𝒙𝒄𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒃𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒖𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓 𝒑𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒔𝒖𝒓𝒆.

This is why I teach leadership as an operating system: within my Leadership OS™: 
Me → We → System → Future.

If Me is ignored:
	•	We don’t feel safe
	•	System changes don’t stick
	•	Future stays a story on slides

“Me” work for a senior leader isn’t a fancy offsite. It’s tiny, in-the-moment reps:

➟ Notice your first reflex under pressure: attack, withdraw, or hover.
➟ Name it: “I’m in micromanager / attack / rescue mode right now.”
➟ Choose one different move: ask a question, delay the midnight email, or take 90 seconds before you walk into the room.

To the EMBA leaders who spent Saturday with me….thank you!

You challenged the ideas. 
You challenged me. 

Many of you didn’t agree with everything we discussed, and you still stayed in the conversation.

That’s where real leadership work begins.

PS: Mita Mallick every student got a code to a copy of your book and thank you for taking time to record with us before!  To more aware leaders.

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In my house, there were only two correct answers to:
“What do you want to be when you grow up?”

Doctor
Engineer

But in the breaks at school, over steel tiffins from 5th grade onwards, I’d lean in and quietly tell my friends:

“I want to be a DJ.”

It was 90’s India. MTV VJs and radio DJs were everything, loud, free, fully themselves.

If my mum had known I was harbouring that dream, it would’ve been squashed instantly.

So I did what a lot of us do:

I kept the ‘wrong dream’ off fhe record. 
Got the grades, followed the path, got a scholarship, moved countries, started working on that engineering degree and collected responsibilities.

And then while at Michigan Tech in  Houghton, Michigan someone says, “There’s a student radio station here… 91.9 FM.”

Bam.

That hidden dream finally found a doorway.
A few months later, “Chai with Archita on WMTU 91.9FM” was on air, the only world music show in the entire Upper Peninsula.

It wasn’t a grand career move.
It was one small, very real way to let 10-year-old me exist in my actual life.

We quieten and defer a lot of these dreams.
We don’t just do this with childhood dreams.

We do it with adult ones too:
“I’ll start when work calms down.”
“When the kids are older.”
“Once this promotion is sorted.”

Here’s your Sunday nudge:

This isn’t just about childhood dreams.
It’s also the adult ones you quietly downgraded to “later” or “maybe when things calm down”.

👉🏽 What’s the thing you keep labelling “maybe one day”…and what’s the smallest real way you could let it live in 2026?

👇🏽In the comments, I’ve linked my latest newsletter, “Before 2026 Finds You on the Same Treadmill” , it’s a short read and a simple way to stop postponing the thing you already know you want (including a 90-minute option if you want support).

PS: I found this old student planner with a picture from my DJ days on a family trip back to Michigan last summer…wild what we forget we’ve already been brave enough to do.

Partner to Private Equity CEOs | GTM & Value Creation | Board Member | Top 100 PMA Product Marketing Leader

Archita Fritz advisor to Private Equity CEO’s also helping corporate individuals activate their childhood and adult tiny dreams they keep deffering to ‘some day’ 

The worst career advice that stuck in my head in my 20s was this line:

“Be brief. Be brilliant. Be gone.”

I heard it before my first big sales meeting in Scottsdale, Arizona.

I was a quality engineer in MedTech, one of the only non-sales people in a huge room full of suits. That line was meant as presentation advice, but my brain took it everywhere.

Every time I bumped into someone senior, my internal script was:

You’ve got 20 seconds.
Don’t waste their time.
Say something smart.
Exit.

I wasn’t silent.
I laughed at the right moments, made safe comments about the weather, asked where people had flown in from.

But inside I was thinking,

“I don’t know these people. I don’t know the politics. I don’t know what they actually care about. How the hell am I supposed to be ‘brilliant’ in small talk?”

It made every hallway chat feel like a tiny performance review.

Fast forward a lot of years.

Now I get short windows with private equity operating partners and CEOs in a completely new world to me. 

The time is still limited. 
Their calendars are still packed.

But I use that old line differently now.

➟ In formal updates: 
“Be brief” still holds. 
Know your point, land the point and stop talking.

➟ In human moments: 
I drop “be brilliant” completely.

𝑰 𝒅𝒐𝒏’𝒕 𝒕𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒕 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒂𝒏 𝒂𝒖𝒅𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏.

I focus on two things only:
	1.	Know why I’m in the room.
	2.	Be a normal human about it.

That’s it.

“Be brief, be brilliant, be gone” is great for slides and steering committees.

As a personality setting, it quietly convinces you you’re not worth anyone’s time unless you perform for it first.

I know I’m not the only one who had to unlearn that.

PS: Yes, that’s me in the ‘suit’, in that same room just many years later. I still believe in “be brief” for updates. I just refuse to make people feel like every hello has to be “brilliant” to count.

——

Hi 👋🏾 I’m Archita. I spent 17 years in MedTech and now partner with investor- and private equity–backed CEOs, boards, and commercial leaders to build growth plans their teams can actually execute.

Archita Fritz, Private Equity Advisor to CEO’s and Operating Partners “You don’t owe brilliant on demand. You already earned your seat.” 

I hit every work and life goal I set as an 19-year-old… and then I “manifested” a toxic boss. :) 

When I was 19, I sat down with a pen and paper and wrote my 20s out like a checklist.

By 21, I wanted a dream job, a sponsored visa, to graduate debt-free and buy my dream car.
By 24, be engaged.
By 25, marry a kind, steady man I could build a life with.
By 27, live in a new country and do something meaningful there.
By 30, become a director and have my first child.
By 32, have my second kid. 

And in many ways, it worked.

Career, visa, marriage, kids, international move, director title, the list filled up with neat little ticks. I even added a third little human who never appeared on the original checklist and is one of the best plot twists of my life.

I’m very aware there’s a lot of privilege in that paragraph, education, opportunity, support, luck. A lot of people work just as hard and don’t get the same outcomes. That’s exactly why it took me a while to admit: something still felt off.

If I look back now, my late teens were performance as survival.
My 20s were listen. learn. lead. Watch closely, take notes, then step up.
My early 30s were operate. expand. prove. Bigger scope, M&A, more responsibility, more “you’ve made it” from the outside.

𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘤𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘰𝘴𝘴 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘥𝘦𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘸𝘢𝘴𝘯’𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘧𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘫𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘢𝘭. 

Not a cartoon villain, but the kind of leader who can turn every win into a question mark. Praising you in one breath and poking holes in the next, until you start to doubt your own judgement. Even when the results are right in front of you.

I would never have called that time a gift back then. Now I can see it cracked the checklist wide open. 

👉🏽 It forced me to finally ask different questions:

What do I actually want my days to feel like?

If no one was clapping, would I still choose this work, this pace, this version of “success”?

Where am I performing a role instead of living my own story?

That’s when my late 30s quietly shifted into a new chapter: ask. unlearn. choose.

𝑨𝒔𝒌 better questions.
𝑼𝒏𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒏 the scripts that were never really mine. 
𝑪𝒉𝒐𝒐𝒔𝒆 a life I can actually recognize myself in. 

So if you pressed pause on everyone else’s expectations for a moment, family, culture, your 18-year-old self….

👉🏽 what would your version of success look like right now?

Archita Fritz keynoting at Impact Players in Belfast Ireland

Some of the worst value destruction I’ve seen didn’t come from a bad strategy. It came from a decent plan no one felt allowed to question.

This photo is from my first “proper” photoshoot in Los Angeles.

It looks calm and glossy.

What you don’t see is everything wrapped around it:
      •	12 weeks postpartum
	•	a big product launch in Barcelona
	•	a main-stage talk in Los Angeles 
	•	24 hours later next launch in Seattle
      •	48 hours later back to Dussledorf 
	•	flights, decks, rehearsal, inbox, repeat 

On the outside, it looked like momentum.
On the inside, the script was pretty simple:

Don’t slow down.
Don’t drop anything.
Don’t question the plan.

And that’s what so many companies feel like right now.

On paper, everything looks great.

Inside the business, people are sprinting from one “critical” thing to the next with almost no space to say:

“With what we know now, this plan needs to change.”

That’s what I talked about with Dane 🦘 Groeneveld on the The Future of Teamwork  podcast. 

In the episode, we get into:

1️⃣ Why “we’re on a PE clock” is not a leadership strategy
2️⃣ How noise around GTM, value creation and “transformation” confuses CEOs who actually want to do the right thing
3️⃣ What healthier high-performance can look like when you lead with clarity, ownership and space to challenge the plan

🎧 Episode with Dane Groeneveld, here or anywhere you get your podcasts.

https://lnkd.in/gwpeyWPp

P.S. This was a really fun photoshoot with my fellow high-performance queen and co-host of the Embracing "Only" Podcast  podcast circa 2020. 

——

Hi 👋🏾 I’m Archita. I spent 17 years in MedTech and now partner with investor- and private equity–backed CEOs, boards, and commercial leaders to build growth plans their teams can actually execute.

Archita Fritz at a photo shoot before getting on stage at Podcast Evolutions. Private Equity commercial and leadership advisor 

If the idea of slowing down today makes you feel a bit guilty, this is for you.

𝑴𝒐𝒔𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒖𝒔 𝒅𝒐𝒏’𝒕 𝒇𝒆𝒂𝒓 𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒅 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒌.
𝑾𝒆 𝒇𝒆𝒂𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒂𝒖𝒔𝒆.

That little voice that says:
“If I slow down, I’ll lose momentum.”
“Everyone else is sprinting to year-end. I can’t ease up now.”

I know that voice well.

But life isn’t one straight line up.
There are stretches where you push, and stretches where you flatline a bit so you can climb again.

Today is Thanksgiving for my friends in the U.S.(and for those of us celebrating over here too).

We are having a small Friendsgiving tonight, and I have decided my pause is today and tomorrow.

Then the year-end sprint picks up again.

If you’re reading this while you’re:
↳ prepping food
↳ cleaning the house
↳ answering “what time should we come?” for the fifth time
↳ or just trying to get through a regular Thursday

You still get to claim a small pause:
➟ ten quiet minutes in the car before you go back in
➟ one meal where your phone stays in another room
➟ a short walk with no podcast, no call, just your own thoughts

I hope you claim one small, imperfect, very human pause in the middle of it all.

Not because you “earned it”, but because rest is part of how you do your best work and how you show up for the people you love.

If you needed permission, this is it.

PS: I got to pause with the lovely humans in this photo below about a month ago and we took the whole weekend. Truly grateful for these ladies, and the ones not in this picture too. 🧡

----
Hi, I’m Archita. I work with Private Equity (PE)-backed CEOs and value creation teams to fix what’s slowing growth, usually misalignment, messy messaging, or GTM systems that don’t scale.

I also serve on several boards, where I support founder-led and investor-backed companies navigating growth, governance, and strategic clarity.

👉🏽 Book a 1:1 via my featured section. (Serious enquiries only — otherwise, start with the Hubble link.)

A lot of brilliant people I work with...VP, Director, C-suite and other leaders, are quietly asking the same question right now:

“What if I don’t want 2026 to look like 2025… or 2024… or the three years before that?”

Not because you want to quit.
Not because everything is awful.

But 𝒃𝒆𝒄𝒂𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖'𝒗𝒆 𝒐𝒖𝒕𝒈𝒓𝒐𝒘𝒏 𝒂 𝒕𝒊𝒕𝒍𝒆, 𝒂 𝒍𝒂𝒏𝒆, 𝒂 𝒔𝒄𝒓𝒊𝒑𝒕.

Before I ever left corporate, I sat with that same feeling.

For almost three years while I was still in my global / EMEA roles, I quietly started building optionality for myself, testing different ways of working, building my own IP, saying yes to advisory and board-style work, and learning how to talk about what I do beyond a job title.

That’s the work that turned into what I have now...

PE-backed CEO work, 
a portfolio of board roles, 
advisory, speaking, 
and The Embracing "Only" Podcast with Olivia Grant-Cream.

And that’s why we created Embracing “Only” in the first place, to give people the space to talk honestly about what comes after you’ve succeeded at everything everyone told you to do.

And today, for the first time ever, I am sharing a low-touch, high-impact end-of-year invitation with our 3K newsletter subscribers:

👉🏾 A subsidised 90-minute 1:1 Activation Session
👉🏾 Specifically for those exploring a portfolio career
👉🏾 Or for those exploring a Board career
👉🏾 5 spots only
👉🏾 10% donated to Olivia’s GoFundMe 
(Read more about Hurricane Melissa efforts in the comments below)

And if it’s not the season for paid support, we included a few free episodes to guide your next step.

If 2026 needs to feel different for you…start here.

PS: If you had to pick one word for what you want more of in your work life in 2026, what would it be? 

----
Hi, I’m Archita. I work with Private Equity (PE)-backed CEOs and value creation teams to fix what’s slowing growth, usually misalignment, messy messaging, or GTM systems that don’t scale.

I also serve on several boards, where I support founder-led and investor-backed companies navigating growth, governance, and strategic clarity.

👉🏽 Book a 1:1 via my featured section. (Serious enquiries only — otherwise, start with the Hubble link.)

Most people reading this are not trying to blow up their lives. You’re in full-time, high-pressure leadership roles. You’re running teams, carrying nu

Open article: Before 2026 Finds You on the Same Treadmill: A Small Invitation for the “Onlys” by Archita Fritz • 4 min read

Before 2026 Finds You on the Same Treadmill: A Small Invitation for the “Onlys”

Seventeen years in MedTech left me with one permanent side effect…

I can’t look at a growth story without picturing the humans who have to carry it.

Once you’ve watched an ICU team on a bad day, you stop believing pretty plans.

Back then I worked on devices that lived in acute care settings of hospitals, if we were pitching a new product idea or a big launch, it was never enough that the slide looked smart.

Someone would always ask:
“Okay, what does this look like on a bad shift?”

Every “big bet” had two parts:
- the upside case
- and a ruthless pass on what had to go right in real life, with tired people

We didn’t just ask, “Is the market there?”

We asked things like:
↳ Who has to change their behaviour on a bad day, not a good one?

↳ How many steps are we adding to their shift?

↳ Where does this break first when the ward is short-staffed and everyone is on hour eleven?

If that part didn’t hold up, the launch didn’t move.

Not because we were nice, but because ignoring it was the fastest way to get shut down.

In Private Equity (PE) backed high growth companies, I see the reverse.

Weeks of work on TAM, pricing, scenarios and upside. Then “execution risk” gets one slide and a hand wave at best.

You’re doing serious work on the market side of the thesis and almost no serious work on whether the organisation can actually absorb the plan you’re buying.

That’s not a minor gap.

𝑻𝒉𝒂𝒕’𝒔 𝒎𝒊𝒔𝒑𝒓𝒊𝒄𝒆𝒅 𝒆𝒙𝒆𝒄𝒖𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒓𝒊𝒔𝒌.

Alix Partners data shows 56% of PE-backed CEOs are replaced within two years, usually for 

➟ ‘failure to execute the thesis’, not because the market disappeared.

Because of MedTech, I’m wired to stress-test a plan, not just get excited about it.

Now, when I look at your “growth story”, that’s the part my brain refuses to skip.

If your story only lives in the spreadsheet and not in the calendar and nervous system of the people who have to execute it, it’s not a strategy.

It’s a wish.

PS: My dad beaming while on his “daughters” stretcher, after finding himself on it after a fall a few years ago. Almost a decade later still so proud I helped launch The Stryker PrimeX into this world! 

——

Hi 👋🏾 I’m Archita. I spent 17 years in MedTech and now partner with investor- and private equity–backed CEOs, boards, and commercial leaders to build growth plans their teams can actually execute.

How MedTech Marketing helps stress test Private Equity backed high growth companies! 

I sat through 103 B2B SaaS product demos this year.
Not one of them made it easy for me to just experience the product.

No login-free walkthrough.
No short, honest flow I could click through on my own.

Best case, I got:
 – a “Book a demo” wall
 – a discovery call
 – 15–20 minutes of slides
 – then a partial screen share of a half-broken sandbox

And then the call ended and I realised I was still guessing:
 “What does this actually change for my client/their customer next quarter?”

I see this as someone buying tools, building AI SDR stacks, and working with PE-backed leadership teams:

𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒃𝒂𝒓 𝒇𝒐𝒓 “𝒍𝒆𝒕 𝒎𝒆 𝒔𝒆𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒅𝒖𝒄𝒕” 𝒊𝒔 𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒆𝒎𝒃𝒂𝒓𝒓𝒂𝒔𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒍𝒚 𝒍𝒐𝒘.

The closest I’ve seen are things like demo hubs (e.g. Klue’s demo arena, something by Rob Hoffman).

 But even those stop just short of:
“Here. Click through this one real workflow like it’s your own.”

If I were running GTM for a SaaS company in 2026, 

I’d start with one question:

👉🏾 How easy is it for a serious buyer to actually experience what we do, without jumping through hoops?

My answer would need to look like this:
 – One ungated, 60–90 second interactive walkthrough from the website
 – One real workflow, end-to-end, that looks like a real day in the life
 – Clear language: “You’re [role]. Here’s the moment you’re in.”
 – A concrete outcome: “This is what changes for you next quarter.”
 – A link I can replay and share internally without booking another call

And honestly it isn't about being clever, it's about respecting buyers’ time and brains.

This is where interactive demo platforms like Guideflow actually make sense to me:

not as “prettier sales decks”, but as a way to finally ship:
 – one link
 – one clear walkthrough
 – one shared product story for buyers, teams, and investors

I wish I could tell you I saw five perfect examples of this in 2025.
I didn’t.

Which means: whoever builds it properly in 2026 will stand out fast.

And yes I made my own version of Wrapped for Product Demos to bring this home! :)

👋🏾  If you’ve seen a truly ungated, “just let me in” product walkthrough this year, drop it below. I’m genuinely curious, and I’d love to be wrong.

#GuideFlowPartner #sponsored

PS: You can check out and complete a real product walk through on the GuideFlow website at: https://lnkd.in/ez6Fc6b6

——

Hi 👋🏾 I’m Archita. I spent 17 years in MedTech and now partner with investor- and private equity–backed CEOs, boards, and commercial leaders to build growth plans their teams can actually execute.

"Book a Demo" Button Wrapped across multiple B2B SaaS

In private equity, this line is a red flag:
“We can’t prove marketing’s impact on revenue.”

If nothing in marketing can be tied to 

pipeline, 
win rate, 
deal size, 
or sales cycle,

you don’t just have a marketing problem
you have a value-creation problem.

Not everything needs perfect attribution.

But something needs a clear chain:
product marketing → sharper story → better opportunities → better economics.

And before anyone jumps in with
“but brand / comms / PMM is hard to attribute”
I agree, not everything gets a perfect CAC number.

But every marketing function should have a clear, testable path to:
better pipeline
better win rates
better economics

That’s the bar I hold in my PE work, and it’s why I loved Product Marketing Alliance’s “How to Prove Product Marketing ROI” so much.

The article is a sharp breakdown on proving product marketing ROI, and I turned the core ideas into a short carousel you can save, share, and forward the next time someone says “how do we prove product marketing drives ROI.”

This is the work I do with PE-backed companies, turning “marketing is a cost centre” into a testable revenue engine.

👉🏾  Original article linked in the comments.

PS: Where do you draw the line between “we can’t measure this” and “we just haven’t been forced to?”

----
Hi, I’m Archita. I work with Private Equity (PE)-backed CEOs and value creation teams to fix what’s slowing growth, usually misalignment, messy messaging, or GTM systems that don’t scale.

I also serve on several boards, where I support founder-led and investor-backed companies navigating growth, governance, and strategic clarity.

👉🏽 Book a 1:1 via my featured section. (Serious enquiries only — otherwise, start with the Hubble link.)

How to Prove Product Marketing ROI

You keep hiring “change agents”…
and then designing their jobs so they can’t change anything.

New CEO.
New CRO.
New Head of GTM or Chief of Staff.

And then the same soundtrack in most Private Equity backed portcos when I step in: 
“Marketing isn’t working.”
“Sales isn’t executing.”
“We need more leads.”
“We’ve outgrown our GTM.”

That’s what this grid is about:
7 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘴𝘢𝘺 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘎𝘛𝘔 𝘪𝘴 𝘧𝘢𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘴𝘵 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘵 𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘴 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘎𝘛𝘔 𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘺.

Because underneath the language, you usually find:
Not a skills problem, but an 𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘯𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 problem
Not a sales problem, but a 𝘴𝘺𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘮 problem
Not a people problem, but an 𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘤𝘢𝘱𝘢𝘤𝘪𝘵𝘺 problem 
(this org is simply done pretending to transform)

And then the “change agent” becomes the easiest person to blame.

For me, the real multiple in PE looks more like:

(𝑯𝒐𝒘 𝒉𝒐𝒏𝒆𝒔𝒕 𝒘𝒆’𝒓𝒆 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒆) × (𝑯𝒐𝒘 𝒎𝒖𝒄𝒉 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒐𝒓𝒈 𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝒆𝒎𝒐𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝒂𝒃𝒔𝒐𝒓𝒃)

If either piece is close to zero…
zero honesty × anything = still zero
any amount of honesty × zero emotional capacity = still zero

The lower of those two sets your real ceiling. Your model won’t go further than your honesty or your team’s emotional bandwidth.

PS: If you’re in PE or leading a portco or growth focused company...Which box in this grid do you hear the most right now and where do you disagree with this framing? I’m especially curious where you think it is a people problem, not a system one.

----
Hi, I’m Archita. I work with Private Equity (PE)-backed CEOs and value creation teams to fix what’s slowing growth, usually misalignment, messy messaging, or GTM systems that don’t scale.

I also serve on several boards, where I support founder-led and investor-backed companies navigating growth, governance, and strategic clarity.

👉🏽 Book a 1:1 via my featured section. (Serious enquiries only — otherwise, start with the Hubble link.)

What leaders say when Go-to-Market is Failing in Private Equity and Beyond


Most leaders I know are caught between three browser tabs:


1️⃣ Targets that went up
2️⃣ Headcount that went down
3️⃣ LinkedIn telling them AI + “efficient growth” will somehow square the circle

So I pulled the tools I use to answer these questions,  into a FREE Growth Toolbox you can grab below. 👇🏾

25+ of the most used assets I developed based on the work I do with companies. 

If you sit anywhere near private equity, that contrast is just louder.

You’re not short on ideas.

You’re short on clarity about:
↳Where the next €5–10M realistically comes from
↳Which customers you should actually fight for
↳Where AI genuinely creates leverage (vs. theatre)
↳How to push harder without frying your best people

That’s the work I do with portcos across EQT, Accel-KKR, Cinven, Nordic Capital and others.

Whenever something actually worked, we turned it into a reusable tool.

𝘐’𝘷𝘦 𝘣𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘭𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘶𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰𝘰𝘭𝘴 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘦:
👉🏾 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑷𝒓𝒊𝒗𝒂𝒕𝒆 𝑬𝒒𝒖𝒊𝒕𝒚 𝑮𝒓𝒐𝒘𝒕𝒉 𝑻𝒐𝒐𝒍𝒃𝒐𝒙

 25+ practical assets, including:
➟ “Quality of growth” scorecards
➟ GTM & ICP clarity frameworks
➟ Europe & market expansion checks
➟ AI focus maps (using the stack you already have)
➟ Product marketing & commercialization templates
➟ Leadership & anti-fragility prompts

It’s built with private equity portfolios in mind…but if you own a number, run a team, or live between “big targets” and real life, there’s probably something in there that will help you think and act more clearly this quarter.

If that sounds useful, just grab it.
👉🏾 The link to the toolbox is here: https://lnkd.in/eCunKCjU

No “comment GROWTH” ritual. 🙃 
Just the tools, in one place, so you can get back to making real decisions.

PS: If there’s a specific best practice, learning, or toolset you’d love to see next, around value creation, GTM, product marketing, or leadership, drop it in the comments. I’ll use that to decide what to build and share next.
----
Hi, I’m Archita. I work with Private Equity (PE)-backed CEOs and value creation teams to fix what’s slowing growth, usually misalignment, messy messaging, or GTM systems that don’t scale.

I also serve on several boards, where I support founder-led and investor-backed companies navigating growth, governance, and strategic clarity.

👉🏽 Book a 1:1 via my featured section. (Serious enquiries only — otherwise, start with the Hubble link.)

At DFX, we’re building the world’s premier platform for private capital—where capital meets opportunity without friction. Our global community of dealmakers, founders, investors, and lenders is reimagining how the private markets operate: faster, more direct, and radically transparent.

We believe the future of private capital isn’t gated—it’s connected.
No transaction fees. No gatekeepers. Just verified opportunities, real-time engagement, and unprecedented access for those who drive value.

This isn’t just about deals—it’s about unleashing innovation, funding bold ideas, and closing the capital access gap around the world. As we scale rapidly, DFX is becoming the infrastructure layer for the next generation of capital formation—and we’re just getting started.

If you’re building, funding, or advising—the future is here. Join us.

Co-Founder, COO

Hustle Fund

Angel Investor

Gaingels

Growth Haus

Technology Infrastructure for B2B Relationship Development

Growth Haus is a platform embedded within DFX's outreach strategy and strategic relationship-building across private equity, venture capital, and alternative finance. For B2B companies, capital allocators, fund managers, and growth-stage founders, Growth Haus powers targeted outreach campaigns, automates high-value relationship workflows, and delivers data-backed performance optimization.

Founder

Contrarian Thinking

Unconventional Acquisitions

US Capital

Deal Flow 

CAKE CAPITAL

Controlled Capital

Director of Peformance Marketing

Activate U 

Wellness Retreat & eCommerce Company (Exited)
Founded and scaled a retreat and direct-to-consumer health and fitness brand focused on empowering women to lead healthier lives. Successfully navigated market volatility during the COVID-19 pandemic by launching an innovative at-home fitness and eCommerce model that captured significant market share. Led the full lifecycle of the business, including positioning for acquisition and negotiating a successful exit.

Founder (Exited)

With a strong foundation in operations and strategy, Ella is reshaping the private capital landscape by streamlining how founders, investors, lenders, and business acquirers connect. As COO and Co-Founder of DFX, she is building a trusted, technology-enabled ecosystem that modernizes the deal flow process for the lower to middle market. 

Originally from Australia, Ella led a successful exit from her first company before transitioning into the U.S. private markets. Her cross-sector experience—from entrepreneurship to capital markets—has positioned her as a driving force behind DFX and its scalable, relationship-driven infrastructure that eliminates inefficiencies in capital formation.

At DFX, Ella is focused on empowering capital providers, intermediaries, and founders by enabling collaboration, transparency, and speed in an industry historically limited by access and gatekeeping.

In addition to her leadership at DFX, Ella is the host of Fearless Impact, a podcast spotlighting conversations with fund managers, deal professionals, and innovators who are shaping the future of finance.

Finance is the world’s oldest industry—we’re building the infrastructure to define its future.

Ella Molony Cook

The energy didn’t sit still.

It moved through the room, pulling people into something bigger than their own corner of the table.

You could see it instantly: people flowed naturally into new conversations and the entire space lit up.

A huge part of that momentum came from the people shaping the night.

Co-hosting with Pete Feinman brought a level of precision you could feel.

He’s building 𝗦𝗻𝗼𝘄𝗯𝗮𝗹𝗹, a tool that makes in-person networking effortless by giving people what they actually need in real rooms.

People moved through the room faster, connected faster, and kept the momentum alive without losing the thread of who they met or what was discussed.

This is what we mean when we talk about the right rooms.
Spaces where alignment happens without effort.

People came in from everywhere.

Off planes, out of meetings, from around the block

and still, the room immediately felt aligned, energized, and connected.

It’s the same foundation we approach 𝗜𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗿 𝗖𝗶𝗿𝗰𝗹𝗲 with:

Rooms where you feel a shift the moment you walk in and rooms that are full of conversations that actually move you forward.

But the intention stays identical:

Create rooms people want to be in.
As always, grateful for my poker coach Jamie Gold!!!

Thank you to everyone who joined us Issa K., Lachlan Dent, Phillip Lomax, Aaron Price, Isa Alvarez, CFE, CAMS, Brandon Blum, Jody R. Weiss, Shutong Zhang, Max Rivera, Marty Ringlein, Max Kolysh, Tash S., Gledis Vogli, Michelle Del Valle, Marie Fedotov, Tony Chen, Ben Frank, Eric Aaronson, & Maggie Rose Macar

I'm grateful we could step out of our individual worlds for a moment
and still walk away with something that strengthens the ones we’re building.

#UpperEchelon #PrivateCapital #VentureCommunity

3x Founder. 1x exit back in Australia. Co-founder & COO at Upper Echelon. Longevity. Podcaster. M&A Curious. Ensuring trust remains possible as the world accelerates

HQ relocation enroute Miami 🤣 Upper Echelon  

Looking forward to a jam packed week of inner circle member meetings & events! Here is a list of everything that is happening during Art Basel this week: https://2025artbasel.com

Alexis Morgan Jesse Witkowski Jody R. Weiss Katrin Kaurov Katalin Gallyas Rummana Dada

𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗽𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝘆𝗲𝗮𝗿 𝘁𝗼𝗹𝗱 𝘂𝘀 𝘀𝗼𝗺𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱𝗻’𝘁 𝗯𝗲 𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗽𝗿𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴, 𝗯𝘂𝘁 𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗶𝘀: 𝗪𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗻 𝗳𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗼𝘂𝘁𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀, 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝗰𝗮𝗽𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗹 𝗱𝗼𝗲𝘀𝗻’𝘁 𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗰𝗵 𝘂𝗽 𝘁𝗼 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆.

In 2025, we saw it yet again: women-led startups delivered on average 63% higher returns. Yet they continue to secure just a fraction of available venture funding.

The gap isn’t about capability; it’s about recognition and that’s something we need to change.

This was front and center for me at BitBasel with Scott Spiegel and Jonathan Barry with FutureHouse.ai - Global Leaders Shaping the Future, where I had the privilege of meeting extraordinary women reshaping what leadership looks like in private markets. 

Women Funding the World led an incredible discussion and spoke alongside Rummana Dada, founder of Vitality Capital & Jesse Witkowski about the importance of standing up to move 2.3% of women getting funding to 10% by 2030.

And let’s not forget to celebrate the incredible women who were there. Jody R. Weiss, Alicia Long, Cassandra Wesselman, Joyce Chow, H.E. Ambassador Dame Didi Wong, Paola Origel, Lissete Hermida M. Sc., Elaine Yu Alexis Morgan

Every single one of them is reshaping what success looks like in her own way.

Among them was Sonia Moskowitz Gordon, showcasing her photographs, a champion of female artists worldwide and a testament to the brilliance that’s already here.


Imagine a private capital world where women’s success stories aren’t unusual, they’re just part of the everyday landscape. 

That’s the kind of environment we are all working toward. 

One where seeing women lead and thrive isn’t out of the ordinary, it’s what we all expect.

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The Battle

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