Ritmoo

Ritmoo helps fast-growing companies turn ambition into execution. Through strategic design, leadership workshops, and simple goal execution software, Ritmoo partners with leadership teams to clarify priorities, align on strategy, and build execution habits that stick.

We combine expert-led services with lightweight goal management software built on the NCT framework, which is ideal for teams that want clarity without the bloat of rigid OKRs.

Ritmoo has delivered fractional leadership across growth, marketing, GTM, and technology for companies like CLEVR, Software Improvement Group (SIG), Frends, vaylens, and Bnewable. 

We've also run high-impact programs for scaleups like Skytree, IECharge, Dott, Lightly.ai, ELP Network, Incision, and enterprise teams at ING and Tele2.

Co-Founder

Frends iPaaS

The European iPaaS built for mission-critical automation and loved for its usability. Frends iPaaS connects your systems, automates every business process, and gives you full visibility into your workflows. 

Frends iPaaS is a platform that offers tools to integrate applications in the compliant cloud, hybrid, and on-premises. With Frends, businesses can build integrations, automated processes, and APIs in BPMN 2.0-based Low-Code, which reduces costs in development, documentation, and management. Frends is made for BizDevOp teams and enables team collaboration.

Currently leading the GTM strategy and Marketing organization.

Fractional CMO

Angel investor in Pal, digital palliative home care solutions for families affected by life-limiting illnesses.

Private Investor

StayingBee

StayingBee is a community-driven accommodation sharing platform that connects you with trusted hosts from communities you already belong to, turning every trip into a meaningful experience, not just a booking.

It's almost like Couchsurfing meets Airbnb, but strictly for communities, like AIESEC, unlocking an untapped layer of the $400B+ alternative accommodation market.

In just a few months, the team has:
- Grown to 4,000+ users across 90+ countries.
- Hosted 100+ nights booked and listed 200+ homes.
- Launched pilots with the AIESEC community and generated revenue.
- Signed partnerships with global communities, including AIESEC International.
- Expanded into the startup ecosystem, with SLUSH as an official partner.

I'm part of their Supervisory & Management Board.

Board Member

Stolp

Break with the habit of always on, always connected. Stolp designs solutions and experiences that encourage daily moments to disconnect and spend time on what really matters.

Shilling

Shilling is a leading €30M early-stage VC in Portugal. Shilling invests in a wide range of verticals and seeks out the biggest opportunities across all B2B and consumer categories. Leveraging the concept of Founder LPs, Shilling brings much more than capital and offers through its Shilling Platform, direct access to successful founders and executives of leading companies. 

This platform supports entrepreneurs in validating and developing their ventures, which then accelerate their growth into global markets. I'm one of the Founder LP and investors into the fund.

Founder LP

vaylens

vaylens is an EV charging management software for businesses to manage and monetise their EV chargers. Making it as easy as possible for companies of any size to integrate electric mobility into their long-term success, vaylens is on a mission to make electric driving accessible to all. vaylens is based in Dortmund and is part of the KOSTAL Group.

Led interim marketing (replacing Head of Marketing during maternity leave), supporting brand launches in the UK and France, re-engineering revenue operations, and setting the 2025 marketing strategy.

Software Improvement Group

Software Improvement Group (SIG) leads in traditional and AI software quality assurance. Empowering organizations to become more resilient and agile by guiding them to enhance their software quality and security through deep source code analysis and tailored, strategic advice.  

As interim marketing & GTM lead, helped transition to a product-led business, revamped demand generation, evolved Revenue Operations, and launched the flagship event Scope. This led to a 40% YoY pipeline increase and a 20% growth YoY in closed ARR revenue.

Fractional GTM & Marketing Lead

CLEVR

CLEVR delivers digital transformation at scale by implementing Siemens and Mendix solutions to serve industries like manufacturing, retail, energy, and more. 

During this fractional service, I've designed the positioning strategy, revised GTM market approach built on partner-led growth and led (interim) the GTM and Marketing teams, resulting in a 100% pipeline increase and supporting the transition from loss-making to profit-making business.

Fractional CMO & GTM

IECharge

IECharge® is a high power electric vehicle charging solution developed by NW Group, first french unicorn in the energy transition. Advisory was focused on setting up the first Marketing & GTM foundation from website, communication, and approach to customers.

Advisory

Co-founder & CEO @ Ritmoo | Growth Advisor | Leadership Catalyst | GTM Strategist | Led growth in startups from €1 to 100m

I’ve spent my career helping businesses scale with purpose, transforming ambition into execution, and building teams that don’t just grow, but thrive.

With a track record of taking companies from €1M to €100M+ in revenue and scaling teams from 10 to 700 people, I’ve learned that sustainable growth comes down to clarity, trust, and relentless focus. Most notably at EVBox, where I served as Chief Growth Officer from 2015 to 2022, I helped lead the business from a small industry player into a global category leader — building a scalable go-to-market engine and culture of growth.

Today, I’m the co-founder of Ritmoo, where we combine expert-led leadership & strategy design services with simple, lightweight goal software — built for fast-moving teams that want strategic clarity without the bloat of OKRs. Our work spans scaleups, mid-sized companies, and enterprise teams across growth, marketing, GTM, and leadership transformation.

I also work as a fractional growth operator, partnering with high-growth scaleups to architect their go-to-market, sharpen their narrative, and build resilient, high-performing teams.

And I'm the author of Teams in Hell – How to End Bad Management, my practical playbook for building trust, clarity, and adaptability inside modern teams. You can buy it on Amazon here: https://www.amazon.com/Teams-Hell-How-End-Management/dp/9090401318/

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🚀 Highlights summary
- Co-founder of Ritmoo | Goal software + leadership programs for strategic clarity and execution
- Fractional Growth Operator | Supporting scaleups like SIG, CLEVR, Frends, Dott, vaylens, and more
- Former Chief Growth Officer, EVBox | €5M → €100M+ revenue, 10 → 700 people
- Head of Product Growth, Talentsquare | Built growth strategy through to exit in 2015
- Former Global President, AIESEC | Leading the world’s largest youth-led org
- Angel Investor & LP | Backing early-stage founders via Stolp, Pal, and Shilling VC
- Writer | Teams in Hell (June 2025), exploring how to fix modern leadership from the inside out

🏓 Fun Facts
- Former pro table tennis player, with several championships in Portugal
- Proud dad to two daughter with Duracell-level energy

Hugo Pereira

Your GTM planning will get a boost today!
Most GTM teams are misaligned on the basics. 
Everyone's busy. Nothing's moving forward.
 
That tends to happen because GTM planning is underestimated. And GTM strategy ends up living in slide decks that few actually pay attention to.
 
I've lived this, scaling companies from €1m to €100m, and I learned one thing:
 
𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗱𝗼𝗻'𝘁 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝗮 𝗯𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝘆. 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝗮 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗻 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗺𝘀 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝘂𝘀𝗲.
 
So I built one. 

👉 A free GTM planning template that turns strategy into aligned execution.
 
It's the framework I've been iterating for years. 
Now it's yours.
 
𝗚𝗿𝗮𝗯 𝗶𝘁 𝗶𝗻 𝟮 𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗽𝘀: 
1️⃣ Connect + Like 💚 
2️⃣ Comment "GTMPLAN" and I'll DM you the link.
 
PS: I know asking for comments is the new LinkedIn hustle we sort of tolerate. But if this saves your team from another GTM misalignment, it's worth 3 seconds of your time.

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I'm Hugo Pereira, co-founder of Ritmoo and fractional growth operator. I've led companies from €1M to €100M+ while building purpose-driven, resilient teams.

Follow me for unfiltered takes on growth, leadership, and scaling what matters. My book 𝘛𝘦𝘢𝘮𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘏𝘦𝘭𝘭 – 𝘏𝘰𝘸 𝘵𝘰 𝘌𝘯𝘥 𝘉𝘢𝘥 𝘔𝘢𝘯𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 is out now on Amazon.

Fractional Growth (CMO/CGO) | Author “Teams in Hell – How to End Bad Management” | 1x exited founder (Ritmoo)

The end of 2025 also marks the end of my 1x founder path. 𝗜'𝗺 𝗲𝘅𝗰𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗥𝗶𝘁𝗺𝗼𝗼 𝗵𝗮𝘀 𝗯𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝗮𝗰𝗾𝘂𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗱! 🙌
 
Over the past two years, Piotr and I took Ritmoo from a late-2023 idea to a product used by dozens of teams worldwide. 

We set out to solve a clear problem: goal-setting tools leave teams overwhelmed and misaligned (even today).

The reality and harsh truth is that we didn't scale as fast as we hoped. 

We kept splitting focus between Ritmoo and other commitments. 

The product needed more and the company deserved better. And after iterations, pivots between software and services, we just we didn't have it in us anymore to do a final bet on it.
 
For me personally, it was also becoming hard to manage all the ambitious chaos of choices: balancing startup founder life, writing and launching a book, welcoming a second daughter, and serving as a fractional executive. 

Even now, I don't know how I managed it all.
 
Ritmoo deserved better.
 
That's why I'm excited about what comes next.
 
𝗡𝗼𝘄, 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗻𝗲𝘄 𝗼𝘄𝗻𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗻𝗲𝘅𝘁 𝗖𝗘𝗢: 𝗟𝘂𝗱𝗼𝘃𝗶𝗰 𝗥𝘂𝗯𝗶𝗻.
 
Ludo brings deep expertise in product leadership, systems thinking, and applied AI. He's already expanding our strategy services and introducing AI agents for strategic planning and customer intelligence. Ritmoo is in excellent hands!
 
This wasn't the big, fat exit every founder dreams of. 

To be honest, it doesn't feel like "an exit" even, but it's a graceful wrap-up and chance for it to succeed still, now under the wings of Ludo.
 
𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗜'𝗹𝗹 𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝗺𝗼𝘀𝘁:
The showcases at The Next Web and Web Summit. 
The first paid customers. 
The product feedback. 
The founder dinners and debates. 
The setbacks that taught us more than the wins.
 
Tons of learning.
 
More on what's next in 2026. 
Until then, thank you for supporting this (crazy) journey.

--

I'm Hugo Pereira, fractional growth operator (CMO/CGO), 1x exited founder, former CGO at EVBox (€1M → €100M+). 

Follow me for straight talk on leadership, growth, and scaling through clarity. Author of 𝘛𝘦𝘢𝘮𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘏𝘦𝘭𝘭 – 𝘏𝘰𝘸 𝘵𝘰 𝘌𝘯𝘥 𝘉𝘢𝘥 𝘔𝘢𝘯𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵.

The 9th edition of the Reflection Booklet drops next week 🙌
 
For the newcomers: Since 2017, I've been doing a deep yearly introspection, a full debrief of what happened and what I learned, paired with envisioning what's next.
 
Early in 2017, I shared these personal exercises publicly. 

Didn't expect much. 
Turns out, thousands of people found value in it. 
So I kept going.
 
Each year, I refine it based on feedback and my own learnings. 

This year marks the 9th edition, with more than 5,000 downloads to date.
 
If you've used it before, I'd love to hear how it helped you, or what didn't work. 

Still time to make final tweaks before launch.
 
If this is new to you: get ready. 

A complete framework for closing out 2024 and setting up 2025 is coming your way.
 
Either way, see you next week.

---

I'm Hugo Pereira, co-founder of Ritmoo and fractional growth operator. I've led companies from €1M to €100M+ while building purpose-driven, resilient teams. 

Follow me for unfiltered takes on growth, leadership, and scaling what matters. My book 𝘛𝘦𝘢𝘮𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘏𝘦𝘭𝘭 – 𝘏𝘰𝘸 𝘵𝘰 𝘌𝘯𝘥 𝘉𝘢𝘥 𝘔𝘢𝘯𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 is out now on Amazon.

Over 5,000 people have used my Reflection Booklet to close out their year with clarity and step into the next one with purpose.
 
No "comment X" to get access. I'm not gatekeeping this.
It's available right here. 

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗼𝗻𝗹𝘆 𝗮𝘀𝗸: If you're a frequent user of it or a new one who resonates with the document, please react, save, repost, or share it with someone who needs it. 

That's how we spread what matters.

---

𝘁𝗹;𝗱𝗿 👉 𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲'𝘀 𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝗶𝘁 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝘀:
 
The Reflection Booklet is modular, you choose your own path.
 
𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝗥𝗲𝗳𝗹𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: Journey mapping, identifying your best moments, expressing gratitude, deciding what deserves your energy, and crafting your core equation.
 
𝗘𝗻𝘃𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗙𝘂𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲: Visualize your year ahead, define your expertise, design your AI operating system, commit to one powerful habit, and write your future as if it already happened.
 
𝗢𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗔𝗱𝗱-𝗢𝗻𝘀: Parenting exercises to deepen family relationships, or Career Shift modules to explore your next move.

--
 
The exercises are built on frameworks I've tested over the years. Simple, actionable, designed to create reflection that actually sticks.
 
The value is in the work itself. 
The thinking. 
The pausing. 
The honest look in the mirror.
 
Here's to closing 2025 with intention and opening 2026 with clarity.
 
--

I'm Hugo Pereira, fractional growth operator (CMO/CGO), 1x exited founder, former CGO at EVBox (€1M → €100M+).

Follow me for straight talk on leadership, growth, and scaling through clarity. Author of 𝘛𝘦𝘢𝘮𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘏𝘦𝘭𝘭 – 𝘏𝘰𝘸 𝘵𝘰 𝘌𝘯𝘥 𝘉𝘢𝘥 𝘔𝘢𝘯𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵.

Reflection Booklet 2025-2026

Speed is the new moat, they say.
Ship faster. Launch faster. Produce faster. 
AI makes it easy.
 
You can build 10 blog posts in a week instead of one. 
Three features instead of one. 
Ten automated emails instead of writing them yourself.
 
But here's the problem:
Speed without direction is just noise.
 
Did it move the needle? 

Or are you just celebrating shipping 10 things instead of the one thing that actually drove revenue, improved retention, or delivered a real insight?
 
That's the difference.
 
→ Speed + Output = Noise 
→ Speed + Outcome = Impact
 
Companies obsessed with output will drown in their own productivity. 

Companies focused on impact will win.
 
If you don't know how your speed is helping the business evolve, slow down.
 
High clarity + deep focus + AI = superpower.
 
Without it? Just confusion.
 
--
 
I'm Hugo Pereira, co-founder of Ritmoo and fractional growth operator. I've led companies from €1M to €100M+ while building purpose-driven, resilient teams.
 
Follow me for unfiltered takes on growth, leadership, and scaling what matters. My book 𝘛𝘦𝘢𝘮𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘏𝘦𝘭𝘭 – 𝘏𝘰𝘸 𝘵𝘰 𝘌𝘯𝘥 𝘉𝘢𝘥 𝘔𝘢𝘯𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 is out now on Amazon.

Return-to-office mandates aren't a failure of remote work. They're a failure of leadership adaptability.
 
Companies are rushing back 3-4 days a week. 
The reason being that remote work didn't work out.
 
But the reality is that this is happening because leaders couldn't adapt their management style to remote work. 

So instead of learning, they chose the easy path: going back to what they knew before.
 
Now, remote work isn't always the answer.

 It depends on your business model and context.
 
But for leaders, it was a missed opportunity. Even now with RTO mandates, 9 out of 10 companies going back haven't changed their routines once they're there.
  
If you're bringing people back, use it for workshops, collaboration sessions, task forces; not back-to-back Zoom meetings you could've done from home.
 
𝗛𝗲𝗿𝗲'𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗴𝗼𝗼𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿:
→ Most work already happens async
→ Documentation and decisions operate digitally 
→ Async-first leaders perform better: remote or office
 
𝗔𝗻𝗱 𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲'𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗸𝗶𝗰𝗸𝗲𝗿:
Leaders who were able to adapt to remote work 5 years ago, have higher chances or being able to adapt to an AI-first workforce tomorrow.

---

I'm Hugo Pereira, co-founder of Ritmoo and fractional growth operator. I've led companies from €1M to €100M+ while building purpose-driven, resilient teams.

Follow me for unfiltered takes on growth, leadership, and scaling what matters. My book 𝘛𝘦𝘢𝘮𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘏𝘦𝘭𝘭 – 𝘏𝘰𝘸 𝘵𝘰 𝘌𝘯𝘥 𝘉𝘢𝘥 𝘔𝘢𝘯𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 is out now on Amazon.

Most go-to-market experts don't know what's coming next.

Every week, someone claims they know how AI will change distribution. 

How GTM will evolve. 
What channels will win.

My reality check is that I don't know. 
And I bet neither do they.

What I do know:
→ Product alone isn't enough 
→ A great product with weak distribution grows slowly 
→ Product + distribution = real growth

But what's the next distribution channel?

Every channel is saturated. 
Every channel is expensive.
So where do you go?

Maybe it's LLM marketplaces (heard chatGPT will have ads soon). Maybe it's your own community. 

Maybe it's high-quality crafted newsletters, intimate or personalized events, or building your own founder-led/personal-brand audience.

I don't have a crystal ball. 
No one does.

There's hype around AI's impact, and yes, real change is happening. 

But it's not reshaping (yet) every single business on earth.

And there are far more successful businesses beyond SaaS than people give credit for.

The experts who pretend to know everything? 
They're guessing too.

The honest ones? 
We're experimenting, adapting, and figuring it out as we go.

---

I'm Hugo Pereira, fractional growth operator (CMO/CGO), 1x exited founder, former CGO at EVBox (€1M → €100M+). 

Follow me for straight talk on leadership, growth, and scaling through clarity. Author of 𝘛𝘦𝘢𝘮𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘏𝘦𝘭𝘭 – 𝘏𝘰𝘸 𝘵𝘰 𝘌𝘯𝘥 𝘉𝘢𝘥 𝘔𝘢𝘯𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵.

𝗖𝘂𝗿𝗶𝗼𝘀𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗮𝗱𝗮𝗽𝘁𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗻𝗲𝘄 𝘀𝘂𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗽𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿𝘀.
 
AI changes the rules every few weeks. 
Claude launches a new model. 
OpenAI launches a new model. 

It's create a hamster wheel feeling that we're always behind, and the understanding that any tool we master today might be obsolete in six months.
 
𝗦𝗼 𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲'𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗳𝘁:
 
Stop prioritizing small experiments that increment 1%. 

Start making big bets on go-to-market.
 
Be curious.
Be adaptable.
Pick your biggest hypothesis and go deep.
 
𝘌𝘹𝘢𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘦: I replaced all the main homepage CTAs on a client's website with an AI chat assistant. 

The bet? Websites will become conversational.
 
Did it work? 
Nah.
Engagement didn't spike. 
Conversion improved only slightly.
 
But... we did have 200-300 monthly conversations revealing what visitors actually care about, insights we'd never get from static clicks.
 
So, that's the game now

1. Form hypothesis or make a bet.
2. Test. 
3. Learn. 
4. Adapt. 
5. Drop or scale.
 
AI rewards the curious, not the comfortable.
 
--

I'm Hugo Pereira, co-founder of Ritmoo and fractional growth operator. I've led companies from €1M to €100M+ while building purpose-driven, resilient teams.
 
Follow me for unfiltered takes on growth, leadership, and scaling what matters. My book 𝘛𝘦𝘢𝘮𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘏𝘦𝘭𝘭 – 𝘏𝘰𝘸 𝘵𝘰 𝘌𝘯𝘥 𝘉𝘢𝘥 𝘔𝘢𝘯𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 is out now on Amazon.

Gorilla - Energy data applications

Imagine a world where selling carbon-free energy is as easy as selling bananas at the farmers market.

Gorilla wants to empower the global shift to carbon-neutral energy. We do it through one of a kind energy data applications.

In order to enable our company vision and mission, the People Team mission is to enable Data Rangers (our employees) to grow individually and as a troop by creating easy to use and elegant people solutions.

VP of People

Jangala

Growth cycles in business are broken.

And leaders and teams are feeling the whiplash from everchanging internal and external headwinds.

The ultimate hack to grow resilient organizations has been under our noses all along. 

Jangala People Solutions is a playground to experiment with how leaders and teams harness 3.8 bn years of nature's blueprints, psychology, and neuroscience to:

► Explore how Regenerative Design principles can shape sustainable organizational practices and foster long-term resilience.

► Cultivate Nature-Inspired Leadership by integrating nature's wisdom into leadership strategies for innovation, resilience, and organizational health.

► Embracing the Adaptive Cycle to navigate scale, change, reorganization within fast moving environments.

Services: Leadership Coaching and Development. Teams Coaching and Development, Workshop Facilitation

People Advisory, Leadership & Teams Facilitator

Offbeat

Offbeat is one of the leading L&D communities where L&D professionals accelerate their career.

Mentor

Philips

HR plays a critical role in ESG and social impact. 

As the corporate landscape shifts towards prioritizing sustainability and social impact, my pivot into a sustainability role at Philips aligns with the evolving expectations of both consumers and employees.

I was committed to leveraging my people and culture expertise to enable Philips businesses and external organizations to set and meet their ESG goals, and foster culture of sustainability within the organization

The skills accrued here have deepened my understanding of ESG and how as HR professional I can further addressing social aspects, such as inclusion, diversity, and equity, and talent processes.

Sustainability Strategist - Philips Innovation Services

Miro

Imagine scaling from 350 to 1000 employees in < 12 months during the pandemic.

I built and scaled the L&D and Culture function at Miro from Series B - C during this crazy hypergrowth to answer these questions:

"How do we scale our company without losing our culture?"
"How do we build a culture as collaborative as our product?
"How do we stay nimble as we expand?"

Leading a team of learning designers and agile coaches, we built people solutions like products to  ensure our culture didn't "break".

...

Head of People Solutions Design  

PwC Australia

The aim is not to be an agile organization. The aim is to achieve your business objectives with agility. 

This was one of the core principles Christopher Webb and I co-founded the Agile Advisory around in 2017 when the applications of agile outside of software development were still in it's infancy. 

Our goal was to help organizations avoid cutting and pasting scrum across all their departments and saying 'ta da' "we're agile".

Instead we grew an inclusive and diverse multi-disciplinary team to work with clients to redesign their operating models and refresh their ways of working.

In doing so we aimed to bring organizations closer to their customers and employees, and to increase speed to value by developing viable and feasible solutions. 

I specifically focussed on leadership agility, and teams development + delivery using agile ways of working and human centred design methods to deliver better outcomes. 

Highlights: 

► Designing and implementing company-wide New Ways of Working simulation training to 30 000K employees using more LEGO than one person would buy in their lifetime.

► Establishing social labs innovation approach and delivering large group facilitation to enable the cross-sector teams to collaborate and prototype solutions to end homelessness in a generation.

Senior Manager - Agile Advisory, Technology Consulting

Deloitte Australia

Think strategically, solve complex problems, format slides fast.

In my interview I said I'm a corporate hippy, they said you're hired, and on Day 1 I was shipped out to a mining and metal company ....

Not quite the regenerative green warrior project I expected, yet to do this day it remains one of the best projects of my life.

Why? I got to work with amazing client leaders and it's where I cut my teeth on:

Buidling and faciltiating strong team dynamics globally, managing global strategic change, global learning and development strategy, the ups and downs of stakeholder engagement and M&A / demergers....

... and it's when I became an accidental technologist.

It's also where I learned consultants' obsession with slides and spreadsheets. 

If you can't beat them join them. So I pivot-tabled, hypothesis treed, and powerpointed my way on several projects for national banks, insurers, and retailers. 

Until I was selected among 20 people nationally to go on a 3 day immersion with the  Design and Visual Storytelling team.

It's here that I unearthed my natural tendency for human-centred design (HCD) and its powerful methods, which evolved into working on agile software development projects, and agile coaching, and  learning and development solutions.

I knew that my future work would always boil down to:

Understand the problem + Build the right things + Build the things right.

...

Human Capital Management Consultant

Croydon Council

Organisational Change & Development - Learning and Development - Product Development 

Croydon Council:
In a post Global Financial Crisis climate, Croydon Council received a mandate form the federal government to cut costs by £200 million by 2018. Subsequently the council commenced a large scale restructure and review of services. To assist the ensuing changes the Chief Executive initiated a 3 year values based culture transformation for the organisation (approx. 2000 employees). As one of four core members in the Change and OD team Vanessa delivered the following high quality services:

Culture Transformation
- Mobilisation of culture change champion network \
- Leadership and project management 
- Development of learning forums and materials to equip and empower staff with change conversation capabilities.  These initiatives increased employees’ change skillset, augmented employees’ sense of work efficacy and opened communication channels between different departments
- Change project evaluation  

Leadership
- Middle Management Leadership Skills Audit 
- Logistics Management for annual senior leadership summit for 300 senior leaders 
- Future leadership capabilities scenario mapping to enable leaders to lead and manage political,    economic, technology and social change reforms

Online Learning
-  Designed, developed and maintained  user centric change  and L&D intranet sites to support staff communications and e-learning

Leap Partnership:
- Working with FTSE 100 clients such as Lloyds TSB, Sage and Honeywell to develop a prolific teams inventory which helps teams in their learning and development functions and overall performance

Organisational Change and Development Consultant

Mendas Ltd.

Client Delivery: National Health Services (NHS), UK Government Organizations (NDA), Smith and Williamson Accountants

Business Psychologist

Munro & Forster

Client Delivery for Nestle Carnation, La Roche-Posay, Roche Diagnostics and Ronald McDonald House Charities

Commercial and Healthcare Graduate PR Analyst

VP of People at Gorilla | In the pursuit of employee significance | Leadership & Career Coach | Illustrator | Corporate Hippy - views expressed here are my own

What do you get when you cross a business psychologist + an accidental technologist + agile coach + a tree hugger?

A global People & Culture leader, who embraces her corporate hippy persona to revitalize organizations worldwide.

I currently lead the global People Function at Gorilla - energy data applications, a fast growing series B SaaS scale up. 

I've held leadership roles at Miro, PwC, Deloitte and Philips where I've built, shaped and scaled cultures.

I know what it takes for startups and scaleups to design their People strategy for future success.


My career highlights include:

► Scaling the L&D and Culture function at Miro from series B - C. 

► Developing social labs approach for cross-sector teams to protoype solutions to end homlessess in a generation in Australia for The Constellation Project.

► Designing and implementing the Global IT Learning strategy, and Change Management and Comms approach for the most complex demerger in australian history (mining and metals company). 


Find out more:

Illustrations - I simplify complex ideas through the power of picture
https://www.instagram.com/nessmonsequeira_illustrations

The Nature of Leadership + Career Newsletter - is filled with practical tips and focuses on how leaders and employees can redesign the work experience.

https://nessmonsequeira.beehiiv.com/

Vanessa Monsequeira

I moved to Amsterdam in 2020 after visiting it for exactly one day in 2006.

November marks 5 years in the Netherlands. It wasn't what I expected.

2020:
Ness: "Hey Nick, this digital whiteboard company reached out about a role in Amsterdam."
Nick: "Just see where it goes."

Two weeks later, I'd signed with Miro (back when they were the "lesser-known digital whiteboard platform") to scale their People Solutions function from 350 to 1,000 people in a year.

Then came one of the most bizarre plane journeys of our lives: the airline had to call the Australian government pre-flight to confirm we were on the approved leave list. We were told we couldn't return until the end of the pandemic.

No safety net. No return ticket. Just two suitcases and a gutsy decision.
Maybe it was reckless, but Nick and I are suckers for adventure.

___

What moving here was supposed to be:
👉🏾 A career opportunity in a cool European city

What it became:
🧡 A masterclass in scaling companies during chaos (hello, pandemic)
🧡 Where I built community instead of just a network
🧡 A new obsession with white asparagus season
🧡 Where "home" stopped meaning one country
🧡 A lesson in how day spas work (IYKYK)
🧡 Proof that betting on yourself pays off

Dank u wel to everyone who has been part of my personal and professional journey in the Netherlands, Belgium and the UK. 

Special shout out to the communities at the D2 collective, Diverse Leaders in Tech, Hatch - Immersive learning experiences and Omek. I was missing a sense of belonging in the middle years and you helped me find home. 

Of course thanks to Nick and our best doggo Tiger. You make A'dam home.

Here's to many more beautiful years and doing more dutchy things. 🚴🏽‍♀️

What's the gutsiest career move you've ever made?

Vanessa Monsequeira - चित्रलेखा

VP of People at Gorilla | Building Employee Experience as a Product | In pursuit of making work suck less | Leadership & Career Coach | Corporate Hippy - views expressed here are my own

Ness and her husband Nick taking a celebratory selfie with glasses of red wine. Ness has curly dark hair and is wearing a cream sweater with a gold necklace. Nick has a beard and is wearing a light green sweater. Both are smiling warmly at the camera in what appears to be a restaurant or café setting.

Every Head of HR knows the secret "job description."

We carry skills and emotions that never make it onto our job ad. The weight of decisions that affect people's livelihoods. The loneliness of being the only one in the room thinking five moves ahead from a people strategy and ops perspective.

Many talk about being a "Strategic" HR leader. Very few execute it well. Even fewer teach it effectively.

Recently, I completed the JooBee's Strategic HR Leader Step Up Bootcamp.
I desperately wish I'd had before my leadership roles at Miro and Gorilla!

🧰 Here's what made it transformational:
— All Real-world application, not theory:
— Deeply thinking and practice  through compensation structures and leveling frameworks for scaling startups (so many lessons!!!!!)
— Building scalable people operations during the critical build phase
— Consolidating thinking around scaling agility people as a product
—  ALL learning through interactive doing and teamwork

💪🏾 Strengthening our diagnostic muscles:
— Sharpened organizational diagnosis and problem-solving through the PIC framework
— Practical tools I'm already applying in my day-to-day

🎭 The role-play day (this alone was worth the price): 
A full day with professional actors playing:
— A Founder who kept changing goal-setting structures mid-quarter
— A COO who outright refused 360 feedback
— A CMO who wanted to pay out-of-band for an average performer

🔥 The fireside chat: One hour with a top VC Stephen Millard from Notion Capital. Finally, a safe space to ask all those fiery questions as HR we think but rarely voice to board members.

💜 And the unexpected value: 
— The cohort itself became both a learning experience and group therapy (IYKYK).
— Perhaps the most invaluable aspect was pairing with a group of people living the same reality. People who didn't just empathise, they solutionize the right way.

Thank you Ed Ross Missy S. Katie Downes (Beales) Elena Argyriou María Clara Wasileff Seun Iyaniwura . I'm genuinely grateful to each of you. You helped me learn, grow, and realise "it's not just me." 

I very rarely give an NPS of 10.
This is it, folks. run, don't walk.
Worth every minute. Worth every penny.

And thank you again JooBee Yeow, PhD for your masterful facilitation 🫶🏾

P.S. Sneak peak of the course in comments!

#PeopleLeadership #HRStrategy #StartupHR #PeopleOps

Screenshot of a video call with seven participants from the JooBee Strategic HR Leader Step Up Bootcamp cohort, including Missy Strong, Ness from Gorilla, Clari Wasileff from Ekumen, Seun, Elena from Snappymob, Ed from Aiven, Katie from YLD, and JooBee Yeow (course facilitator with Step Up Bootcamp branding visible).

What’s more important: leading or managing?

Hint: Most people choose wrong.

Leadership = vision.
Management = execution.
Both matter but neither is enough.

Inspiration alone doesn’t create outcomes.
Systems alone don’t inspire people.
Vision + systems alone ≠ success.

I empathise.
As a leader, you put these building blocks in place and think:
“We’re doing things right.
 Why isn’t it working?”

Because something critical is missing.

The space in between: the Adaptive Space**.

The interface between entrepreneurial thinking and operational discipline.
Where innovation meets implementation.
Where ideas become action.
Where strategy actually moves.

This is the missing middle.
When all three work together (leadership, management and the Adaptive Space) momentum, magic and money follow.

If you lead people, your job is not choosing between leadership and management.
Your job is learning to operate and helping others operate in the Adaptive Space.

What are you experiencing in the Adaptive Space?


**Coined by Mary Uhl-Bien and colleagues in Complexity Leadership Theory.

Infographic titled “Lead your team to achieve outcomes” with the subtitle “It’s not about leader vs manager. Be both and know how to adapt.”

On the left, three vertical sections appear along a downward arrow:

Leadership (Vision): Set vision and strategy; Shape culture; Guide through change; Enable learning.

The Adaptive Space (Integration): Translate strategy to action; Zoom out and think; Foster conflict and collaboration; Adapt dynamically.

Management (Execution): Plan and organize; Monitor performance; Maintain standards; Solve risks and problems.

On the right, four statements each paired with colour bars:
“Inspiration ≠ outcomes” (pink gradient).
“Vision and systems alone ≠ success” (purple gradient).
“Systems alone ≠ inspired people” (orange gradient).
“This will empower outcomes” (combined pink, purple, orange gradient).

Footer includes the name Vanessa Monsequeira and the tagline “Leadership that makes work suck less.”

All leaders want healthy culture and "happy" teams.

The truth most miss is that the feedback that stings the most is often the feedback you need the most to create thriving environments. 

Not because all feedback is necessarily "true." 

But because it uncovers signals of unmet needs. 

It's a diagnostic clue.

To truly unlock team performance and team health (after putting the basics in place), we have to go where it hurts the most.

That place = crunchy feedback and difficult conversations.

Most leaders avoid negative feedback like the plague.

It makes sense, emotional pain register in the brain like physical pain.

... and we've got enough 💩 to deal with everyday. 

Yet, here's what I always tell leaders:

→ You worth and value as a leader aren't defined by negative feedback.
→ Crunchy feedback means your organisation and team are still talking to you.
→ They haven't given up. They're still invested.
→  Of course, guide your team to use radical candor. Rudeness is never accepted.

At this time of year:
→ Many are analysing annual engagement results or performance reviews.
→ Don't waste the gift of honest feedback. 
→ Learn how to separate signal from noise and find the deeper unmet needs. 

The steps below have helped countless leaders turn feedback from something to fear into fuel for growth.

Use it. Watch what happens when you stop avoiding the hard stuff.

Infographic titled 'Negative feedback doesn't kill team engagement. It improves it.' Lists 8 steps for processing feedback: 1. Read positive comments first, 2. Find themes/patterns, 3. Ask yourself 'What need was met here?', 4. Read the difficult comments, 5. Find themes/patterns, 6. Ask yourself 'What was the unmet need here?', 7. Practice disassociation technique - Your value as a leader ≠ feedback, 8. Devise your game plan to address unmet needs.

Your team doesn't trust your decisions.

Not if you lead like you're faking it.

I know this because early on I desperately tried to learn it all and know it all. 

Then I stopped pretending I had all the answers AND started trusting when i did. 

Great leaders:
↳ Name the uncertainty in the room
↳ Ask questions they're "supposed" to know
↳ Give feedback within 24 hours, not 24 days
↳ Hire slower and fire faster than they think they should
↳ Admit when a direct report knows more
↳ Coach in public, not just behind closed doors
↳ Can be both soft and strong in the same meeting
↳ Make decisions without consensus (then explain why)
↳ Let team members see them learning new skills
↳ Create psychological safety before pushing for results
↳ Don't let what they don't know make them lose confidence in what they do know.

"I need to be the smartest person in the room" = fastest way to lose your best people.

One of my favourite leadership reframes:

Last week a leader I coach told me they were stuck on a strategic decision because 'they didn't have enough context yet.' 

Here's what I asked them.:

"If you had to make this decision in the next team meeting, what can you name what you DO know, and what would you say you DON'T know, out loud?"
↓

[Name what you know, + state your uncertainty publicly] + [invite the team to fill gaps] = [better decisions through transparency]

The strongest leaders aren't the ones with all the answers. 

They're the ones who can build confidence, name what they don't know, and still move forward.


#leadership #decisionmaking #leadingteams

-step leadership framework for making decisions when you don't have all the answers. Shows how to name uncertainty publicly, state what you know, invite team input, and reach better decisions through collective wisdom. Real example using AI adoption demonstrates the framework in action.

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