Rough Diamonds Inc

Making Promising Entrepreneurs Shine through Holistic Coaching & Social Impact Sponsorship 💎

We're here to support promising entrepreneurs, especially those from overlooked backgrounds, on their path to business success. 

Our goal is clear: we offer specialized coaching for six months, covering leadership, mental resilience, and business strategies. Partnering with socially conscious companies, we turn their support into opportunities for our entrepreneurs. 

It's more than just coaching; it's about unlocking potential and building a community where every entrepreneurial dream finds its wings.

Connect with us to explore how your organization can contribute to our transformative mission by becoming a sponsor!

Founded in 2023 with Frans Voskuil, Shirley-Ann Mathis & myself. 

www.roughdiamondsinc.com

Co-Founder & Business Coach 💎

TribeX

After seeing the need for entrepreneurs to come together and support each other, Lennart & I decided to create a tight-knit family of business owners. People who want to co-elevate each other personally and professionally. Not once, but by being true partners in each other's journeys...

TribeX is an international community of impact-driven entrepreneurs

A collective for:
- masterminding
- expertise sharing
- accountability
- collaborations
- business friends around the globe

Online-first but with 2 yearly physical gatherings in a European city 🏙️

Members are selected with great care based on Character & Integrity.

We believe those are the key factors for a supportive business family🫶🏽

We kicked off in September 2023 with 12 founding members spread across Europe!

If you want to join us (first session = free), go to www.growtribute.com/tribe

Co-Founder & Leader @ TribeX 

Growtribute

Helping business owners improve how they run their business, for business growth & personal enjoyment.

⭐  Operational Excellence: I specialize in taking businesses from a '4' to an '8', optimizing processes, enhancing efficiency, and driving tangible results. From tackling workflow bottlenecks to implementing scalable systems, I've helped clients achieve significant cost savings, boost productivity, and accelerate growth.

⭐  Strategic Leadership: As your Fractional Chief of Staff, I partner with you to overcome strategic challenges and seize new opportunities. Whether it's expanding into new markets, diversifying revenue streams, or navigating industry disruptions, I develop and execute tailored strategies that drive sustainable growth and competitive advantage.

⭐  Team Empowerment: Building high-performing teams is key to sustainable growth. I work closely with your leadership team to foster collaboration, enhance communication, and cultivate a culture of accountability and excellence. Together, we unlock the full potential of your team, driving innovation and delivering exceptional results.

⭐  Personalized Approach: No two businesses are alike, which is why I take a tailored approach to every client engagement. Whether you're facing rapid growth, organizational challenges, or market uncertainty, I craft customized solutions that address your specific needs and goals, delivering measurable results and long-term success.

Results while working with us:
✅ Feel completely in control of the business & your days
✅ Step into your CEO role - execute a clear vision, strategy, and momentum.
✅ Increase revenue by working smarter
✅ Be indistractable, less available & needed in the business
✅ Have more time for yourself, family, friends & sports by working smarter
✅ Truly turn off your head and be present on evenings and weekends
✅ Better communication with your team and co-founder(s)

Reach out in DM to discuss a collaboration.

Fractional Chief of Staff for Scaling Entrepreneurs

The Thriving Entrepreneur Podcast

On The Thriving Entrepreneur Podcast, founder and entrepreneur coaches David Foster and Rachelle Leerling discuss practical insights in order to run a thriving business.

Thought-provoking discussions about how to thrive as an entrepreneur. No fluff.

What is the best way to ask yourself in order to make real progress and find the path that is best for you?
What are the best questions to think about the challenges that you face as an entrepreneur while running the business that you started?

Rachelle and David use their decades of experience founding and running businesses to help other founders and entrepreneurs with how to think about those problems, so the answer and direction you take is right for you.

No fortune cookie wisdom, no one-size-fits-all listicles that every entrepreneur should do every morning before waking up, just ways to think about your journey in your business and personal leadership.

A new episode is published every Friday.

LINK TO THE SHOW ON SPOTIFY - https://open.spotify.com/show/1nZP93zRX2HQdKVX1eafYP?si=cb08aba996e047ef

Co-Host

Rachelle Leerling (f.k.a. Chelle Media)

Event Moderator for Business, Inclusivity and Tech events and conferences. English and Dutch spoken.

Highlights:
- TEDx Amsterdam Women Startup Award
- Lean Innovation Summit 
- YES!Delft UNconference (2x)
- EBF Conference Groningen
- SDG House x Fashion Amsterdam
- Rijksuniversiteit Groningen Career Webinars
- Odyssey Connect Deep Tech Conference
- Emerce NEXT Digital Conference host
- Shell Energy Hackathon host

Event Moderator in Tech, Entrepreneurship, Startups, Innovation & Diversity

FRGRND

FRGRND specializes in Generation Z (1995-2015) and work. We help organizations connect to and retain the new generation of employees and freelancers, Generation Z. We do this by facilitating the conversation between organizations and Generation Z - call it a premium youth panel for your organizational issue regarding the youngest generation in the workplace.
>> We sold the company to /LAB Service Design in 2020. <<

Founder (exit)

Rachelle Leerling

I help organizations in digital & entrepreneurship realize new initiatives. 

Kick-starting new initiatives by brainstorming and sharing my ideas, setting project targets, aligning the project team & setting out the tasks is what I do without hesitation. I get things going, up to speed & moving fast. 

I care for the project team and will make sure everyone is on board, briefed & motivated. I never lose stakeholders out of sight, I tend to proactively communicate so that all parties are on the same page. When things do not work out as planned or need extra attention, I escalate quickly.

Oh, and I also love to present the project outcomes and/or host the (launch) event.
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Until 2018, Chelle Media mainly offered services in communication strategy, online marketing (SEO/SEA, social media) and LinkedIn trainings. Running several projects for corporates (a.s.r. and Utrecht University) and SMEs (e.g. Young Mavericks, Jong & Fris).

Project Lead in Digital 

Connext Lab

As Product Owner at Connext Lab, I help our customers to implement their innovations faster and better. Unburdening and results are our mantra. Do you want to know more? Go to www.nextpo.nl

Product Owner @ NextPO

Lean In

I co-started the Lean In Rotterdam circle & moderate the meet-ups. The circle is for all women, from internationals to local, from student to entrepreneur and corporates to come together to learn from each other. 

Lean In is an initiative by Sheryl Sandberg, COO at Facebook.

Rotterdam Circle Team | Event Moderator

YES!Delft

HackWeek is 5-day hackathon for students and early stage startups to find a solution that optimizes the total energy consumption of a Norske Shell upstream facility. 

In only 10 weeks’ time, in my role as (Integral) Project Lead and Host of the week, I:

•	oversaw scouting, led the selection process
•	managed the promotion & external communication
•	managed collaboration and communication with stakeholders and participating teams 
•	with the Events team, I made sure we had a well rounded program
•	acted as Host, making sure the teams knew about the program of the day, answered their  questions & motivated them
•	managed the communication with the experts (Shell & YES!Delft) monitoring the quality of teams' work and progress
•	moderated the event, introduced the pitchers & announced the winners on Demo Day

Results:
- 10 participating startup and student teams during 5-day program
- 5 winning teams of which 2x accelerated access to GameChanger Program and 2x ticket to YES!Delft Validation Lab.
- Made a big impact on the lead generation for and awareness of tech innovation within Shell.

Project Manager & Event Moderator - Shell GameChanger Hackweek 

In my role as co-founder and initiator, I was Product Owner for the platform. I worked with 4 different tech agencies and managed stakeholders within corporates, startups and investors. Also recruited & led the team of 4 (Community, Marketing, Design & Sales) as Manager, initiated new partnerships, created vlogs and co-organized partner events.
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Startup Corner is the single-point-of-contact for tech startups and industry experts, powered by MRDH, StartupDelta and YES!Delft. We provide support for all building blocks of a startup in order to grow. By creating a profile, you gain access to information on essential startup-related themes, knowledge and personal advice - peer to peer or from big players in the tech industry. Use the knowledge and experience of the community to accelerate your startup.

General Manager Startup Corner | Co-Initiator | Product Owner

Focusing on the customer journey, content, SEO and tech development of the corporate website of TU Delft’s tech startup incubator YES!Delft.
 
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A leading complex tech incubator that brings your product to the market as fast as possible. We breathe technology.

We are passionate about tech startups in the fields of Blockchain, Artificial Intelligence, CleanTech, MedTech, Aviation, Robotics and  Complex Technology. We are always (and only) looking for startups that can solve real-life problems. Problems that the world faces now, and ones to be tackled for future generations. We’re not a pizza-delivery-app kind of incubator ;-).

We offer the right circumstances, timing, methodology, focus, an iteration mindset and connections in the form of programs and an ecosystem in order to accelerate. We guide you through the whole life cycle: pre-acceleration, acceleration and growth. By offering the right resources, we help technology startups faster towards their market/product fit, faster to a launching customer and faster towards investment. We are one of the most time-efficient tech incubators out there.

Product Owner & Content Writer

I'm on a mission to empower entrepreneurs to break free from the daily grind, get back into their best role, and ENJOY their business again. 

1️⃣ Fractional Chief of Staff @ Growtribute

My passion lies in supporting high-achieving entrepreneurs who are too involved in day-to-day operations and don't do enough of what truly matters to get back to the work that moves their businesses forward. 

I help them get back into their zone of genius & full leadership through tough love coaching & accountability. My secret sauce is Personal Mastery - because your business can only be as thriving as you are. Over the past years, I’ve helped dozens of entrepreneurs achieve more revenue, headspace, enjoyment… All while working less & more efficiently. 

2️⃣ Co-founder & Leader @ TribeX

On top of coaching, I co-founded an entrepreneurs community called TribeX. It's more than a community; it's a tight-knit family of like-minded entrepreneurs across Europe. At TribeX, we're all about mutual support and growth - all by operating on deep trust & vulnerability. Together, we tackle challenges, celebrate wins, and co-elevate our businesses through masterminds, expert talks, and much more. 

For me, my work is all about (re)calibration – positioning you and your team for holistic success. My approach ensures that you're not just working hard but working smart, creating an environment where everyone can shine and mutually bring the business to where it belongs.

If any of the above resonates with you and your business situation, just reach out in DM 🙏🏼

Reiner Kraft, PhD

Senior Software Engineer

The Mindful Leader

The Mindful Leader has been founded in 2018 by Reiner Kraft, PhD and since focusing on mindful leadership methodologies to help many experienced tech leaders to reach new levels of awareness, performance, energy, and resilience. 

The High-Performance Mindset represents a unique 12-Week Program comprising an effective mix of training, coaching, and masterminding leveraging the latest science & cutting-edge technology.

Participants will systematically rewrite the software of their mind & body to think and function better using an agile and data-driven approach. Once the program has been completed participants earn "The Mindful Leader in Tech" certification.

The Mindful Leader also offers advanced CTO Mentoring & Executive Coaching - Through our individually tailored training & coaching leaders will be able to become aware of your mental blockages, blind spots, and are able to transcend them. 

We accomplish this through 1-on-1 coaching, team coaching, keynote speeches, workshops, and online courses. 

If you are interested in the services listed above then send me a direct message or visit themindfulleader.net. On the website, you can learn more about the offerings and schedule a free Discovery Call.

Founder

Die Epigenetik Praxis

Einmalig in der Region Mittelhessen für Gründer, Unternehmer, Freiberufler & Führungskräfte: Weniger Stress, mehr Energie und die nachhaltige Optimierung deiner Gesundheit.

Seit vielen Jahren arbeite ich gezielt mit Gründern, Unternehmern, Freiberuflern und Führungskräften zusammen und unterstütze diese dabei, besser mit Stress umzugehen und ihre Gesundheit nachhaltig zu optimieren.

Das primäre Ziel ist dabei meistens, mentale Erschöpfung oder Burnout proaktiv zu vermeiden. Dadurch gewinnt man mehr Energie, Fokus und Resilienz, erhöht seine mentale Leistungsfähigkeit & Produktivität und ist in der Lage, weiterhin mit voller Energie durchstarten zu können.

Als Wissenschaftler und zertifizierter Mikronährstoff & Epigenetik Coach bin ich hier, um dir dabei zu helfen dein volles Potenzial zu entfalten. Hier benutze ich als Grundlage die Wissenschaft der Epigenetik, funktionelle Medizin, Neurowissenschaften und der daten-getriebene Ansatz des "Biohacking". Alles messbar mit klaren Kennzahlen.

Durch neueste Technologie, relevanten Mikronährstoffe und der Kenntnis deiner Genetik ist heutzutage einiges machbar.

nyris GmbH

The topic of improving the state of search technology has always been a passion of mine, as it pushes technology forward and has plenty of room to innovate.

Advisory Board Member

ONVY HealthTech

I strongly believe that improving our mind, body, and overall health can be greatly supported by algorithms leveraging deep learning and AI. When talking earlier this year with the co-founders Adrian Kochsiek and Taha Moghaddas of ONVY I realized that their vision and mission closely align with my own mission on cultivating presence to upgrade your mind and body. Therefore I decided to join their advisory board as a technical & scientific advisor.

Technical & Scientific Advisor

spotsize GmbH

The area of sizing and virtual fitting to create fully personalized digital experiences is quite challenging and ripe for innovation. The technology that Spotsize delivered is cutting edge and the app experience quite sophisticated. And it works. Therefore I decided to join their team in the role of a technical & scientific advisor to support their rapid growth.

Deutsche Bank

As a CTO I incubated and built up Yunar - a fintech startup and  100% subsidiary of Deutsche Bank, which had been set up with its own management, its own team, its own IT and an initial staff of around 80 people. This was a major challenge, as we had to hire and form a strong tech team, while replacing internal contractors, which required continuous knowledge transfer and rapid change. 

Within one year I created a structure that has enabled YUNAR to swiftly launch innovative digital services that go beyond its parent’s traditional banking business. During 2019 I built up a strong and modern technology organisation with 50+ FTEs, which was ready to tackle real customer problems in 2020. 

I applied principles of Mindful Leadership to shape a New Workplace. Through my contributions to the leadership team, Yunar had a crisp purpose "Resource your Life!", clearly defined values, and a modern engineering organisational setup.

Chief Technology Officer

Zalando SE

Building up and leading the technical direction of Zalando's core search platform, global personalization technology (close to 400 FTEs), as well as establishing Zalando Research as a world-class research organisation in the areas of machine learning and AI.

Some of my accomplishments in the past years:

- built up and developed a strong leadership team across my organisations.
- built up and grew the Search organisation from ~10 FTEs to 70+ FTEs, delivered and launched the new Zalando Search Platform, which improved main search KPIs significantly and a generated a measurable uplift in GMV across all markets. As a result all searches on web and app have an improved relevancy, qualitatively and quantitatively measured, and perform faster. 
- built up and grew the Personalisation organisation from ~10 FTEs to 50+ FTEs. This included incubating a scalable Personalization Platform, got it ready for experimentation, and demonstrated a significant uplift on user engagement, retention, and other main KPIs.
-established a strong Sizing org (20+ FTEs), which focuses globally on size and fit related topics (i.e. size prediction). This had a strong impact on decreasing size related returns. 
- built up a strong Information org (150+ FTEs across Dublin, Berlin, Helsinki), filled in as Dedicated Owner for over a year), which provides smart data platforms as a foundation to manage all of our customer and product data. 
- built up Zalando Research (http://research.zalando.com), a world class research lab on AI / deep learning (15 FTEs), which is focusing primarily on long-term strategic research topics. Overseeing and sponsoring the Research Job Family at Zalando (~120 researchers), defined clear roles for research engineers, and research scientists, and organised Research in Zalando to allow short-term and long-term research to flourish. As a result Zalando is well positioned when it comes to the topic of AI and Machine Learning.

VP Engineering of Search, Personalization & Research

Yahoo

Led the query intent platform, query understanding, contextual search and analysis - developing cutting edge semantic platforms and applications.

During my tenure at Yahoo I was also one of their top innovators and contributed strongly to their intellectual property. As a result I have also been nominated as a Master Inventor, a prestigious accomplishment.

Director of Engineering

I was a senior engineering manager at Yahoo! leading the Contextual Analysis Platform (CAP) team. My focus was on exploring, inventing, and building the next generation of user-centric semantic analysis and contextual search technologies.

In the past I was involved in launching Yahoo! Glue (http://glue.yahoo.com) - an experiment for discovering the best content of the Web in one place, which had been integrated earlier within India's search experience.

While being part of Yahoo!s Web Search team for many years I was focusing on the product "Contextual Shortcuts". The product evolved from Y!Q Contextual Search, which I invented shortly after joining Yahoo!. I took that original idea and turned it within a short time-frame into a successful product that is now being used by millions of users on a daily basis (e.g., in Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! News). I built up a strong research and engineering team from scratch, and continue to lead and grow my team.

Senior Engineering Manager

Invented and implemented Y!Q Contextual Search shortly after joining Yahoo!. I took that original idea and turned it within a short time-frame into a successful product that is now being used by millions of users on a daily basis.

Conducted research in the area of contextual search, published papers at CIKM 2005 and WWW 2006. Filed several patent applications.

Technical Yahoo!

UC Santa Cruz

I was teaching at UC Santa Cruz primarily the topic of web engineering. This was a very hands-on class, and I enjoyed working the students on very interesting projects during that time. I also conducted research in the area of semantic search technologies and content analysis.

Assistant Adjunct Professor

Teaching a class CS 183 "Hypermedia and the Web" which comprises an introduction to the construction of hypermedia systems and large-scale web applications. Topics covered include pre-web hypertext systems, hypermedia data models, namespaces, system architecture of the web, design of large linked information spaces, design and development of database-backed web applications, web site load testing, and web collaboration technologies. Students work in teams over the term to develop a significant web application. Class homepage for more details: http://www.soe.ucsc.edu/classes/cmps183/Spring10/

Visiting Assistant Professor

IBM Almaden Research Center

I worked at the IBM Almaden Rearch Center for many years as a senior software and research engineer, where I conducted research in the area of web information retrieval and search technologies. I was a key contributor and engineer of IBM's OmniFind enterprise search product, where I devised and implemented several algorithms to improve its overall ranking and search quality.  My strong engineering and system building skills contributed significantly to the success of this product. 

In addition, I worked on several other search related projects at IBM. One of them has been recognized a research accomplishment in 2002. 

One of my key strength is innovation in tech. I filed close to a 100 patent applications while employed at IBM Almaden and have been recognized as a Master Inventor within their research division.

Reiner is a seasoned technology leader, engineer, scientist, technical advisor & sparring partner, executive leadership coach, bio & mind hacker, micronutrients expert, podcaster, and speaker who is nowadays helping leaders to upgrade their body & mind to think and function better.

During his tech career, he spent 20 years in the Silicon Valley and the past 7 years in Berlin, Germany, working for top high-tech companies (e.g., IBM Research, Yahoo, Zalando) and startups while exploring novel approaches to leadership and new work methodologies to build purposeful and impactful organizations. 

He is considered a top innovator with more than 120 U.S. patents, making him one of the most prolific inventors in Silicon Valley. Both IBM Research and Yahoo recognized him as a Master Inventor. The prestigious MIT Technology Review (TR 100) in 2003 also nominated him as a top innovator under the age of 30 to shape the world.

Reiner spent the past decade defining a systematic approach to upgrade your body and mind by tracking more than 200+ biomarkers.  He also developed a novel data-driven approach to mindfulness to raise your level of present awareness (LPA) with increased focus and prolonged states of flow.

He is the founder of 3-month "The High-Performance Mind" program, which comprises an unique mix of training, coaching, and masterminding to help leaders upgrade their mind and body to become better leaders in tech and to achieve true leadership mastery.

As a founder of The Mindful Leader, he published the 12 Mindful Leadership Principles along with practical teachings that cultivate presence in leaders to increase their leadership effectiveness. 

Furthermore, he incubated the Mindful Tech Leaders (http://www.mindfultechleaders.com), a global community of diverse business & tech leaders who are passionate about applying mindful leadership to build purposeful and impactful tech organizations.

He is the host of The Mindful Leader podcast, where he interviews experts and thought leaders in the area of mind-management, neuroscience, leadership, functional medicine, and biohacking. 

As an executive leadership & certified human potential coach (HPI) he assists  leaders in optimizing their mindset and brain performance to increase their resilience and energy levels to thrive in high-pressure environments.

As a tech sparring partner he works together with senior leaders to help them scale their tech orgs better, or support them through times of exponential changes.

taplio

The Battle

Rachelle Leerling

Reiner Kraft, PhD

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