Heidi Messer is a Chairperson, co-Founder, and Collective[i] Forecast Host at Collective[i]. They is proficient in French. Colleagues describe them as "I had the great honor of working with and for Heidi for about 7 years as she was co-founder and president/COO, and myself ultimately the VP of software engineering. Heidi is an Internet entrepreneur with a undisputed track record of legendary proportions, and overall among the bare few most valuable executives I've worked with in 15 years. Heidi is a wise visionary in the online technology space, with an intellectual brilliance, an exceedingly shrewd business acumen, and a full arsenal of other exceptional traits - of course. But if I had to select one key distinction that in my opinion catapults her even beyond the general elite, and that enabled the successful creation of a $425MM entity from scratch in my time, it would definitely be her company-wide recruiting and management philosophy. Most would agree that a wildly successful entrepreneurial venture requires a group of truly elite CXOs; Heidi extended that philosophy in declaring that each and every employee of the company must be truly elite in their intelligence, entrepreneurial passion, and expertise in their fields. The best thing you can do to optimize both the productivity and happiness of an exceptionally smart and honest person is to ensure that they have exceptionally smart and honest people with whom to work. There is an exponential synergy that results in a workplace with such a highly-crafted personnel foundation. Pragmatic hard- and smart-work can be counted on at every turn, and superficial and draconian management "principles" can be abandoned without risk. Transparency can be offered to the most junior employees without reservation, and everyone puts in highly productive overtime voluntarily. Employees' sheer competence and passion organically drives the business. The sum output is so high that employees can be handsomely rewarded for the actual substance of their work, while all can watch with pride as their work directly drives the business's accordingly wild success. It is in that context that I grew from entry-level programmer up through a number of rapid promotions to VP of the 20+ person department - in parallel to the business's growth from zero to $425MM cash sale and beyond. So I will always have Heidi to thank for that personal growth opportunity in which I flourished, however I'm even more thankful for her having imparted that recruiting and management philosophy and values to me in the first place. I have and will always apply them to my teams, so that I can forever offer such opportunities to others, while reaping the benefits all the while."