Sara Gaviser Leslie Email & Phone Number

Menlo Park, Ca, Us

San Francisco Bay Area

In Other Words translates strategy into powerful stories and memorable narratives. We focus on positioning, brand architectures, and strategic messaging; fundraising and sales pitches; and creative strategy.We work with hyper-growth startups that struggle to explain their business clearly and succinctly, both internally and externally. We help them tell their story in a way that creates engagement and alignment with customers, employees, partners, investors, and influencers. Clients include: Sequoia Capital, LinkedIn, Clari, Course Hero, Gladly, Culture Amp, Jive Software, Medallia, Entytle, Looker, Citi Ventures, Castlight Health, Mainsail Partners, Scale VP, Lotame, Figue, Vorbeck, Emergence Capital, IamElemental Toys, Kleiner Perkins, Aspen Institute, Russell Reynolds, RelateIQ, Welltok, The Lean Startup (conference and publications), Stanford Graduate School of Business, and Duarte Design.They often share one or more of these issues:• They want to scale to a new market and the old story doesn’t work• They’re concerned that the leadership team and employees don’t share the same vision• They want to crisply articulate their story to investors, either for the first time or because it’s changed since their last fundraisingOfferings include:--Building foundational narratives for companies that explain the genesis of the strategy, differentiate the company and communicate a shared purpose--Developing fundraising decks, recruiting pitches, sales decks and keynote presentations (and presentation coaching)--Drafting content strategies that draw on the narrative's key themes--Writing website content--Writing thought leadership content: blogs, contributed articles, and presentations--Developing buyer personas and demand gen materials

San Francisco Bay Area

Noise 13 is a San Francisco brand strategy and design agency that's helped brands find and express their real for over 20 years

New York City Metropolitan Area

The Ricciardi Group was founded to set a new standard in insight and creativity for the most complex and revered B2B brands from a team that “gets it.”We believe great work can inspire brave leaps forward in business and drive real growth.

San Francisco Bay Area

Emotive Brand is a B2B brand strategy and design consultancy working with high-growth companies. We work with executives to help connect business strategy to brand strategy to enable revenue growth, to build stronger brands, and ensure employees understand how to execute.

Developed foundational brand platform and messaging. Participated in all aspects of brand and product marketing and sales enablement.

San Francisco Bay Area

Manage all brand strategyDevelop and execute campaignsServe as voice of brand

Redwood City, Ca

Ran all marketing department activities and oversaw campaigns.

San Francisco Bay Area/ Los Angeles

Opportunity Fund is a not-for-profit social enterprise helping thousands of California families build financial stability. Our strategy combines microloans for small businesses, microsavings accounts, and community real estate financing. Now California's leading microfinance provider, Opportunity Fund began based on the idea that small amounts of money and financial advice could help people make permanent and lasting change to improve their own lives. Since making our first loan in 1995, our team has deployed $280 million into our communities.

I work on a consulting basis as part of a team to help Duarte clients tell their stories using compelling messages. I research their messages, coach them in more effective ways to convey their content, and execute concepts, storylines, and data in written form. This work provides the design team with everything they need to build an engaging and compelling visual presentation.The work entails: * Interviewing stakeholders * Creating interesting and compelling narrative structures * Developing visual metaphors * Writing marketing and technical copy * Writing scripts and speaker notes * Building a logical framework/story arc

Menlo Park, Ca

Designed and executed key messages and positioning statements for $23M bond campaign for Menlo Park City School District.Bond measure passed by over 75% of voter turnout.

Palo Alto, Ca

Co-wrote New York Times Bestseller, Transform: How Leading Companies are Winning with Social Technology. Managed project from start to finish.

Developed case examples for Eric Ries', "The Lean Startup" http://lean.st/Provide ongoing research and writing support.

Wrote over 25 cases and accompanying teaching notes under the direction of world-renowed faculty. Case subjects included companies in the following fields and topics: software, healthcare, clean-tech, industrial products, real estate, non-profit management, sustainability, energy, business services, and automotives. Case examples include: eBay, Nike, Zappos, NetApp, Nanosolar, Siemens, Nissan-Renault, Coke, Dell, IntuitCollaborated with professors and GSB staff in development of new capstone course and developed course materials.Served as teaching assistant for three courses.

Developed long-term fundraising strategy for the organization. Oversaw and managed all organizational fundraising efforts including major gifts, annual campaign, event, and corporate underwriting. Raised funds in excess of budget each year. Increased grant dollars by 55%.

Sole analyst covering retail, gaming, lodging, and leisure equities.Launched formal coverage on six stocks and completed an industry review within five months. Added six additional names in less than a year.Created and maintained company models, provided industry outlook opinions and made buy/sell recommendations.Maintained recommendations and discussed portfolio changes with managers on an ongoing basis.

Conducted independent research and wrote in-depth report of billing and customer care industry including earning projections, valuations, trend analyses and recommendations for analysts and managers.

$110M Venture capital fund focused on Israeli technologies. Located prospective companies for the Fund’s portfolio. Managed evaluation processes for investments and recommended investments. Determined companies’ financial and strategic viabilities. Performed competitive and financial analyses. Led meetings with portfolio companies and co-investors. Identified business partners and beta test sites for portfolio companies. Located investments for Fund’s strategic partners based on technology criteria.

Management consultant to Fortune 200 companies. Developed measurement, knowledge management, and customer service support processes in various business sectors. Utilized Balanced Scorecard methodology to develop strategic management systems.