Studio Meza is an inclusive venture studio bringing a new generation of abundance to the table in Sub-Saharan Africa. We focus on consumer infrastructure — bold models for delivering more of the essential products, services, and experiences we believe everyone should have access to. Part agency and part builder, we collaborate with multi-sector clients to create and support new businesses, and reinvest 100% of the profit into our portfolio of ventures.With clients, we design, build, and… Show more Studio Meza is an inclusive venture studio bringing a new generation of abundance to the table in Sub-Saharan Africa. We focus on consumer infrastructure — bold models for delivering more of the essential products, services, and experiences we believe everyone should have access to. Part agency and part builder, we collaborate with multi-sector clients to create and support new businesses, and reinvest 100% of the profit into our portfolio of ventures.With clients, we design, build, and iterate concepts on-demand. Our expertise helps clients launch big ideas that win in frontier markets faster and without waste. We stake fees on achieving specific strategic criteria, and offer service investments with equity and revenue payment options. Specialties include ethnographic research and pilots at c. 10k user scale — and sector exposure spans agri-food, energy, consumer goods, health, finance, education, water, and sanitation. Show less

IF explored the market for a startup-as-a-service offering to help global corporates build new impact ventures from scratch in Sub-Saharan Africa. After a pilot engagement with Unilever and deeper market analysis, we pivoted to integrate venture design services into existing projects and startups and validated this strategy with two new target clients (Simusolar and CIFF).

WSUP Enterprises was a USD $15m+ venture lab within London-based WSUP. We partnered with corporate and foundation innovation teams (including Unilever and BMGF) to design and build business models for making better water and sanitation services affordable to urban consumers. I co-founded the lab, and led a team of 15+ on a USD $3.5m grant to reinvent new business models for city-level sanitation in 4 pilot cities (Chittagong, BD; Kisumu, KE; Lusaka, ZM; Kumasi, GH).

SmartLife was a retail concept developed by Unilever, WSUP, GAIN, and IDEO.org to make healthy living essentials more affordable and accessible to urban BoP consumers. I co-led a demand pilot to test and iterate the concept in Nairobi across 2 pilot stores at 1k user scale. Concept included bulk water subscriptions (with delivery available to unaddressed areas), and a curated range of add-on products hard to find consistently in other outlets.

Smarter Security is an emerging physical security technology provider. I led agency production of several deliverables during a corporate rebranding effort, and advised the executive team on market and technology strategy ahead of a multi-million dollar product launch.

Employer Flexible is a 2011 Inc. 75 Human Resources Outsourcing company. I advised the CEO on market and technology strategy for two alternative revenue growth initiatives.

STI was a pre-revenue startup developing a common risk syntax and reporting system to make risk easily communicable across large organizations. I helped the founder move from idea to minimum viable product by delivering a 90 day strategic path-to-revenue and leading customer development.

ASTRI is a global third-party research and development provider. I led a multi-national consulting team of 6 business and technical researchers to create go-to-market strategy for a USD $10m MRI-compatible neonatal incubator project, as part of an MBA program hosted by Baylor University.

Completed a 10 week corporate F&B management program hosted by a 4 star resort property with 500 rooms and 5 outlets.

Studied principles of sales and owned the prospect relationship for a USD $120k event account during a 24 week program.

Completed a 24 week program designed for immersion into all functions of hotel operations, from catering a business lunch for 2,000 people to properly making a bed.