Maria is a CxO, Investor and Board Director with extensive experience across investment, operations, product and technology. She has a strong track record in driving revenue growth and operational efficiencies. She has launched over 30 profitable and market-first products and services for Global 100 and startups in different markets globally. She is an Operating Partner with Unicorn Growth Capital, a Fintech VC, Founder of ScaleSpark.ai, an Operations-as-a-Service company, and Founding Principle of First Principles, a US Funding and Market Entry advisory. Prior she served as COO and CTO for Femmar Health Corp (Female HealthTech), co-founded Blue Label Ventures (CVC), CIO at Cell C (Mobile Carrier), and held various roles in Business Development, Product Management and Marketing roles at FinNode (Finnish Accelerator), Lucent, Nokia, Vodafone, Globalstar and other startups.Maria earned her BSc in Electrical Engineering from Pretoria University, South Africa.
Katie Whitcraft is an operations expert, entrepreneur, and advisor with 15+ years of experience helping businesses scale through strategic systems and innovation. She is the Co-Founder of ScaleSpark, an Operations-as-a-Service venture, and COO of Foundry 415 Innovation Group, San Francisco’s leading innovation hub. Katie has led cost-saving and growth initiatives across sectors, including reducing operational spend by over $2M and tripling organizational budgets. She advises nonprofits on operational strategy and is the founder of Troubleshoot Productions, an indie film company. Katie holds an MBA from the University of Denver and lives in San Francisco with her energetic dog.
Do you have a great company in the bioscience or medtech industry? Do you need wet-lab and/or fabrication space to develop and test your product?
