Eric Ries

Co-Founder & Author

Eric Ries is an entrepreneur and New York Times bestselling author of The Lean Startup and The Startup Way. He serves on the advisory board of several technology startups and has been named Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Harvard Business School, named one of the Best Young Entrepreneurs of Tech by BusinessWeek and honored with a TechFellow award in the category of Engineering Leadership. Previously, he co-founded and served as CTO of IMVU. He is currently Founder & CEO of the Long-Term Stock Exchange.

Heather McGough

CEO & Co-Founder

Heather McGough is CEO and Co-Founder of Lean Startup Company. She aims to transform the way people think and work in the 21st century by empowering the community with modern management education specifically designed for a fast-moving world. The first seven years of her career were spent in the nonprofit sector which still influences much of her work today.

Andy Archer

Account Manager

Andy Archer is an Account Manager for Lean Startup Co.'s Education Program. With a background in entrepreneurship, project management and account management, he works with clients to ensure their training, coaching and consulting engagements with Lean Startup Co. are a success.

Ben Hafele

Senior Faculty

Ben Hafele is an experienced Lean Startup practitioner, program manager, educator, and coach. He built a successful lean innovation program at Caterpillar and has worked with hundreds of startup businesses spanning five continents. Ben thrives on operationalizing Lean Startup concepts and driving alignment and engagement with senior leadership.

Chris Stephens

Head of Education

Chris Stephens is an experienced entrepreneur. As Head of Education, Chris oversees all client-facing operations at Lean Startup Co. His mission is to enable our Education team to deliver the transformational outcomes our clients seek.

CJ Legare

Chief of Staff

CJ brings with her to the Lean Startup Co. team a background in experiential marketing, and film/TV production. She is a Generalist who supports the daily needs of the company as we advocate for the next generation of entrepreneurs and innovators.

Jenna Elkins, CMP

Head of Events

Jenna Elkins brings more than 10 years of conference planning and program development experience to Lean Startup Co.

Jenny Trang

Director of Business Development

Jenny Trang is Lean Startup Co.'s Director of Business Development and brings over a decade of experience in sales, client development, and marketing.

Leeann Trang

Head of Operations

With over a decade of experience advising executive teams and streamlining business operations, Leeann leads business optimization efforts for the Lean Startup Co. team.

Maria Vargas

Marketing and Events Associate

Maria Vargas supports Lean Startup Co. in marketing operations, project management and event logistics.

Monte Warren

Senior Client Manager

Monte Warren is the Senior Client Manager for Lean Startup Co. He provides continuous client support for the corporate education program, helping to ensure successful training, coaching and consulting engagements.

Rita Dillon

Senior Strategist

Rita is an experienced and innovative strategist, facilitator and coach. She has worked with large and small organizations across the globe to develop outcome-based solutions that serve as catalysts for transformational change.

Stacy Conlon

Director of Business Development

Stacy Conlon is the Director of Business Development for Lean Startup Company’s Education Program.

Adam Berk

Faculty

A lean entrepreneur, lean teacher, and serial entrepreneur who helps large organizations implement innovation at scale.

Andi Plantenberg

Faculty

An innovation consultant who builds entrepreneurial capabilities in the enterprise.

Dan Olsen

Faculty

Author of The Lean Product Playbook, passionate about product management and helping companies adopt Lean Startup principles.

Hisham Ibrahim

Faculty

A product leader who seamlessly weaves together design thinking, jobs-to-be-done and Lean Startup practices.

Hugh Molotsi

Faculty

Hugh Molotsi advises and invests in startups and is an active practitioner and teacher of Lean Startup Methodologies.

Jonathan Bertfield

Faculty

Spent two decades as a product manager and strategist for large companies and startups.

Marilyn Gorman

Faculty Lead

Marilyn Gorman is a highly experienced learning professional, facilitator and executive coach.

Hugh Molotsi

Hugh Molotsi is the founder and CEO of Ujama and the co-author of The Intrapreneur’s Journey, a book on how to develop a culture of innovation at large companies.

Chris Guest

Topology Eyewear

Chris is the Chief Marketing & Growth Officer at Topology Eyewear, working at the intersection of Lean, Growth, Brand Marketing and Category Design.

Cindy Alvarez

Microsoft

Cindy Alvarez is the author of Lean Customer Development: Building Products Your Customers Will Buy and Director of User Experience for Yammer (a Microsoft company).

Dan Martell

Clarity

Dan Martell is the co-founder of Clarity a marketplace that connects entrepreneurs to get great business advice.

Hiten Shah

Quick Sprout

Hiten Shah started three SaaS companies, Crazy Egg, KISSmetrics and Quick Sprout. Two are self-funded & the other is venture backed. Hiten enjoys helping others think.

Laura Becker

Laura Becker is a B2B Sales Consultant with an entrepreneurial mindset, always working at the intersection of Sales, Marketing and Customer Success.

Laura Klein

Users Know

Laura fell in love with technology when she saw her first user research session in 1995. Since then, she's worked as an engineer, UX designer, and product manager at both startups and large companies in Silicon Valley.

Manuel Rosso

SevenR Services

Manuel Rosso has been practicing Lean Startup principles since 2006 when he worked with Eric Ries and the rest of the IMVU team as VP of Product and Marketing.

Zach Nies

Techstars

Zach Nies is Managing Director at Techstars for the Boulder program and a member of the faculty at the University of Colorado at Boulder.