Phaedra R.

Professional background

As a leader in Business Operations, Product, and Strategy, I’ve had the privilege of contributing to 4 acquired companies.

Deeply technical operator with a creative touch, I have diverse experience leading in software, consumer products, and hardware, from Facebook's internal software to Skurt's risk & client products, TheraBody's B2C app, and Spero's food inventions and rapid retail growth. My hardware experience spans leadership in systems, operations, and process engineering at Spero and Sikorsky, and med device optimizations at CRBard.

At Spero, I was honoured to serve as founder, CEO and functional COO, leading a remarkable team in revolutionizing the food technology landscape. I oversaw 50 employees and contractors and raised backing from Bessemer, Valor, YC, Alumni, Soma, and more, to Series B. We sold ~1MM products and secured thousands of retailer deals including Kroger, Sprouts, Whole Foods, and Publix. I developed and led the GTM and brand strategy, designing our brand and partnering with celebrities, like Lizzo. On the operations side, I built our business operations systems, modelling, and business analytics, as well as managed our KPIs, product attributes and roadmap. I also oversaw our supply chain and manufacturing. On the technical side, I wrote and filed multiple food science patents and developed our first products, led the science and engineering teams, and led the build out of a 35k sq-ft FDA-regulated industrial factory and lab, designed with our novel processing automation.

Areas of Expertise

Business Strategy • Data Analysis • Business Development • Financial Planning and Analysis (FP&A) • Operations Management