Maps from the territory
Every organization has a map, the way it says work happens, and a territory, the way work happens. Here’s what I found inside a few of them, and what we built together.
Ellementa: 2 markets to 80 in 18 months
Co-founder, operations, marketing, and technology · 2017 to 2022
The territory: A women’s wellness company with a model that worked locally, a plan to go national, and no institutional capital to fund the build.
What we built: The operations, technology, and systems to run the business across North America, B2B and B2C revenue streams, and support for a 200+ person field network.
What changed: 80 markets in 18 months. In 2022 I managed the sale of the company’s data assets.
Everpurse: from prototype to Kate Spade
Co-founder and COO · 2012 to 2014
The territory: A purse that charged your phone, a small team, and factory timelines indifferent to launch dates.
What we built: Production, quality control, and delivery processes across staff, contractors, and factory teams, plus the fundraising behind the launch.
What changed: $238K+ on Kickstarter, a $1M seed round, and 2,500 units through 22 retailers, including Kate Spade.
Chicago Women Developers: one meetup to 5,000 members
Founder and Director · 2010 to 2021
The territory: One meetup for women learning to code, and the question of what it could become.
What we built: Programs, employer and academic partnerships, and career pathways in STEM and software development.
What changed: 5,000+ members, 24 partners, and 100+ programs. It also taught me to build for sustainability by asking for help.
A benefits-access nonprofit: building the management system through a budget squeeze
Board member and embedded operations advisor · 2025 to now
The territory: A 19 person remote team with more project delays than people, a new earned revenue target, and a story that landed differently with every audience. Partners saw a plug-and-play vendor where the organization saw a full programmatic partner, funders wanted impact in plain numbers, and staff wanted to know what mattered most.
What we built: A narrative assessment that mapped how the organization described itself against how partners, funders, state agencies, and its own staff understood it. From that came an external communications strategy sized for a team with no communications staff, plus a cultural alignment plan and critical role analysis developed with the Executive Director and operations team. Inside, I set up the operating rhythm and a pod-based model for cross-team work, then built the management system to run it: workplans for the Executive Director and each department director, shared 30-60-90 day goals for the management team, SOPs, MOCHA decision roles, SMARTIE goals, and an accountability framework. I also manage staff directly with weekly coaching and development plans, and wrote the end-of-year giving campaign strategy.
What changed: Every director now works from a written workplan, and the management team shares 30-60-90 day goals. Staff arrived at a week-long strategic planning offsite already knowing the direction and left with six FY27 priorities, each with a named owner. The quarterly action plan that followed holds tasks tied to specific grant and team deliverables, with a reviewable operationalized breakdown per department.
The Xtory Project: building the business side of a mission-driven studio
Managing Director · 2025 to present
The territory: A minority woman-owned design studio and California public benefit corporation with 20+ years of work for social impact clients, a founder holding every role, and most of its revenue riding on one anchor client. New business arrived through relationships and referrals, with no system for finding the next client on purpose.
What we built: A three-phase business development strategy, an RFP practice with go/no-go briefs, and a pipeline that tracks every lead from cold to client, and a kit to work it. On the P&L side, I built the pricing model the studio quotes from, took over invoicing and moved clients to monthly billing, and set up a subcontractor bench priced to protect margin. Day to day, I’m the account lead clients call, keeping approval teams of many voices on schedule from kickoff to final invoice.
What changed: Xtory now has a repeatable sales process, a defined market (mission-driven organizations with complex, consensus-driven teams), and ready-to-send materials, plus its first multi-year public-sector bid underway. Invoices now arrive on the schedule clients budget by, and the subcontractor bench freed the founder’s time for proposals and new business.
“Melissa keeps me honest and on track.” Lana Nguyen, The Xtory Project