Fluent in Three Languages: Customer, Operations, and Capital.
Customer Strategy When Retention Determines Funding, Growth, and Exit
Operating through two IPOs from the inside, then years at Insight Partners reading the pattern across hundreds of growth-stage B2B SaaS companies. The leader under board pressure, and the advisor in the room when the hard calls get made.
Customers experience one reality. Operators see the business from inside. Investors read patterns across portfolios. I move between all three, translating what the board needs to hear into language the team can execute, and what the frontline is seeing into intelligence investors can act on. That translation matters most when customer friction impacts growth, funding, or valuation.
Customers feel the friction first. Boards see it last. The friction that decides whether a company scales or stalls surfaces in the retention numbers long after it starts, and after enough companies you learn to read it early. The cause is always older than the symptom.
I show you precisely where the problem is and which calls carry the real risk. The leaders who get through high-stakes moments well have one thing in common: someone in the room who tells them what they need to hear, clearly enough to drive action instead of defensiveness. That's what I do.
"Ellie becomes a trusted confidante, giving our leadership team and me confidence we are moving in the right direction."
— Pablo Dominguez, Operating Partner, Insight Partners
Why I Built CSuiteCX
The pattern kept repeating across hundreds of companies. Teams committed resources to the wrong problem because they didn't have time to diagnose correctly. Retention metrics that looked solid internally collapsed under investor scrutiny. Operators delivering results boards couldn't see, and boards asking questions operators couldn't answer.
I built this practice to close that gap. Diagnostic clarity before resources lock in. Translation between what operators know and what investors need to hear.
What You Get
The right diagnosis in weeks, not quarters.
Companies spend months building the wrong solution because they skipped diagnosis. You get compressed time to clarity: pattern recognition from hundreds of companies applied to your specific context. Weeks of diagnostic work saves you six months of building the wrong thing.
Decisions that stick, not analysis that stalls.
Most decisions stall in both-sides analysis: every option weighed, nothing chosen, the call pushed another quarter. You get one recommendation, the reasoning behind it, and where it could go wrong, so you can commit instead of circling. Analysis was never the hard part. Deciding is.
Direct feedback that doesn't damage relationships.
Hard truths, delivered so they drive action instead of defensiveness. This is what thousands of high-stakes boardroom conversations teach you: how to say the difficult thing in a way that lands and keeps the relationship intact. And if I'm not the right fit, you'll hear that too.
The Background
An engineer by training who went straight into technical sales, then customer success. I knew the product cold, carried the number, and owned the retention. That progression is why I read customer, operations, and capital as one conversation, not three.
Two IPOs (Coupa, Smartsheet). Enterprise transformation at Concur/SAP. Insight Partners. Founder, CSuiteCX.
Creator of a proprietary diagnostic that finds what customer friction is costing you, and what to fix first.
7,000+ LinkedIn community
OPEXEngine
Insight Partners ScaleUp Series
7,000+ LinkedIn community OPEXEngine Insight Partners ScaleUp Series
Where I’ve Led, Advised, or Spoken
"Ellie's steadfast pursuit of excellence has had a profound impact on my team and leadership. Her support gave us clarity, confidence, and a higher bar for success, all delivered with a generosity of spirit that is rare in this world."
— Jim Turner, Chief Operating Officer, Exclaimer
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We'll discuss what you're navigating and whether this is a fit.