THE THIRTEENS

Your start-up super team

ABOUT

The Thirteens is a start-up consulting firm founded by a team of graduates from Stanford Business School. Our power team brings together a mix of expertise and industries, giving us a unique advantage to help you launch and scale your business. We help you build the infrastructure, launch new products and build a strong people foundation. Our fractional executive solutions give you access to experienced specialists when you need them, without the cost of a full-time hire. Let us help you build a successful business from the ground up.

Meet the Team

Whatever industry or area of expertise you need, we've got you covered
We work as a team so you have access to all partners as needed

Partner

Lusi Chien

Stage: Early

Industry: Healthcare Life Sciences, Mixed Reality, AI

Expertise: Go to market strategy, codifying sales process, pricing

Lusi has been a founder,a founding team member, and repeat c-level executive of 4 start-ups, and have advised 25+. Her experiences span B2C and B2B. Her most recent role is with Nanome, a virtual reality start-up for molecular design, where they are used by 50% of the top pharma companies around the world. Prior to that, she was part of the founding team and Chief Commercial Officer at Subtle Medical, an AI in medical imaging software as a medical device start-up out of Stanford radiology. She specializes in helping start-ups with deep technology launch and scale, developing a sales playbook, and allowing them to be on their way to grow.

She has a MBA from Stanford and AB in Economics from Harvard.

Partner

Emily Steinberg

Stage: Growth

Industry: Clean Energy, Electrification

Expertise: implementing sales infrastructure, customer acquisition programs, and strategic partnerships to accelerate sales.

Emily is a fractional sales leader, consultant, and executive coach. Emily brings 15 years of operating experience in sales and marketing roles in B2B and B2C, spanning growth-stage to post-IPO. In her most recent role as Managing Director at Sunlight Financial, she created and managed all sales support functions (analytics, sales operations, PMO, channel partner onboarding, training, incentives). Previously she ran retail lead generation and channel sales strategy at Sunrun.

Emily holds an MBA. and M.S. in Environment & Resources from Stanford University, and a BA in Psychology from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Partner

Shayani Roy

Stage: Growth

Industry: Software, Internet, Social

Expertise: B2B SaaS new product development, Scaling through Product-Led-Growth (PLG) strategies, Organizational design

Shayani has been a product management executive across startup, mid-size, and Fortune100 companies, specializing in B2B SaaS. In her most recent role as a product executive at Meta, she led a portfolio of 100+ products spanning new innovation, mature and open-source content management and collaboration products. Prior to Meta, she was VP of Product at SurveyMonkey.

Shayani has an MBA from Stanford, an MS in Aeronautics & Astronautics Engineering from Purdue and a dual degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Drexel.

Advisors

In addition to the core team, we have a network of advisors who can be pulled in to help start-ups with specific things, such as fundraising, HR, legal, marketing, etc. (More bios coming soon)

Fundraising Advisor

Hayley Chan

Stage: Growth

Industry: Fintech, Consumer, SaaS

Expertise: Finance, strategy, fundraising

Hayley is a growth investor with a proven track record in startup fundraising and public and private markets investing. She is deeply passionate about technology and helping it to reach its full potential by creating a delightful customer experience and having a sound business model.

As an investor, Hayley brings more than just financial backing; she offers a holistic partnership to unlock a startup's full potential. Leveraging extensive investing, board and advisory experiences, Hayley brings valuable insights gleaned from interactions with over 1,000 CEOs, covering topics such as market positioning, product roadmap, sales and marketing strategy, financial prioritization, capital structure optimization and strategic M&A.

In her advisory role, Hayley specializes in preparing startups for fundraising. Providing an independent perspective to entrepreneurs, she aids in clarifying company vision and strategy as well as identifying key KPIs and milestones. Hayley demystifies investor expectations, working closely with entrepreneurs on effective communication with investors and navigating the complexities of the fundraising process.

Hayley holds an MBA from Stanford, an MS in Mechanical Engineering from MIT, and a BS in Mechanical Engineering from UC Berkeley.

Biotech GTM Advisor

Yaa Bruce

Stage: Growth

Industry: Biotech

Expertise: Market Launch and Evaluation

Yaa has two decades of experience increasing access to treatment across biopharma and healthcare. She has launched and built several life-changing therapeutics, most recently leading BioMarin’s US launch of the first FDA-approved gene therapy for hemophilia A, a rare bleeding disorder.

Yaa held roles across Commercial, in a number of therapeutic areas, at biopharma companies large and small including Genentech/Roche, Corcept Therapeutics, BioMarin, and Achaogen. In these roles, she has launched and re-launched products to transform patients' lives.

Before entering biopharma, Yaa spent time at Fletcher Spaght, a boutique healthcare and high tech consulting and venture capital firm, developing and assessing commercialization plans for early stage companies.

Yaa currently serves as an advisor to SPARK at Stanford, whose mission is to partner with Stanford professors, post-docs, and PhD students to advance academic discoveries into promising treatments for patients.

Yaa earned her BS in Engineering Sciences (biomedical) from Harvard University and her MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Insights

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Get in touch, feel free to specify a partner you want to lead your project if you have a preference.