Founders
You built something that works, and it has stopped growing. You can feel the ceiling. I work out which part of the business is holding it down (the structure, the infrastructure, the go-to-market or the product) and rebuild it with you.
Daphne Mavroudi-Chocholi
When the business has outgrown the way it's built, I find what's holding it back and rebuild it.
Commercial leadership for founders and PE/VC-backed businesses at the point where the old model stops working.
The problem
Growth stalls when the set-up stops fitting the business.
The business worked. Then it got bigger, or the market moved, and the structure that got it here started to cap what it could do. Margin stopped improving. New channels cost more than they return. The team is busy and the numbers are flat.
Everyone has a theory about why, and the founder has usually tried most of them. From the inside, tired and stretched, the constraint is the hardest thing to see.
That is where I come in.
Who I help
Two people call me.
Investors
A portfolio company has stopped compounding. The plan in the model no longer matches what the business can deliver, and management is too deep in it to reset. I come in alongside management, find the binding constraint, and rebuild it. You get a diagnosis and a plan with a number, an owner and a date on every line.
How I work
Diagnose. Rebuild. Grow.
Diagnose
I start with the numbers and the people: unit economics, channel margins, structure, product range, customer data. The aim is one answer to one question: which constraint is capping growth?
Rebuild
I work inside the business, alongside the team. Restructuring the P&L, redesigning the commercial model, resetting go-to-market, renegotiating the partnerships that no longer earn their place.
Grow
The new set-up has to prove itself in the numbers. Sometimes that means handing the model and the plan to a team ready to run it. Sometimes it means staying on to lead the growth myself. The work is done when the business is growing, not when the plan is written.
I have done this in five sectors on three continents. The constraint changes every time. The method holds.
Results
Five businesses. Five different ceilings.
The constraint was different every time. Here is what it was, what I rebuilt, and what happened.
5×net margin improvement in a $25m social impact business
$1.6mlosses eliminated over two years in a pet health scale-up
3×topline growth in a behavioural science scale-up
RNIB Enterprises
Managing Director, 2023–2026The ceiling
A $25m social impact business run on charity infrastructure that could not protect margin or scale revenue.
What I rebuilt
Full restructure, revenue-share partnerships, targeted go-to-market across four product lines.
Result
5× net margin improvement in a $25m social impact business. 35% income growth over two years.
Antinol
Managing Director, 2021–2023The ceiling
A pet health scale-up with $1.6m of accumulated losses and a commercial model that did not fit the UK and EU.
What I rebuilt
New financial model, renegotiated 3PL and distributor terms, DTC pivot across four countries at once.
Result
$1.6m losses eliminated over two years in a pet health scale-up. 6× more online customers.
machineVantage
CRO and Board Member, 2017–2021The ceiling
A disruptive product with no commercial operation outside California.
What I rebuilt
Built the international revenue engine from zero. Raised seed and Series A from Unilever Ventures and IRI.
Result
$1.5m ARR by year 2. Clients including Unilever and J&J Vision.
Mavens of London
Senior Director, 2014–2017The ceiling
Research expertise that could compete with the majors, and no sales infrastructure to do it consistently.
What I rebuilt
Redesigned the sales process, rebuilt the client portfolio, opened two new market sectors.
Result
Core account revenue doubled. Six new clients. $15m pipeline forecast accurately.
Nielsen / NeuroFocus
VP Marketing Effectiveness, 2009–2014The ceiling
A new discipline with no proven route to scale across Europe.
What I rebuilt
Commercial strategy for Platinum FMCG clients across an $87m practice.
Result
European business tripled in four years. Team of 20 built.
About
Who I am
MIT · No Code AI and Machine Learning, 2025–26
Harvard Business School · CORe, 2020
London School of Economics · LLM
University of Nottingham · BA
English and Greek native. German intermediate.
Twenty years across neuroscience and marketing, AI and machine learning, pet care and retail, sight loss and universal design. From the outside it may have looked like I could not make up my mind. Across all of them I was following one question: what does it take to make something work?
The answer keeps coming back the same. Find the expertise and passion already in the team, the product and the market, then build the structures that turn it into sustainable growth. The right foundations. The right unit economics. The right market fit. The right commercial logic.
I have done that with founders taking an idea to a fundable business, in global turnarounds across APAC, EMEA and North America, and inside large organisations where risk aversion and misalignment had become the ceiling. That last environment is where some of my most satisfying work has happened. The inertia is heavy, the politics are loud, and the business grows anyway.
Inclusion and accessible design are a lens I bring to everything I do.
In conversation
Where I talk about this
Conversations on transformation, governance, inclusive design and how businesses are built to last.
On inclusive communications
Cultural Communication Confidence
Accessible and inclusive workplaces: transforming communication. 40 min.
Listen on SpotifyOn executive presence
Boardroom Confidential
Imposter syndrome, executive presence and preparation.
Listen on SpotifyOn being a first-time board member
The Better Boards Podcast Series
Working with a board as a first-time CEO. 21 min.
Listen on SpotifyOn integrating impact and income
Leader of Leaders
Integrating social impact with business strategy.
Listen on Spotify