About
Andrea Kates
Andrea drives business to the next level. She is an expert at uncovering untapped opportunities and galvanizing strategic vision. Leaders who work with Andrea develop a new mindset about future growth, informed by both data and new insights.
Andrea was CEO of the San Francisco SaaS software company that pioneered the application of Lean Startup with scaleup and large companies. In that capacity, she had visibility into more than 13,000 commercialization, technology, and innovation initiatives covering a broad spectrum of companies within the innovation ecosystem from government research labs to large companies (3M, Intel), and a wide range of startups.
My Mission
Based on her experience, she developed an original Get to Next methodology which is specifically designed to equip corporate teams to See emerging opportunities with fresh eyes, Learn rapidly through experimentation and stakeholder discovery, Decide which initiatives should advance, and Commit leaders and teams to the new direction.
She has “futureproofed” teams in virtually every sector including mobile (Ford US + China, GM, Audi), manufacturing/energy (ABB, Audi, GM, Shell-Asia Pacific + Europe), technology/mobile (Fujitsu, HP, Cisco); healthcare (Atrium Health, Mayo Clinic, Roche), B2C consumer goods/hospitality (United Airlines, Sodexo, ALFA-Middle East) and financial services (Allstate, AIG, Citi). Her original research in cross-industry growth was published in her book, Find Your Next.
Andrea has been the featured keynote speaker and global thought leader on the TED main stage, Aspen Ideas Festival, CXO Forum in Tokyo, Rueda de Innovación (Colombia), and in corporate settings (3M, Cisco, Phocuswright: The Future of Travel, OpenFinance Mexico: The Future of Finance, Dubai 2020). Her board affiliations include: Embrace Global, Copenhagen Fintech, OpenFinance Mexico, and Stanford University’s global institute on Responsible Digital Leadership.
Andrea is one of the best strategists in the industry. She listens with rich understanding and brings teams to levels of “rational optimism” and innovation we hadn’t thought possible. Feet on the ground, but future focused. We came away with clarity, commitment, and a powerful roadmap to corporate growth. —Emily Watkins, Unispace
