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Passion.
Humility.
Tenacity.
Obsession.
Immersion.
Relentless Pursuit.
We believe that is what it takes to identify powerful trends, recognize visionary innovators, collaborate effectively, and make transformative investments.
We believe that is what it takes to build exceptional businesses.
We know how hard it is to build a sustainable, profitable business. We created Clerisy to partner with founders, share our experience, perspective and expertise, and deliver resources that can drive growth and help build extraordinary businesses.
We’ve spent more than 25 years traveling the world – observing, listening, participating, experimenting… We’ve studied consumers. Honed our perspective. Identified trends. Recognized disruptors. Conducted analysis. Invested in and operated businesses. Built brands.
Along the way, we’ve learned a lot, especially the importance of credibility and trust.
We’ve been involved in operating and investing at all stages of development – from seeding ideas to creating unicorns to taking companies public. We’ve worked alongside public company CEOs and management teams to tackle pivotal changes in consumer trends and develop powerful global strategies. We’ve seen success and failure, examined the post-mortems, and tried to learn from both.
Most importantly, we know the learning, is never done.
Lisa lived in the global public equity markets for almost 20 years as a portfolio manager, and coordinator of all consumer research for Templeton. She looped the globe observing consumers, identifying secular and structural trends, meeting with companies of all sizes and shapes, and strategizing with the management teams of those companies. After almost two decades, Lisa decided it was time to roll up her sleeves for real. She spent a year doing some hybrid investing in public and private companies with BTG Pactual, and ultimately joined LCatterton as a partner on their flagship Buyout Fund. As L Catterton was growing bigger, Lisa found herself drawn to the challenges of earlier stage companies. Convinced that her cumulative perspective, and broad global experience and network could be most impactful to founders searching for partners to help them scale and grow their businesses, Lisa convinced Alexandra to build Clerisy with her as a purpose-built platform to help accelerate the building of amazing, sustainable, profitable businesses.
While Lisa hails from the northeast, where she attended U Penn, and Georgetown for her law degree, Lisa has called The Bahamas home for over 25 years. When Lisa is not doing a deep dive into company strategy, she can usually be found diving up sand dollars and sea biscuits or trying not to take a dive off a ski slope in Colorado. In addition to diving and skiing, Lisa loves spending time with her husband and kids, running, hiking, finding the perfect word, side hustling as an interior designer, and art and art history.
Alexandra is best known professionally as Co-Founder of ecommerce sensation, Gilt which transformed the landscape of luxury and fashion ecommerce with the invention of the flash sale, creating urgency of demand and innovating the online shopping experience. Alexandra owned the Chief Merchant role at Gilt, and filled many other seats on the journey from start-up to $650m in revenues. Having learned how to parlay the ability to sell luxury and accessible luxury items into selling travel and experiences, Alexandra was more than intrigued by the idea of using technology to efficiently deliver services. As a co-founder of GlamSquad, Alexandra brought beauty to the home of the time constrained, and GlamSquad professionals engendered a level of trust which ultimately permitted the development of a product line, creating a full-service beauty company. Before AI and machine learning became household words, Alexandra jumped at the challenge to use this advanced technology to create a shopping tool, which Google found so compelling that they bought it pre- launch. Alexandra and her team had simultaneously developed an accompanying analogue tool which they ultimately sold to peer to peer luxury recommerce company, Tradesy.
While no one would have flinched if this pioneer in digital commerce, retail, merchandising, sales, business development and marketing had launched another start-up, Alexandra decided to take the path more traveled when she joined Allergan, the global pharmaceutical leader in aesthetics, to help them learn how to communicate directly with the consumers they sought to engage, rather than delivering samples to doctors. Befittingly, Alexandra coined Project Moonwalker and hired a team of 70 to execute the vision.
Don’t hold it against Alexandra that she is a double H – Harvard B.A. and MBA. Alexandra’s humility is disarming, especially when she speaks to you in your native language (of which she speaks five). Alexandra is a relentless consumer, forever testing new platforms and products. She will often have suggestions on a first meeting. When she is not analyzing a new consumer concept, Alexandra can be found on the tennis court, and not missing her New York roots as she soaks up sunshine with her husband and two kids in their new Florida digs.
A smart Midwesterner rounds out every team. From Chicago, Zack has been loyal to his roots, studying at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for his undergrad, and at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business for his MBA, where he not only learned a lot, but also claims to have had fun (maybe the business school is exempt from the moniker?). In between undergrad and business school, Zack cut his teeth in investment banking at Greenhill & Co. and had his first foray in private equity at Madison Dearborn Partners, where he focused on growth equity and buyout investments across the consumer, software, and industrial sectors. After business school, Zack moved to the “other” big city and spent a couple of years in the New York office of UK-based 3i Group plc where he continued to work on software, business services, and industrial deals. Wise for his years, and valued for his insight, Zack has been an esteemed board observer for Multi-Packaging Solutions, Fleet Complete, JMJ Associates, and Magnitude Software. Committed to focusing on all things consumer, and a true entrepreneur at heart, Zack took the leap out of big firm PE to join Clerisy to help build the next generation of consumer innovators.
Zack used to dream about weekend golf, but as a new dad, golf is out, Peloton HIIT classes are in, and Zack is the best hands- on consumer researcher in the baby space, keenly investigating new innovations in food, toys, gear, and apparel.
Dormify simplifies the decor shopping experience for college students and post-grads without sacrificing style.
UNION is a highly differentiated point of sale exclusively built for high volume hospitality venues.
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Sonoro is an entertainment company that collaborates w/Latinx storytellers to develop content in English and Spanish.
A digital agency enabling brands to deepen engagement through distinctive, engaging storytelling, IP, and technology.
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