Alexandria
de Aranzeta
she/her
Consultant. Coach. Speaker.
Coaching & Consulting
Experience is everything
I work collaboratively and immersively with my clients, because I believe building authentic stories and strategies happens best when everyone is part of the experience.Communication Coaching
Communication and performance coaching for tech founders and executives all over the world. Whether you're a CEO, CTO, CHRO or Product leader, you can expect that each session is goal-focused, framework-driven, and optimized for outcomes.Coaching Focus Areas
- Founders preparing their fundraise materials, internal and external communications
- Executives and CEOs on executive leadership, writing, and public speaking
- Employees gearing up for a negotiation or difficult conversation
- Managers wanting to build better people management skills and optimize team communication
- HR on facilitating, resolving conflict, and communicating internally to their team
- Founders and product teams that need unblocking on ideation, scope, or during sprints
- Teams working through change
- Building culturally competent and inclusive teams
- Storytelling for design, product, or other job seekers preparing for in-person or virtual interviewingWorkshops & Learning
Custom, expert-led learning for individuals and teams on the below topics:
- Diversity, equity and inclusion
- Developing cultural competency
- Conflict resolution and negotiation
- Developing your personal story (written narrative and speaker storytelling)
- Speaking for influence
- Self-advocacy and agency
- Responsible AI foundationsFractional Consulting
An embedded and integrated approach to consulting. Fractional consulting services are generally best for longer term objectives and milestone-driven work over time, often to operationalize workstreams, define strategy, or level-up teams in the following areas:
- AI storytelling
- Diversity and inclusion
- Product equity strategy
- Operationalizing process and strategy
About
"Experience is not what happens to you. It's what you do with what happens to you." - Aldous HuxleyAlex de Aranzeta (she/her), MA, JD is a negotiator and linguist by education, and storytelling coach and responsible AI consultant by profession. Alex has a deep background in mediation, negotiation and dispute resolution, as well as building diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs for teams of 5 to 50,000. She spent a decade working in Civil Rights, where she formally investigated and resolved 400+ EEOC cases of discrimination and advised and trained 250+ companies on equity and compliance policies and practices while working in government. More recently, she also led market strategy and storytelling at a generative AI startup.Now, Alex leverages her background in facilitation, acting, and people in her executive communication coaching and storytelling practice to help tech founders, product leaders, teams, and companies communicate their product value internally and externally to their teams, customers, stakeholders, and investors.
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What leaders are saying
"Alex has been incredibly helpful with my startups fundraising narrative. Her speaking and coaching skills are on another level. She helped me understand how to tell a compelling story and understand my investor audience. I can’t recommend her services enough."
-Jake P., CEO and Co-founder at Dolo
"I am so grateful for your advice, your wisdom, and your patience. My delivery and story started as a bunch of jumbled thoughts with many “ums” and, with your help, transformed into a strong [investor] pitch with a catchy hook. Your structure and framework made it so easy for me to input my most vital points, and I had a lot of fun working with you. I was able to show off my new skills during a pitch to [VC firm] this morning, and I think it went pretty well 🙂 I highly recommend Alex if you are looking for help in this arena."
-Michael F., CEO and Co-founder at Maverick Community
"You're a storytelling expert and I'm grateful to have gotten the chance to jam with you :)"
-David K., CEO at Intros.ai (raised $1.3M Seed, June 2022)
“Alex is the most engaging trainer we’ve ever had. Her passion and knowledge for civil rights and workplace discrimination protections is remarkable.”
-C-level Executive, former compliance training client
"Alex, you're absolutely amazing! Your contribution moved my pitch to the next level... I've heard about different types of hooks a lot of times but only with you they've made sense. You've grasped my story so fast and told it in so many beautiful ways - that was tremendously helpful for me. I've always only got feedback about my pitch needing to be improved - but no clear guidance."
-Nicole P., CEO and founder at Calibri.io
“Alex brings much enthusiasm to mediations […]. She uses her investigative background to get at the make-or-break-issues [and] her down-to-earth and pragmatic approach to these sessions serves her well.“
-Senior Mediator (Co-Mediator for workplace resolutions)
"Working with Alex was a treat. I knew our marketplace message was complicated, with three primary target audiences. I also didn’t know how to change it beyond the familiar habits that I had developed over the years. She has her own methods for breaking down all existing understandings and data into individual chunks. The language bits she captures in our dialogue effectively takes on a deeper meaning when it is reframed with simplicity and clarity. Then you can see she is creating both a broad storyline and individual storylines…and all apply to our supply, demand, and investor audiences.The broad value is an ability to talk about the company in consistent terms that most anyone can understand, versus using industry lingo that gets lost when speaking about the opportunity. She makes you work before the sessions…and there is a lot of practicing after the storytelling theme[s] comes together. But slowly this becomes the new lexicon for everyone in the company to use in discussions. The framework and resulting messaging feel so much easier to deliver than what we had three months ago. We are now prepared for fundraising and intend to work with Alex again as the company evolves."
-Kent D., CEO & Co-Founder at Zimmerfrei
Speaking
2023
Coming Soon, Telling Your AI Story, Atlanta Tech Village, 28 Nov 2023Coming Soon, Negotiating Fearlessly: Asking to Win, The Lola, 19 Oct 2023Panel Moderator, Creating Your Culture with WEI, Calendly, and The Lola, Atlanta Tech Village, 18 Jul 2023Emcee and Producer, Personal AI - Model 1 Product Launch, Guggenheim Theatre, San Diego, 11 Apr 2023
2022
Creating Your Culture, Atlanta Tech Village Startup School, 7 Jul 2022Elevate Your Ask: Get What You Want, 2022 Women in Product Conference, 10 May 2022More than Numbers: State of Tech Company Data Collection, Reporting, Transparency, and Accountability, Kapor Center, 2 Mar 2022Your Story, Your Because: Telling Authentic You, Atlanta Tech Village Women in Tech, 9 Feb 2022
2019
From Millennials to Perennials: Inclusive Space-making for Aging and Ability at Work, Tulip Conference, San Francisco Startup Week, 4 Jun 2019
2018
Salary Negotiation, Women in Power Conference, Harvard Kennedy School, 28 Apr 2018Increasing Access to Entrepreneurship + Tech Panel, Blockchain Startup Bus NYC, 4 Apr 2018
2016
How to Build a Culturally Competent and Inclusive Team, 10th Anniversary Fair Housing and Civil Rights Conference, MCAD | EEOC | MA Fair Housing Commission, 7 Apr 2016Communicating: How Great Leaders Do It, 10th Anniversary Fair Housing and Civil Rights Conference, MCAD | EEOC | MA Fair Housing Commission, 8 Apr 2016
2015
Gender Equity Panelist, U.S. Department of Labor Women's Bureau, 27 Mar 2015
"the room is fixated""[a] level of narrative mastery""I feel like I'm watching an episode of Mad Men""Everything about this is epic""I've been transported""This is like listening to Calm""Goosebumps 😊""poetic!"
I'm an Electives instructor and teach a course called Storytelling Like Aristotle.