This week we are excited to share with you more on Lisa Rogoff for our Ops Partner spotlight. When Bill and I were brainstorming the type of people we wanted supporting operational needs for QDS portfolio companies, leadership development was at the top of our list of needs that early stage companies often fail to recognize as imperative to success. That’s when we called on one of the best in the industry we knew doing exactly that type of work: Lisa Rogoff of Launch Project.
Lisa is an Executive Coach, Facilitator, and Leadership Development Consultant. She came to this work after spending 15+ years creating and leading teams in diverse industries (human rights, ed tech, non-profits) and settings (Washington, DC, Rwanda, Burkina Faso). During this time, she studied how some leaders used command and control, fear, and micromanagement to get results. She even experimented with what she saw on herself. Lisa observed visionary leaders who leveraged partnerships, creativity, and coaching to take their teams and organizations further than anyone imagined. These leaders inspired her to dedicate her career and life to unleashing potential in people and teams.
In 2016, Lisa founded Launch Project to support organizations, teams, and leaders in creating workplaces that are empowering, creative, challenging, and fun. She works with her clients to make leadership development a strategic priority and to translate this work into critical organizational outcomes, including higher retention rates, greater employee engagement and satisfaction, and increased psychological safety across teams. Lisa’s custom-built leadership development and executive coaching engagements support leaders as they build emotional intelligence, use coaching to lead their teams, and create organizational alignment.
At QDS Capital, Lisa supports the founders and c-level execs at our portfolio companies across sectors to develop and transform great founders into their highest potential as company leaders and to support the growth of cross-functional and highly productive teams and individuals.
While Lisa now lives in the Chicago area, the Charlottesville community holds a special place in her heart as it is where both of her children were born, where she launched her business, and the home of her favorite bagel (Bodos, obviously). She continues to work with clients in Charlottesville, including WillowTree Apps and several other organizations in the community. Her work has since expanded to include many clients in the Bay Area, such as Nerdwallet, Pinterest, Upstart, and HackerOne, and other rising tech hubs, including Austin, Chicago, and Atlanta. Lisa looks forward to supporting QDS as it expands in and beyond Virginia.