Market
Which problem, which customer.
The position the whole business stands on. Get it right and everything downstream gets easier.
Overdrive Alpha · Operating advisory
I help companies
scale growth.
I'm an Operating Advisor to Founders, CMOs, and Heads of Product.
I work across market, product, and operations — the whole business, at any scale. When growth stalls, I find the real obstacle, clear it with your team, and leave that team stronger.
Pete Giordano
Operating Advisor, Overdrive Alpha
Working with Databricks and Scale Venture Partners
Working with Databricks and Scale Venture Partners
About
Your goals set the agenda.
Every leader I work with is trying to get something specific done: land the next round, hit a pipeline number, ship a product people pay for. I start with curiosity. I talk to your customers, sit with your team, and dig into the numbers until I see the problem the way you do. Then we decide together where to focus. I roll up my sleeves and work with you and your team.
I work the way a forward-deployed engineering team does. We build the fix together, whether it's a new position, a pricing model, or an operating plan. By the time I step back, your team knows how it works and why, and can take on the next problem like it without me.
I've operated at every level, from seed startups to the Fortune 100, across market, product, and operations. That range is how I get up to speed on your business fast.
I work across many companies at once, so I see patterns no single team spots from the inside — what worked three startups ago, what's about to break here. I bring that to your hardest call.
Proof
Thirty-five years, every platform shift that mattered.
The internet pulled business online, and advertising was the first real way to make money there. I helped build the first internet ad business at NetGravity and DoubleClick. Virtualization came next and rewrote the data center — I was at VMware as it became the category leader. Virtualization opened cloud, cloud opened cloud apps, and I led go-to-market for Google Workspace. Now the shift is AI. It's my work at AI leaders like Databricks and firms like Scale Venture Partners.
$5B+
VMware scaled from $50M while I built its go-to-market.
// first full-time product marketer
$2B+
In acquisitions I led due diligence on.
// 14+ deals
10×
Pipeline growth for Google Workspace strategic use cases.
// global GTM director · 3B users
Selected experience
Where I've done it.
Now
Databricks
Principal Strategist driving the go-to-market strategy for the Forward Deployed Engineering capability. Positioning, customer-facing materials, the seller site, and the team's operating model.
Scale Venture Partners
CMO Executive in Residence. Working with VPs and C-suite at portfolio companies. A small number of engagements at a time.
Advisory & teaching
Senior Program Advisor at UC Berkeley SkyDeck and Alchemist Accelerator. Guest lecturer at the University of Michigan Center for Entrepreneurship.
Before
Google Workspace
Global Director of GTM Strategy through the pandemic. A platform with 3 billion users and 10 million paying customers. My team drove 10x pipeline growth for strategic use cases.
VMware
Employee around #200. Helped scale from $50M to $5B+. First full-time Product Marketing Manager. Directed go-to-market for $1B+ products and led due diligence on 14+ acquisitions worth $2B+.
DoubleClick / NetGravity
The earliest internet ad monetization, with CNN, Wired, and the Weather Channel. A front-row seat as new technology generated new business models.
Two-time founder
SiteBurst, through the dot-com crash, and The Arcanum. Real empathy for the leaders making hard calls under pressure.
What I do · Who I help
Three things every company must get right.
Product
How the value gets delivered.
Where product thinking and pricing meet the real customer outcome. It's how the position becomes something people pay for.
Operations
Making the team produce.
An operating model the team can run, and sustain after I'm gone. No dependency on me.
Who I help
VPs and C-suite leaders who want a peer for the hardest call — senior judgment, strong opinions, and the hands to make it real. Scaled SaaS leaders and Series A/B founders at critical inflection points.
Contact
Bring me in for the hard call.
Senior judgment, the hands to make it real, and a team that's stronger after I've gone. One conversation tells us both whether it's a fit.
// Based in the San Francisco Bay Area