I'll turn your chaos into clarity—and we'll have fun doing it.
10+ Years Experience | MBA from UC Berkeley Haas | 980 Podcasts Heard in 2025
If the numbers don't line up and decisions feel harder than they should, I can help.
I rebuild the systems leaders rely on—metrics, models, and operating rhythms—so teams move faster with confidence.
I turn messy data and competing priorities into clear tradeoffs. I work at the intersection of strategy, finance, analytics, and operations, partnering closely with executives.
The goal is simple: make the business easier to run and have fun doing it!
Role: Strategy & Operations Lead
Redesigned and launched an end-to-end monetization strategy across the platform, introducing pricing experiments, conversion funnels, and packaging models that significantly improved revenue per user.
Outcomes: Increased monetization rate by 40% within two quarters; Launched 3 new pricing tiers informed by competitive analysis and user research; Aligned cross-functional teams (Product, Engineering, Marketing) on a unified revenue roadmap
Tools: SQL, Amplitude, Google Sheets, Figma
Led the creation of an enterprise pricing and deal strategy to support Northstar's expansion into B2B partnerships, including financial modeling, competitive benchmarking, and go-to-market planning.
Outcomes: Built a flexible pricing framework used across 10+ enterprise deals; Shortened deal cycle by 25% through standardized proposal templates; Drove $2M+ in new annualized contract value within the first year
Tools: Excel, Salesforce, Notion, SQL
Assumed full ownership of Northstar's P&L, driving margin improvement initiatives across product lines while maintaining alignment with growth targets.
Outcomes: Identified and executed $1.5M in annualized cost savings; Improved gross margin by 8 percentage points; Created a monthly operating review cadence adopted by the executive team
Tools: Excel, SQL, Looker, Google Slides
Led the strategic planning and operational execution to expand NerdWallet's payments infrastructure into international markets, coordinating across legal, compliance, engineering, and product teams.
Outcomes: Successfully launched payments in 3 new international markets; Reduced regulatory onboarding time by 30% through a reusable compliance playbook; Generated $5M+ in incremental annual revenue from new markets
Tools: Jira, SQL, Looker, Google Sheets, Confluence
Designed and implemented a multi-currency settlement framework to support NerdWallet's global expansion, reducing FX exposure and improving reconciliation accuracy.
Outcomes: Reduced FX-related losses by 60%; Automated 80% of manual reconciliation processes; Enabled same-day settlement in 5 major currencies
Tools: SQL, Python, Looker, Stripe, Google Sheets
Partnered with senior leadership to identify and implement strategic cost reduction initiatives across the business, focusing on operational efficiency gains that preserved product quality and team morale.
Outcomes: Delivered $3M+ in annualized savings across vendor, tooling, and headcount optimization; Maintained team engagement scores above company average during restructuring; Created a reusable cost-benefit analysis framework adopted by Finance and Ops teams
Tools: Excel, SQL, Tableau, Google Slides
Developed a comprehensive compliance playbook to streamline market entry across multiple jurisdictions, reducing legal overhead and accelerating time-to-launch for international products.
Outcomes: Reduced market entry legal costs by 40%; Cut average time-to-compliance from 6 months to 3.5 months; Playbook adopted as the company standard for all new market launches
Tools: Notion, Jira, Google Docs, Slack
Led a company-wide vendor consolidation initiative to reduce redundancy, improve negotiation leverage, and streamline procurement workflows across departments.
Outcomes: Consolidated 15+ redundant vendor contracts into 5 strategic partnerships; Achieved 20% average cost reduction across renewed contracts; Implemented a centralized procurement tracking system used by 4 departments
Tools: Excel, Salesforce, Google Sheets, Confluence
Role: Finance & Strategy Analyst
Redesigned the FP&A process and board reporting framework to improve forecast accuracy, executive visibility, and strategic alignment across the organization.
Outcomes: Improved forecast accuracy by 25% quarter-over-quarter; Reduced board deck preparation time by 50% through automation and templatization; Created a dynamic financial model used for scenario planning by the C-suite
Tools: Excel, SQL, Adaptive Insights, PowerPoint
Built and maintained a portfolio performance analytics framework to monitor credit risk, delinquency trends, and loss forecasting, providing critical insights to the leadership team.
Outcomes: Developed real-time dashboards tracking $3B+ in loan portfolio performance; Identified early warning signals that reduced unexpected loss provisions by 15%; Automated weekly portfolio health reports previously done manually
Tools: SQL, Tableau, Excel, Python
Managed Blakey directly
"Blakey proactively looked for new opportunities to improve key metrics and achieve the company's priorities, after aligning with the CEO on what the company's priorities are. This demonstrates an executive level competency, where she is given a broad directive, and autonomously determines the most effective analyses and initiatives to achieve those goals."
Reported directly to Blakey, Aug 2022 – Nov 2025
"Blakey is one of the most compassionate and thoughtful leaders I've had the pleasure of working with. At Northstar, she has owned numerous functions, always with a sense of serenity and predilection towards action that's infectious. She is never afraid of big ideas, re-assessing a problem, or finding a way to execute a project with success in mind. In addition to her numerous hard skills, she takes the time to learn how her peers work best, which creates stronger cross-functional relationships and quicker project success. Blakey is a strong utility player that adds value to any company's growth."
Cross-functional partner
"Blakey is a leader. She knows how to trust those around her and commit to forward movement in a rare way. I'm so lucky that someone that is so good at their job is also a good person! Blakey always kept things positive and action-oriented during setbacks and celebrated the contributions of her team to the success of our goals. Blakey did a fantastic job bridging communication gaps between teams and priorities - both internally and with multiple external groups. Her capacity to manage these relationships across time-zones, expertise stratification, and misaligned priorities helped add the special sauce in our recipe for success!"
Reported directly to Blakey, Dec 2025
"Working with Blakey has been one of the most impactful experiences of my career. Blakey was deeply invested in my growth and consistently cared about my long-term career goals, always taking the time to understand what mattered most to me. She is an exceptional listener who always created space for thoughtful, honest, and genuine conversations. Blakey's guidance and problem-solving approach balances empathy with clarity and action, which helped me navigate challenges while pushing me to grow with confidence. Blakey's dedication to her team and their success is evident in everything she does, and I give her my highest recommendation as both a leader and mentor."
Strategic Planning, Business Development, Go-to-Market Strategy, Market Analysis
User Research, Problem Framing, Rapid Prototyping, Stakeholder Alignment
Change Management, Cross-functional Leadership, Executive Communication, Team Development
Root Cause Analysis, Data-Driven Decision Making, KPI Development, Financial Modeling
Maximizer, Learner, Activator, Strategic, Individualization
Personal Finance — Passionate about financial literacy and helping others build strong financial foundations.
Mentorship — Paying it forward by mentoring early-career professionals navigating their finance and strategy journeys.
Television & Media — Passionate about reality TV and its role in society—the storytelling, the cultural commentary, and yes, the drama.
Languages — Conversational in Samoan and Spanish—I love learning new ways to connect with people.
Podcasts — Economics, media, comedy, movies—always learning and laughing through my earbuds.
Crafts — Knitting, sewing, and currently learning bookbinding—making things with my hands is my happy place.
Email: blakeylarsen@gmail.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/blakeylarsen