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Creation of Project Startup
While everybody else is giving you more work to do, I'm your fractional project manager. The person who actually gets it done.
I've spent over 20 years helping people turn ideas into finished projects. Right out of university, I helped build a software startup that later sold to Autodesk. I ran an academic coaching business. I've worked with everyone from quantum computing companies to real estate firms. The common thread? Helping people get unstuck and move forward.
I started Project Startup because small businesses deserve a fractional project manager: senior-level execution without the cost of a full-time hire. I'm not here to hand you a strategy deck and disappear. I work alongside you until things are moving. I'll be honest about what's working and what isn't, and then we figure it out together.
Jessica | Founder
Early in my career, I noticed something: I kept being the person who figured out how to actually get things done. Not because I had some special methodology, but because I could look at a stalled project and see what was actually in the way.
I assisted with a software startup in 2004 that bootstrapped and eventually sold to Autodesk. I know how hard it is to build something from nothing, and I know what it feels like when you're drowning in ideas but can't seem to move any of them forward.
When my graduate school research required surveys costing $10,000 each, I used that same startup scrappiness to create a new methodology at a fraction of the cost. It worked. Since 2013, I've published 12 peer-reviewed papers and 3 textbook chapters. In 2015, I used these methods to help a client win a case in US federal court against a multi-billion-dollar corporation on a $2,000 budget. My largest survey will be published by the University of Illinois Press in February 2026. I bring that same resourcefulness to every client I work with.
After that, I ran an academic coaching business for six years, working with everyone from struggling undergrads to doctoral students finishing dissertations. I learned that the smartest people still get stuck, and that being honest with someone about what's not working builds more trust than pretending everything is fine. If I can make a struggling 18-year-old laugh during a session about why they're failing chemistry and still get him to show up the next week, I can work with anyone.
I've since helped startups build CRMs from scratch, prep for Series A rounds, launch products, and land government grants. My clients have ranged from real estate companies to quantum computing startups. Every project is different, but the pattern is the same: something is stuck, and I help get it moving.
I don't believe in systems that require heroics to maintain. Lightness and accountability aren't opposites. I'm honest about what's working and what isn't, I build plans that are actually realistic, and I make sure people don't burn out getting to the finish line.
MA, PMP
