Founding Product Advisor  ·  San Diego, CA  ·  Working globally

Few products shape
how people live.
Most never move
beyond prototype.

I work with seed-stage founders when a product exists but the path forward is not yet clear. The earliest decisions determine whether it becomes something people rely on, or stalls early.

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A short call to see if the timing and the match are right.

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Yen Anderson
About

Product clarity
at the decisive
moment.

I work privately with a few founders each year, defining product direction, resolving competing paths, and making the decisions that hold as the company forms.

My background spans Microsoft, where I led AI adoption and drove $36M in ARR, and defense programs at SAIC, where product decisions carried operational consequence.

Engagement is direct and founder-level, for people who want to think clearly, not be managed.

Microsoft
AI Adoption · $36M ARR · 17K+ users
SAIC
Defense Modernization · $180M program
Vortexa AI
Founding PM · B2B SaaS · GTM Strategy
Neustar
Enterprise AI · Data Platform
Qualcomm
Supply Chain Analytics · $50M impact
How I work

I work with founders at
decisive product moments.

01
Direction before capital accelerates it
A working prototype with several possible paths. Before you hire or raise around a direction, get the product thinking right.
Product Strategy
02
Sharpening before the market decides for you
A product that needs clearer positioning, a tighter ICP, and a motion that closes. Early vagueness compounds later.
GTM & Positioning
03
Resolving what the team can't resolve alone
A company forming around unresolved decisions. Competing paths, unclear priorities, choices that keep getting revisited without landing.
Decision Architecture
Approach

The operating
system beneath
the product.

i.
Precision over frameworks
I don't bring a standard playbook. Every founder has a different internal architecture, its own strengths, blindspots, and decision patterns. I build from what is there.
ii.
Translation is the product
AI generates outputs. It cannot translate them into decisions that carry consequence. That translation, from prototype to product, from capability to value, is where founders get stuck.
iii.
Judgment over speed
The AI era rewards clarity of judgment, not volume of output. I help founders protect bandwidth for the 2% of decisions that compound, then build systems for the rest.
Writing

Astraea Ergo Sum

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Fit

Who this is for.

This is for you if
You have a working product and more than one credible path. You are about to hire or raise around a direction, and a few key decisions keep getting revisited.
This is not for you if
You are pre-prototype. You want a playbook, or someone to manage the work rather than sharpen the thinking.
From recent work

A few outcomes from founders I have worked with, shared without names.

A seed-stage team narrowed three product directions to one before opening their raise.

A founder sharpened a vague ICP into a single buyer, and the demo started landing.

A founding team finally closed a decision they had reopened for months.

Contact

Let's find
out if it's a
fit.

I work with a few founders each year. A brief call to understand your priorities and whether the moment is right.

Book a Call →
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