Christian Busch

What I've actually done: -Sketched SAP's IoT platform on a whiteboard, secured $30M in funding, grew it to ~$250M/year — Coca-Cola, Unilever, P&G, Genentech -Turned Cognizant's innovation practice from $300K to $60M ARR in under 2 years -Unified 30+ AI projects at Elevance into one platform — $500M in savings, real-time prior auth engine -Managed cross-functional teams up to 160 people across the US, Europe, India, and China Where I add real value for founders: -Landing enterprise customers. Procurement, security reviews, CISO audits, multi-stakeholder buying. If you're chasing your first Fortune 500 deal, I'll help you avoid the traps that kill most startup-enterprise deals in month 7. -Sharpening your fundraising narrative. I'll tear apart your deck the way a Tier-1 partner does in 60 seconds — then help you rebuild it around the one question investors actually answer. -Pricing that closes deals. Most founders leave 30–50% of revenue on the table. I'll help you structure enterprise pricing that anchors correctly and drives expansion. -GTM design and your first sales hires. Pick the first segment worth winning, build the motion to win it, figure out if you need a VP Sales now or in six months. Scaled sales orgs from zero to $60M+ ARR. -Product-market fit you can measure. Bring me your last 10 customer conversations and I'll show you what you missed. -AI strategy for regulated industries. 30+ AI initiatives, 70M FHIR records at Elevance. I'll help you separate real opportunities from hype and tell a story buyers and regulators believe. -MedTech compliance as sales blocker. FDA 524B, SBOMs, NIST 800-53, Part 11, QMS/ERP. If procurement or CISO audits are blocking your deals, I know how to unblock them. -Team building and your first 10 hires. I'll help you sequence hires and avoid the "hired a VP too early" mistake that kills a lot of Series A companies. What you get in an hour with me: -Direct, operator-level feedback — no consultant-speak -Specific next steps you can act on tomorrow -Honest read on what's working and what isn't -Warm intros when there's a genuine fit How to prep: Come with a specific problem, the more concrete, the better. An hour with a clear agenda beats three generic mentorship calls.Before we talk, send a short note: (1) where your company is today, (2) what's working, (3) the biggest thing in your way. I'll come prepared.

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  Advice on funding

  Helped founders raise $230M+ across pre-seed to Series B. I know what partner-level scrutiny looks like because I secured $30M in internal funding for an SAP IoT initiative that started as a whiteboard sketch. I'll tell you what's working in your narrative and what a VC will tear apart in 30 seconds.

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  Bootstrapping

  I'm most useful to funded startups, but I've helped bootstrapped founders sequence revenue moves that fund growth without an external round — enterprise pilots, design partnerships, outcome-based contracts. If you're choosing between bootstrapping and raising, I'll give you an honest read on which path actually fits your business.

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  Conversion rate optimisation

  My CRO lens is enterprise B2B, not ecommerce — what makes a procurement team say yes, why security reviews stall deals, which pricing page signals close vs. scare enterprise buyers. If you're dealing with long sales cycles and multi-stakeholder buying committees, this is where I'm most useful.

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  Go to market strategy

  GTM is where I've built my career. I've designed direct and indirect motions for enterprise SaaS, IoT, AI platforms, and healthcare products — and landed Coca-Cola, Unilever, P&G, Genentech, and Tennant as reference customers. I'll help you pick the first segment worth winning and build the motion to actually win it.

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  Idea validation

  Before you write a line of code, I'll help you pressure-test your idea against reality. We'll audit your customer interviews for leading questions, design unbiased discovery conversations, and identify the 2–3 experiments that will actually tell you if you have something. Save 6 months of building the wrong thing.

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  Pricing strategy

  Pricing is where most founders leave 30–50% of revenue on the table. I'll help you structure enterprise pricing that closes deals without anchoring too low, design packaging that drives expansion revenue, and avoid the discounting traps that kill your next funding round.

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  Product launches

  I've taken 6 platforms from whiteboard to $60–250M in annual revenue across IoT, real-time analytics, cloud imaging, NLP, enterprise innovation, and healthcare AI. I know what to cut from a launch plan, what to double down on, and what founders always underestimate about enterprise launches.

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  Product management

  20 years of PM leadership at SAP, Cognizant, and Elevance Health — from scrappy zero-to-one prototypes to managing 160-person product orgs. I'll help you sharpen your roadmap, pick the right first customers, and build product processes that scale without killing the magic.

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  Product market fit

  PMF is where most founders burn capital before finding it. I use ethnographic research and design thinking to validate demand before you ship — not after. Bring me your positioning, your first 10 customer conversations, and your pricing, and I'll tell you honestly how close you are.

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  Sales

  I've built enterprise sales motions from zero and scaled them past $60M ARR. Sales enablement collateral, sales plays for complex buying committees, founder-led selling vs. hiring your first AE — bring me the specific bottleneck and we'll work it in one call.

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  User research

  I use ethnography and social-science observation to uncover value props other people miss. It's how I've found the hidden wedge in markets from healthcare AI to industrial IoT. If you're staring at 20 customer interview notes and not sure what pattern matters, let's look at them together.

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  Apollo

  8 years of experience

  Lead generation for cold leads is brutal. Lead with meaning to increase response rate. I'll show you how to do that at scale and increase response rates.

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  Confluence

  16 years of experience

  Product requirement docs, engineering specs, and cross-team knowledge management across 160-person orgs at SAP, Cognizant, and Elevance. Essential for enterprise-scale delivery.

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  Figma

  16 years of experience

  Product design reviews, collaborative wireframing, and stakeholder walkthroughs. I use it less as a designer and more as a product exec aligning engineering, design, and sales.

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  Git

  3 years of experience

  Pair-programming for rapid prototyping and technical due diligence on founder codebases. I use it when reviewing technical architecture for MedTech and enterprise startups.

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  Miro

  7 years of experience

  Whiteboard ideation, customer journey mapping, and strategy workshops with distributed teams. Where most of my zero-to-one product thinking gets sketched before it gets built.

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  ChatGPT

  3 years of experience

  Use it for rapid market research, competitive teardowns, and drafting enterprise sales collateral. I'll show founders how to 10x their GTM research output without sacrificing rigor.

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  Claude

  2 years of experience

  My primary AI thinking partner for product strategy, pitch deck review, and customer interview synthesis. I use it with founders live in sessions to pressure-test positioning and unblock writing tasks in real time.

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  Cursor

  3 years of experience

  Fast prototyping of technical concepts, reviewing founder codebases, and shipping experimental features. Particularly useful for non-technical founders trying to validate ideas before hiring engineers.

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  JIRA

  16 years of experience

  Agile delivery, cross-team engineering coordination, and release planning at enterprise scale. From 5-person startups to 160-person product orgs shipping on weekly cadence.

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  Mixpanel

  16 years of experience

  Product analytics, funnel analysis, cohort retention, and feature adoption instrumentation. I use it to pressure-test founders' growth claims against what the data actually shows.

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  Salesforce

  16 years of experience

  Implemented and validated Salesforce CRM for a 50-person medical device manufacturer — the kind of hands-on build most fractional execs won't touch. Configured Sales, Service, and CPQ; established Part 11 validation protocols (IQ/OQ/PQ); integrated with QMS and ERP; trained the sales and customer success teams. If you're in a regulated industry and your CRM rollout is stuck between IT, compliance, and sales, I can help you unstick it.

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  Enterprise Software

  20 years building and selling enterprise software at SAP, Cognizant, and Elevance Health. Products I've led have generated $1.1B+ in cumulative commercial value. I know what makes a procurement team say yes, why security reviews stall deals, and how to design pricing and packaging that closes Fortune 500 contracts without leaving money on the table.

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  Incubators

  Helped founders raise $230M+ across pre-seed to Series B. I know what partner-level scrutiny looks like because I secured $30M in internal funding for an SAP IoT initiative that started as a whiteboard sketch. I'll tell you what's working in your narrative and what a VC will tear apart in 30 seconds.

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  Artificial Intelligence

  I led Elevance Health's AI/ML platform — 30+ initiatives, 160-person team, $500M in strategic savings, and a real-time prior authorization engine running on 70M FHIR patient records. I'll help you separate real AI product opportunities from hype, design data pipelines that actually scale, pick the right model strategy (build vs. fine-tune vs. API), and tell an AI story investors and enterprise buyers will believe.

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  Medical Device

  ExCIO for a 50-person medical device startup, building the cybersecurity and compliance foundation that unblocks enterprise sales. I know FDA Section 524B (SBOMs, SPDF, vulnerability management), NIST 800-53, and QMS workflows firsthand. If your MedTech startup is hitting CISO audits or "refuse to accept" risks, I can help.

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  Electronic Health Record (EHR)

  3.5 years VP Technical Product at Elevance Health running AI on FHIR R4 clinical records for 70M patients. I built a real-time prior authorization engine that cut processing from days to seconds and drove $500M in savings. If you're building on FHIR, integrating with Epic or Cerner, or navigating HL7 and payer-provider data flows, I can help you avoid the standard traps.

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  Innovation Management

  I turned Cognizant's struggling innovation practice from $300K to $60M ARR in under 2 years by reinventing the business model to outcome-based Product Engineering. I've seen what works and what doesn't in corporate innovation — the incubation structures, incentive traps, and portfolio discipline that separate real value creation from theater.

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  Internet of Things

  I sketched SAP's IoT platform on a whiteboard, secured $30M in internal funding, and grew it into a ~$250M/year business — landing Coca-Cola, Unilever, P&G, Genentech, and Tennant as reference customers. 7 years running global strategy, product, and GTM for IoT at SAP. If you're building in IoT, industrial, or connected devices, I've been there.

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  Angel Investment

  Active angel investor and advisor in early-stage B2B, healthcare AI, and deep tech startups. I invest the way I operate: hands-on, opinionated, and focused on unlocking enterprise revenue. If you're building something I might back, or want to understand how angel investors actually evaluate your deck, book a call.

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