Build a Business Worthy of the Mission
Customized business strategy for founder-led organizations
Featured Client
The Tyler Sanders Foundation: From Strategy to Partnership
The Tyler Sanders Foundation carries forward Tyler’s legacy by supporting young filmmakers and actors through mentorship and meaningful storytelling. The foundation had a powerful story, promising programs, and committed creative partners. It needed the structure to bring them together into one focused, fundable organization. I started by building that strategy, and I now lead its implementation as their fractional strategic leader.
My Approach
Refine
Reflect
Connect
Ways to Work Together
Ongoing Partners
Market Presence
Strategic Direction
Every engagement starts with a conversation about where you are and what you need to build a business worthy of the mission.
Where Clarity Changes Outcomes
See Your Next Move More Clearly
It is easy to find one-size-fits-all plans. It is much harder to find high-value strategic insight that is personalized to your business, responsive to your context, and to your needs as the leader of your business. Your MBA Friend brings that level of thinking to the business you are working to build.
About Kathleen
Kathleen Staten is a business strategist and fractional executive who helps founder-led and mission-driven organizations turn vision into structure. She has served in multiple fractional C-suite roles and as a business leader across a wide range of sectors, including education, the arts, nonprofits, and startups, leading strategy, operations, marketing, and growth. She believes the organizations doing the most important work deserve the same caliber of strategy as the biggest companies.
Her path is unusual. Before business, Kathleen was a professional oboist who performed internationally, including at the BBC Proms, and on a Grammy-nominated recording. That background shapes how she works: she listens closely, finds the real constraint, and builds the systems that let a team perform.
Kathleen holds an MBA in Strategy and Entrepreneurship from SMU and a Bachelor of Music from Indiana University. She speaks nationally on mission, language, and alignment, including at the Arts Education Partnership, El Sistema USA, and Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business.