Startup Grind

Startup Grind is the leading global startup community dedicated to fostering the growth of early-stage companies. From bootstrapped beginnings through Series A rounds, we support our members with access to funding opportunities, expanding market reach, and connection to a robust network of founders, tech leaders, investors and partners spanning 150 countries worldwide.

Sr. Partner Success Manager

Partner Success Manager

kivi

We are a branding and creative agency that aims to help purpose-driven start-ups and organizations stand out and make an impact.

Co-Founder

Just Eat Takeaway.com

• Plan, manage and execute integration projects between restaurants, aggregators, and SkipTheDishes. 
• Define resource requirements and manage resource availability and allocation for Flyt and SkipTheDishes.
• Manage the relationship and communication with the client and all stakeholders, ensuring the project is delivered to their satisfaction.
• Track multiple projects simultaneously and provide regular reports on project status to the project team and key stakeholders.
• Lead the North America Project Management guild to standardize processes, build templates and identify opportunities for learning and collaboration between different teams in the organization.

Technical Project Manager | POS Integrations and Deployments 

Startup Recon

Marketing Strategy & Operations Consultant

AIESEC

Working in the global office of AIESEC, part of a multicultural team of 26 directors of 20 different nationalities, managing 120 national offices around the world, cumulatively delivering annually over 40,000 international internships and volunteering experiences and coordinating 30,000+ local volunteers.

Responsibilities: 
- Managing the strategy and operations globally of our biggest program (80k+ exchanges annually)
- Organized and delivered 3 internal conferences to downscale information, educate the membership and ensure alignment of operations to the long-term strategy 
- Leading the impact strategy of AIESEC toward the Sustainable Development Goals
- Work with B2B and B2C to design communication strategies for the program 
- Overseeing and improving the customer journey of our program 
- Plan and design the change management of our projects globally 
- Working with regionally offices to support in changes implementation
- Building impact reports from our volunteering social projects  
- Redesigning the governance system surrounding our programs 
- Education and capacity building for the national program heads 

Key Achievements: 
- Produced the first impact report from our volunteering social projects showcasing our impact to the Sustainable Development Goals 
- Designed 16 social projects that are aligned to contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals by using the theory of change
- Developed a measuring and reporting system for our social projects in order to measure the impact of the volunteers in the community 
- Designed an internal campaign to manage the change of our projects and financial model
- Refreshed the customer journey with the new social projects to educate and engage our customers.

Global Program Manager

As part of the regional office, I was working with a team of six people from six different nationalities to oversee the operations of 24 AIESEC national offices in Asia and the Pacific. I was in charge for our newest product, Global Entrepreneur, which focuses on developing entrepreneurial skills in youth through international internships in start up environments while enabling start ups access to international talent.

My responsibilities included:
- Oversee the product's performance in the region and identify opportunities for collaboration inside and outside the region
- Planning and delivering 5 regional conferences and summits 
- Implementing global product strategies and standard operating procedures 
- Strategic coaching and mentoring for the national product heads on internal operations
- Creating and executing regional growth strategies for the product 
- Creating and executing regional education cycles and communication plans to increase the capacity of our human resources to increase product sales 
- Preparing and delivering product visits to India, Indonesia, Nepal, Myanmar, and Mainland of China to improve internal processes in operations

Achievements: 
- 30% growth in sales in the region 
- Establishment of standard operating procedures for the product 
- Change management plan for the region to identify focus markets to collaborate with each other

Regional Manager (APAC)

Main Responsibilities:
- Developing and implementing the national marketing strategies both for physical and digital channels
- Organizing and delivering 3 conferences to train over 100 volunteers in Australia on physical marketing, on-campus promotion, customer flow management, market research and content creation
- Creating communication and content marketing strategies for national social media channels (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter)
- Developing email marketing and email lead nurturing campaigns
- Managing a virtual team in charge of producing the marketing strategy content for our digital and physical channels
- Developing and executing an ads strategy online using Google Adwords and Facebook Advertising for lead generation for our international volunteering program

Achievements:
- 40% growth in sales in our main exchange program
- 28% growth in sales from all our exchange programs
- 15% growth in profit from FY16, 45% growth from FY15
- Change management plan for ensuring GDPR compliance in all our channels and systems
- Piloted and implemented a new CRM and lead nurturing system over 11 local chapters 
- Created an e-mail automation flow for leads conversion
- 70% increase in website traffic coming from Facebook 
- 22% increase of lead generation coming from social media channels
- Reducing cost per lead from AUD $36 to AUD $5.41 
- Doubled our conversion rate from sign up to apply

National Marketing Manager (for Australia) 

- Responsible for internal communications including events, deadlines, and team announcements.
- Coordinated and created guides to define communications during each stage of the customer experience. 
- Co-facilitated IBM design thinking sessions to address clients' underlining business problems 
- Drafted proposals that summarized the design thinking sessions for clients to present to their teams
- Organized and coordinated the annual IBM Centre for Advanced Studies Technical Link Event (CASTLE)

Communications Specialist - IBM Advanced Studies

CROWDYHOUSE

- Managed all communications between designers and the company. 
- Ensured customer satisfaction by creating a sense of community amongst designers. Supported the company’s marketing and PR efforts. 
- Contributed to various marketing and communication strategies including SEO projects, blog posts, and instructions for designers.
- Created a media kit showcasing the newest designs acquired and disseminated it to all our media contacts to increase designers’ exposure. 
- Started a Facebook group and curated useful content to increase communication amongst designers. We reached 300 designers in the first month.

Designer Community Manager

First things first, it’s Patricia read in Spanish, or simply Pat. 🙂

Born and raised in Caracas, Venezuela, I am a proud Latina passionate about equity, entrepreneurship, and using technology to make the world a better place. I have a background in PR and communications and have worked in marketing, operations and product management at national, regional and global levels. These experiences over four continents have challenged my perspective and taught me the importance of diversity in leadership and multicultural understanding inside and outside of business.

After spending seven years in AIESEC, the largest youth-run organization in the world, facilitating leadership experiences for young people worldwide, I spent a year working as a technical project manager at Flyt, part of the Just Eat Takeaway group. I am now helping early-stage tech startups worldwide succeed by delivering education, connections, and growth opportunities through Startup Grind. 
 
I am usually based out of Montreal, Canada, but I love travelling and am currently roaming around the world full-time 🌎✨

I don't share much here (maybe 2026 will be the year? 🤪), but this one deserves a post.

It’s the end of an era! 

The past four years have been a wild journey - four conferences, 60+ partners, countless events, late-night planning sessions, and hundreds of projects. It was intense, stressful and sometimes too much, but it was also a lot of fun - until it wasn't, and that's when you know it's your time to find the next adventure.

I've learned the hard way that money comes and goes, and business can be unpredictable. Companies pivot, close, rebrand… but in the end what matters most are the people who are behind all of this.

Being human first isn't just good for business- it's what makes business worth doing. The connections we make, the trust we earn, the way we show up for each other when it counts. That's what lasts, and those people are who I'm most grateful for.

To everyone I worked alongside these past four years: thank you. For your energy, your patience, your creativity, and your friendship. You made this experience everything it was.

I still wholeheartedly believe that entrepreneurs have the capacity to solve some of the biggest problems in the world, and I'm excited to jump on that journey myself (more to come! 👀 🐝 )

Nothing left in the tank- just gratitude for all the learnings, memories, and friends I made along the way.

I'll soon share what I'm working on next… In the meantime - enjoy some of my fav memories with some A+ people!


Onto the next adventure 💫

Patricia Michelena, PMP

Building StayingBee for safer, more affordable and meaningful travel | AIESECer | Global Shaper

I’m happy to share that I’m starting a new position as Co-Founder & COO at StayingBee!

StayingBee

I believe travelling can be a life-changing experience. Stepping out of your comfort zone, diving into new cultures, meeting people with different life experiences — it makes us understand the world beyond ourselves and care for it in a deeper way.

But there's a big gap in accommodation options nowadays:
🏨 Hotels are expensive and impersonal
💶 Airbnb is pricing out locals
🛏️ Hostels aren't for everyone
🛋️ Couchsurfing has valid safety concerns

So when Kelvin Chikezie asked me to join him in building a solution, it was a no-brainer: leveraging existing communities to offer an alternative for travelling that is safer, more affordable and more meaningful than the alternatives? ABSOLUTELY 💯 

That’s why I’m so excited to share this next career adventure - being Co-founder & COO at StayingBee 🐝

StayingBee is a community-based marketplace for accommodation while travelling. Members of an international community can offer a couch, a room, or their entire apt to other community members.

HOSTS earn some extra cash, have peace of mind that the guest is not a total stranger, and stay connected to the wider community. 

GUESTS save some 💰 ( and know where it is going), have a new local friend, and feel safer staying with someone they have something in common with. 

It's like Couchsurfing meets Airbnb, but exclusively for communities you're already part of — like staying with a fellow AIESEC alum, someone from your JCI (Junior Chamber International) chapter, or The Scouts member who gets your values.

We started piloting in Europe and are now live worldwide, with 2 communities on the platform. By the end of this year, we’re scaling to at least 10 communities.

This matters to me because I’ve seen firsthand how powerful it is when people feel like they belong — let’s stay connected to our humanity and help each other when the world feels more divided than ever. 

That’s the world I want to help build.

If your community could benefit from this, or if you’re curious to learn more, let’s talk 🫰 

DM me or tag someone who needs to know about this!

#CommunityTravel #TravelTech #SocialImpact #StayingBee #CommunityFirst

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