About Lakshmi

Lakshmi Natarajan built her career across Fortune 500 companies — American Express, Accenture, GlaxoSmithKline — before moving into startups, fractional executive roles, and venture investing. Today she advises founders on go-to-market strategy and path to profitability, sits on boards, and works with family offices including Dubai-based Zanara Advisors, focusing on healthcare, PropTech, AI/B2B SaaS, and sustainability.

What we talked about

Wearing many hats at once — how she moved from consulting to fractional C-suite roles as the market itself shifted toward fractional work.

Customer before product — why she pushes founders to define their ideal customer profile before talking about features.

The shrinking planning horizon — why five-year roadmaps have collapsed into 18-month windows for most companies.

Where innovation is outrunning customers — PropTech, fintech, and real estate tokenization moving faster than the industries built around them.

What investors actually ask now — why even 16-month-old startups are getting grilled on path to profitability.

Cutting costs without cutting culture — her case against treating headcount as the first lever to pull.

Sharpest moments

On not waiting for perfection:

Everyone who's building today, build for today, but build with the foundation to grow for tomorrow. Don't wait two years to have a customer.

On the compressed timeline for returns:

It can't take you seven years to get there... People are looking for liquidity. They're not going to wait seven years for something potentially to happen.

On the question catching young founders off guard:

What's your path to profitability? That question generally... may have been asked to a later-stage founder... It was asked to a 16-month innovation in market.

On cost-cutting done right:

You can't just look at the number of people. You have to look at what they do, the skill sets they have... how can you supplement that?

On what she leads with:

I'm always human first, people first. The innovation is brought through us.

Key takeaways

• Founders should define a specific ideal customer profile before pitching product features — going broad ("all procurement, all industries") makes it harder for anyone to see themselves in the offer.
• Planning horizons have compressed from 5-year roadmaps to 18-month windows across most industries.
• Investors increasingly ask about path to profitability even from very early-stage, AI-native startups.
• Capital comes in many forms beyond equity — grants, non-dilutive debt, strategic partnerships — and founders should be clear on what kind of growth they're actually raising for.
• Cost-cutting shouldn't start with headcount; it should start with a strategic review of which roles and functions can be supplemented, not simply removed.
• Community and visibility (posting, attending events, following up after meetings) compound over time and are often where capital and partnerships actually originate.