Operations · Partnerships · Growth
MelanieCohen
I turn complex ecosystems into growth.
CurrentlyBusiness Operations & Partnerships Lead · Inspiralia
8+ years across European deep tech, public institutions and international organisations: building commercial engines, opening strategic partnerships and keeping the business running through change.
- GrowthBuilt a commercial engine from zero, with 20+ events a year tracked to contract.
- Partnerships10+ new strategic partnerships a year, B2B and B2G, with institutions like CERN and Bpifrance.
- OperationsKept the business running through a company-wide restructuring, with new financial controls and reporting.
When to bring me inWhen you need to grow in a complex market, find the right partners to get there, or keep the business moving through change.
- 10+new strategic partnerships a year, B2B and B2G
- 2×deal closure rate, after optimising the B2B sales process with the commercial team
- +200%LinkedIn engagement growth, measured over my time leading marketing
- 6+editions across Europe of a programme that began as a €5K pilot
- 5+new strategic partnerships signed during a company-wide restructuring
Selected work
Four situations that were harder than they looked. Each one shows what I was up against, what I did, and what changed.
Building a commercial engine from zero
- Where
- Inspiralia, 2022–2024
- Channels
- Content · SEO · events · partnerships
- Cadence
- 20+ events · 10+ new partners a year
Sales had no clear positioning, no lead-generation infrastructure and a complex deep-tech offer that was hard to explain.
Rebuilt the website, messaging and sales kit, and set up SEO and analytics. Then I ran content, events and partnerships as one pipeline, with every event tracked from first contact to signed contract, and optimised the B2B sales process with the commercial team. I also launched InspiAcademy, a free learning platform for 1,000+ startup clients.
Together with the commercial team we doubled the deal closure rate. The engine also grew LinkedIn engagement by 200%+ and activated 10+ new strategic partnerships a year.
Scaling a €5K pilot into a pan-European programme
- Format
- Innovate to Win
- Budget
- €5K pilot
- Pilot
- Sweden
- Scale
- 6+ editions across Europe
- Partners
- Bpifrance · École Polytechnique · CERN
I saw a gap in how the industry engaged deep-tech startup clients, and nobody was filling it.
Designed a Shark Tank–style pitch competition, pitched it internally, secured a €5K budget and ran the pilot in Sweden.
Grew it to 6+ annual editions across Europe, with Bpifrance, École Polytechnique Paris and CERN as institutional co-organisers.
Opening a blocked strategic channel
- Counterpart
- Key ecosystem player
- Obstacle
- Competitor lock-out
- Duration
- 6 months
A competitor had kept us out of a key industry organisation for six months. The usual channels had gone nowhere.
Went direct. I built a personal relationship with the organisation’s CEO across several European markets and designed terms that worked for both sides.
We gained ecosystem access and a partnership on terms that worked for both parties.
Leading through a restructuring
- Where
- Inspiralia, 2024–now
- Role
- Partner to senior leadership
- Scope
- Sales · Legal · Finance · Marketing
- Closed
- 5+ B2B & B2G partnerships
A company-wide restructuring. Supplier contracts, financial obligations and internal processes all needed attention at once, while clients and partners still expected delivery.
I acted as the point of coordination between senior leadership, functional teams and external stakeholders. I led supplier negotiations, introduced financial controls, management reporting and pipeline visibility, and turned leadership decisions into operational actions across Sales, Legal, Finance and Marketing.
The business kept running through the restructuring. Leadership had the reporting it needed to decide, and 5+ new strategic partnerships were signed in the same period.
How I work
Operations, partnerships and growth are usually three separate jobs. I do all three, and I’m most valuable where they overlap.
Business operations
I can step into a messy organisation, find the real commercial and operational problem, align the functions around it and give leadership the visibility to decide.
Strategic partnerships
I open doors that are difficult to access, and turn those relationships into partnerships.
B2B and B2G, with universities, research bodies, accelerators, corporates and public funders.
Growth & go-to-market
Events, content and partnerships run as one pipeline, measured from first contact to signed contract.
Career
From institutional relations and diplomacy to three roles at Inspiralia, each one broader than the last.
- Sept 2024 – now
Business Operations & Partnerships Lead
Inspiralia · Madrid
- Feb 2023 – Sept 2024
Marketing Lead
Inspiralia · Madrid
- Feb 2022 – Feb 2023
Growth & Communications Coordinator
Inspiralia · Madrid
- Apr 2019 – Sept 2021
Project Manager, Partnerships & Operations
Surround Sound Love Foundation · San Diego · remote, alongside the Embassy role until Oct 2019
- Aug 2018 – Oct 2019
Institutional Relations & Communications Assistant
Embassy of Guatemala · Madrid
- Jan – Jun 2018
Campus Ambassador, Institutional Relations
Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) · Guatemala
Internships · 2017
- Apr – Nov 2017Research AssistantSIECA, Central American Economic Integration Secretariat · Guatemala City
- Jan – Mar 2017Trade Center Communication InternAmCham Guatemala
From Guatemala to European deep tech
It started at Francisco Marroquín University (UFM) in Guatemala. I coached the debate team for all four years and served as secretary of both the student government and the debate association. We organised CMUDE Guatemala 2017, the World Universities Debating Championship in Spanish, and I served as a judge at the editions in Colombia and Spain. I also took part in Harvard National Model UN in 2017.
Then came trade-centre communications at AmCham, research on regional economic integration and migration policy at SIECA, and university outreach for the Foundation for Economic Education. After that, diplomacy: at the Embassy of Guatemala in Madrid I managed institutional communications and diplomatic events, where precision and discretion mattered more than speed.
At the Surround Sound Love Foundation I negotiated institutional partnerships, including with UNICEF, and managed 50+ partner organisations across several countries. Since 2022 I’ve worked in European deep tech at Inspiralia, moving from growth and communications to marketing lead, and then to business operations and partnerships.
The common thread is getting institutions, companies and people to say yes to each other.
- MSc Political CommunicationComplutense University, Madrid
- MA Digital MarketingThe Power MBA, Madrid
- BA International Affairs & Political ScienceFrancisco Marroquín University, Guatemala City
- Spanish (native) · English (C2, EF SET) · Hebrew (A2)
- “The Evolution of Women in STEM: A Journey of Tenacity and Innovation”Cambio 16 Diario Digital, 2024
- Report of the Electoral Observatory of 2015, chapter on Libertad Democrática Renovada (LÍDER)Centro Ibn Khaldún, 2016 · co-authored, in Spanish
- “Belice: la eterna miopía del gobierno de Guatemala”Blog de Crónica · in Spanish
