Drawing on her experience as a start-up founder and self-employed freelancer, Yolanda consults small start-ups and non-profits on strategy and helps them to analyse and recognise what building blocks are missing from their venture, or rather what bottlenecks are blocking their progress.
In 2013 during her studies, Yolanda co-founded Doppelhaus Ltd, a sustainable materials start-up focusing on ethical, locally produced nonwoven wool textiles (namely fabrics known under the trademark Cloudwool®). Together with co-founder Martin Brambley, she ran the company until 2023 when she stepped away to focus on new projects, consulting and research. During the seed phase of the start-up, Yolanda participated in numerous accelerators with Doppelhaus, and learned a lot about the mechanics of venture-building: what drives the motor, what increases the speed, what slams the brakes and what can navigate the vehicle more precisely towards its aims.
Since 2022, Yolanda has been consulting similar early-stage ventures from creative industries and non-profit sectors and been applying her understanding and experience to help these founders achieve their goals (or at the very least fail faster, then pivot or move on!). If you need an outside perspective on your organisation, get in touch with Yolanda via info(at)yolandaleask.com and she’ll be happy to advise you.
Clients and testimonials
2024
Urban Fibers
Yolanda acted as an advisor to Berlin-based circular textile design studio Urban Fibers, helped them with negotiation strategy. More importantly, working together to establish their true goals and values empowered the founders to advocate for them and pursue transparent communication with potential commercial partners.
Turn and Burn Ceramics
Yolanda helped ceramics studio Turn and Burn (Traunstein, Bavaria) with financial planning and projections. Together they were able to quickly within one three-hour session establish a cost and pricing structure and thereby extrapolate the potential revenue for the coming year. This allowed Turn and Burn to make an informed decision about whether it made financial sense to commit to a rental contract for a shop right now.
2023
Love Foundation
Yolanda worked with non-profit music and events collective, Love Foundation, to get greater clarity on what parts of this global and volunteer-run organisation needed revising and more structure. While the brand and events are very successful, behind the scenes, operations were rather ad-hoc due to its dependence on fluctuating volunteer staff, primarily composed of students. By speaking to the most experienced board members and those with hands-on experience, Yolanda carried out an analysis of all areas of the organisation and pinpointed the key problems to be addressed. The procedures for carrying out events and handling finances needed to be defined and implemented consistently.
Secondary Raw
Yolanda acted as a coach and advisor to circular material design studio Secondary Raw who turn used coffee bags into aesthetic materials and products. Yolanda used her nonwoven textile development expertise to help designers Zoa Rosenkranz and Rosana Escobar work out the most effective product development strategy on a limited budget and identify suitable industrial and research institute partners who could help them realise prototypes within this short timeline. The aim was to get Secondary Raw to MVP with at least 1 or 2 of 3 possible product development areas before their funding ended and this was achieved with a paper made from reclaimed fibre. The coaching took place within the framework of design-in-tech accelerator Designfarm Berlin.
Superwood
Yolanda acted as a coach and advisor to the venture Superwood, an ecological MDF replacement developed by product designer Sofia Souidi. Yolanda took her experience dealing with large scale nonwoven textile factories, and applied this to help Superwood develop their strategy for winning licensing deals from industrial manufacturers, in the aim of getting their alternative MDF into some of the biggest factories in Europe, those that supply large retailers. To get their attention, it was crucial that Superwood obtain key data to support their business case, because those partners would have to be convinced of the profitability of an alternative production method in order to adapt their supply chain – for the board to decide, the numbers must do the talking. The coaching took place within the framework of design-in-tech accelerator Designfarm Berlin.
Digital Felts
Yolanda acted as a coach and advisor to the venture Digital Felts, a method of precise robotic felting developed by designer Jessica Farmer. Yolanda encouraged Jessica to engage in hands-on market research and approach potential clients early on to quickly establish whether there would be a market for her custom-designed acoustic solutions. Jessica took her prototypes to interior design and architecture firms and got valuable feedback. The coaching took place within the framework of design-in-tech accelerator Designfarm Berlin.
2022
Artist Greg Krouse
Yolanda advised fine art painter Greg Krouse and helped him create a business plan for his fine art practice. Greg began selling original paintings after a successful solo exhibition in 2022, yet he needed some clarity on how his art could work as a business. Yolanda helped Greg establish a business plan and figures that allowed him to determine a cost structure and make projections for future sales. It became clear that although Greg could charge high prices for his work, each painting was laborious and required large quantities of expensive paint, therefore the margin would be too thin for sales of original work to serve as a primary income stream. Selling prints of his popular works could serve as a more profitable alternative income stream with a different cost structure and better margin.