Hi there,

My name is Alexa Varsavsky.

I am a 0 to 1, commercial, product leader living in Brooklyn, NYC.

Comfortable with the Uncomfortable

I thrive in uncertain environments with ambitious goals alongside people who are enamoured by a vision they urgently want to turn into a reality.

I enjoy unsexy, complicated problems that help power our society, where technology acts as a force multiplier. Think messy data integrations, tedious compliance processes, non-technical buyers and users, operational nightmares — the kind of products you build in healthcare, finance, education, government, supply chains, cyber, that are sold in B2B or B2B2C motions and are not about hype but about utility.

I like taking big swings and betting on amazing people. I learnt this first hand at home. My dad is a founder and my mom is a therapist. My sister is a neuroscientist PhD and my brother an ML engineer. They've all encouraged and nurtured me to believe that taking the leap is always the better option as long as you have the right people by your side.

Taking Big Swings

  • I was hired at Multiverse as a Senior Product Manager with 1 engineer. 2 years in, I've been promoted from Senior > Director > Head of Product, I’ve led an acquisition, managed a team of 50 people across NYC, SF AND LDN, and have built 3 x 0 —> 1 products.

  • When the war in Ukraine began, I started Finansova.org to deliver $100K in peer-to-peer donations to Ukrainian refugees in Poland. Within two weeks, I recruited volunteers, built a brand and website, created tutorials in Ukrainian, and set up in a donation center in Krakow. We distributed 1,000 donations in one week and helped 50,000 refugees access critical settlement information via our website.

  • I co-founded a company to help women in low income communities in Mexico access better quality loans for their small businesses. Within 1 year we built a product, moved to Mexico, found a pipeline of 20 customers, reached ~ 5000 users with our app, and raised pre-seed and seed capital. Women who were active users of the app were 20% more likely to repay their loans on time.

  • I lead Code and Theory's first healthcare deal driving the digital strategy for Quest Diagnostics (worth over $1M), and got to present to the CEO and CIO when I was 24 yrs old. I delivered a multi-year product strategy for patients, doctors, phlebotomists and hospitals to digitize their workflows. Quest continues to update their digital presence with this work.

  • In college I co-founded an online fashion marketplace that made it into Techstars, raised $200K and reached 1000s of users. We built a network of 40 student ambassadors across 8 universities and hired a team of 15 people.

Current Curiosities

What I'm reading:

  • Talent by Tyler Cowen and Daniel Gross - A fun and tactical way of exploring the human psyche through the context of interviewing people for jobs, partnerships or any kind of project. I use the questions posed in this book as personal explorations: e.g. "what views do you hold religiously, most irrationally?”

  • Autocracy Inc by Annie Applebaum - A detailed analysis of the shift from ideology to personal relationships as the foundation for how autocrats across the world can support each other and continue to expand their power. Ultimately just as depressing as it is engaging, but worth it for a deep dive into the history and context of the world we live in.

  • Naked by David Sedaris - Just pure hilarity. Highly recommend as an audio book as David Sedaris delivery really adds to the incredible imagery he creates.

What I’m listening to:

  • Dwarkesh Podcast: Episode AI27 - A more absorbable way to consume the AGI prediction scenarios posed by researchers: Daniel Kokotajlo, Scott Alexander, Thomas Larsen, Eli Lifland and Romeo Dean in a discussion on the ramifications of super intelligence and Dwarkesh's skepticisms.

  • Continental Garbage by Caroline O'Donaghue: The Grand Budapest Hotel - Light hearted and relatable review / analysis of the Grand Budapest Hotel, one of my favorite movies.

Top of Mind

While building my startup, I spent six months in communities outside Mexico City studying how women with small businesses used smartphones. Most had no internet access or formal education—but they had WhatsApp. Those who used it could source better products, retain customers, and repay loans. Those who didn’t, fell behind.

The parallels with AI are clear. Never before has the adopter had so much to gain, and the laggard so much to lose.

Today at Multiverse, I focus on helping people build the skills and trust to use AI meaningfully at work—so they stay relevant and secure their financial future. In December, I spoke at the 2024 NYT DealBook Summit alongside leaders from U.S. Bank and WebMD to discuss what it takes to build trust in AI, with a focus on the finance and healthcare sectors. I shared what we’ve learned at Multiverse—what holds adoption back, and what helps it take root.

New York Times Dealbook Summit, Dec 2024

Serendipitous Coffees

Don't be shy! Reach out to grab a coffee, in person or virtually.

Email me at: alexavarsavsky [@] gmail.com or LinkedIn.