Finian Carey - Freelance Product Coach and Business Designer

Uccle, Belgium

Experience

Jan 2024 - Dec 2025

1 year

Brussels, Belgium

Freelance Product Coach and Business Designer

Supporting corporations with venture building, product management, and growth activities.
Focusing on early stage and rapid validation to reach product market and product channel fit.
Building Fleuron.ai to help Guestwise scale and leading DIGI Belgium cross-functional project supporting market entry.

Jan 2020 - Present

5 years 7 months

Remote

Co-Founder

hydesk.co

Built a social D2C and remote-first company.
Ideated and developed a fully foldable standing desk.
Successfully funded on Kickstarter and bootstrapped venture, crafting sustainable products for the remote workforce.
Achieved 2 products with product market fit, 300+ satisfied clients, served in 17 countries, filed 1 patent, and reached five-digit ARR.

Jan 2019 - Dec 2023

5 years

Düsseldorf, Germany

Head of Product & Innovation Lab

Hospitality Digital GmbH

Built and led a strong 8+ FTE product team to develop SaaS solutions for restaurant owners.
Overall product management responsibility for product discovery and roadmap delivery.
Achieved product suite growth to 50k+ users and double-digit increase in engagement rate and MRR.
Introduced and implemented the OKRs methodology as a company-wide goal setting framework.
Launched the i.lab, a company-wide structured innovation process to rapidly validate the potential of new ideas for the hospitality industry.
Achieved an innovation funnel of 25x ideas in discovery, 12x evaluation, 5x reviews, and 2x scaling.
Introduced and brought to market Dish Seal, a smart and reusable To-Go Packaging-as-a-Service for gastronomy clients and consumers.

Jan 2016 - Dec 2020

4 years

Germany

Guest Lecturer

IUBH University of Applied Sciences & IBA

Lecturing in hotel design, sustainability, and hospitality innovation.

Jan 2015 - Present

9 years 7 months

Stuttgart, Germany

Co-Founder

Slooom.com

Developed and launched a sustainable and modular pod hotel that reutilizes empty spaces, targeting cautious travelers.
Since 2019, ongoing development of the first location, a sports hall, into the first pod hotel location with 24 pods.
Opened first location in February 2023.
Achieved 55 test nights in prototype and persisted six years from idea to first location.

Jan 2015 - Dec 2020

4 years

Business Building & Startup Consultant

Executed European-focused HospitalityTech startup research and assessment initiatives in a 500+ user pilot program.
Validated technology and product market fit of early stage startups.
Prepared due diligence for VC portfolio companies for investment committees.
Achieved 26 startup partnerships, 4 investments, and gained market knowledge to start in-house product development.

Jan 2014 - Dec 2016

3 years

Munich, Germany

Project Manager

Hotelkompetenzzentrum GmbH

Developed viable business and construction cases of hotel mock-up rooms for international hotel operators.
Led health+care hotel room concept project from initial project financing to realization.
Realized 7 mock-ups and 3 special projects and increased business development MoM MRR by 7%.

Senior CX Manager

Telco Provider Name

Leading innovative CX initiatives including AI implementation, customer care system development, and strategic roadmaps for care, claims, and contact centers.
Driving customer journey improvements.
Planning market entry for December 2024.
Fostering OKR adoption.

Summary

I love helping to solve hard problems: building meaningful ventures and products, leading cross-functional teams. Looking to add product thinking to your organisation.