Top Talent like Jesse are on Pangea

Pangea, a YC company, connects companies with fractional talent. Fractional hiring allows companies to move faster and work with more specialized talent, while giving talent more flexibility and independence. If you are talent open to fractional work, apply here. If you’re a company looking for high-quality fractional talent, learn more here.
Recently Active

Jesse Fowler

Operations Manager
AI & Machine Learning Engineer
Business Intelligence Analyst
Phoenix, AZ, US
Fundraising
Available for hire fromNegotiable
Contracts
I help $1-10M companies build the systems that get the founder out of the bottleneck.
Most of the founders I talk to are in the same spot: the business is working, revenue is growing, but everything still runs through them. They're the bottleneck and they know it, they just don't know how to build the layer underneath them that lets them step back without things falling apart. That's the work I do. I help companies between $1M and $10M build the operational infrastructure, leadership systems, and revenue architecture that gets the founder out of the day-to-day. I've been the person in that seat, so I know what it actually takes vs. what it looks like in a consulting deck. I also spend a lot of time helping people think through where AI and automation fit into their operations. Not the hype version. The practical version, where you figure out which 3 things to automate first and skip the other 47 that sound cool but don't move the needle. Based in Phoenix. Happy to talk through whatever you're working on.

Projects

LÏEF Development Midtown Phoenix Adaptive Reuse (301 W Osborn)

Led a $6.3M adaptive-reuse initiative for a 50,000 SF commercial building in Midtown Phoenix, including capital strategy, partnerships, and cross-functional execution.See More

Common Ground Ventures: Fractional Advisory and Capital Strategy

If you're running a company between $1M and $10M, you probably know you need senior leadership in areas you can't afford to hire full-time. Maybe it's someone to build out your revenue engine, or someone to structure a raise, or someone to just come in and make the operations work. That's what we do. Common Ground embeds fractional executives directly into your team. Not advisors who show up monthly with a slide deck. Operators who sit in the room with you and build the thing alongside your people. Four principals, each covering a core function: brand, revenue, capital, and operations. We work best with companies that have product-market fit but haven't built the infrastructure to scale past founder-dependent chaos. We're not trying to be your consultants forever. The goal is to build the systems, hire the right people into those seats, and get out of the way. Most engagements run 3-6 months. Phoenix-based, working nationwide.See More

Lip Loi Creative — Brand Strategy & Digital Presence for Portfolio Companies

Founded Lip Loi Creative, an in-house branding and digital strategy studio that serves as the creative engine across a portfolio of companies spanning real estate development, AI automation, sustainable construction, hospitality, and media. Responsible for brand architecture, visual identity systems, website design and development, content strategy, and digital marketing across 10+ active brands. Built and deployed production websites using Next.js, React, and modern frameworks — each serving as a proof of concept for the portfolio's AI automation capabilities. Managed end-to-end brand launches including naming, positioning, logo development, pitch deck design, and investor materials. Lip Loi Creative demonstrates the intersection of operational leadership and creative execution that defines my approach to building companies.See More

Hospitality Ventures — Restaurant & Consumer Brands

Developed and operated hospitality concepts including restaurant ventures and consumer-facing brands. Handled everything from concept development and brand identity through buildout, staffing, vendor negotiations, and daily operations. Raised private capital for hospitality projects, managed P&L across multiple locations, and built systems for inventory management, labor optimization, and customer experience. This hands-on hospitality background informs a practical understanding of consumer behavior, brand building, and the operational intensity of service-based businesses — experience that translates directly to advising founders and operators in food service, retail, and experiential ventures.See More

Tellus Design + Build: Scaling a Sustainability-Focused Design-Build Firm

Founded and ran Tellus Design + Build for nearly 20 years, building it into one of Southern California's first green-certified design-build operations. The work was residential, commercial, and hospitality, with a focus on sustainable construction before it was a selling point. The real education was in running the business: full P&L ownership, sales team leadership, estimating, subcontractor procurement, project delivery, and client relations. Built integrated design-build delivery processes that shortened timelines and improved margins. Navigated multiple economic cycles, including building through the 2008 crash when most firms shut down. Successfully wound down the company in 2023 after a deliberate transition, not a failure. The lessons from scaling, managing people, and operating through uncertainty are what I bring to every engagement now.See More

Nonprofit Board Leadership & Organizational Turnarounds

Served as President of a nonprofit organization, leading board governance, fundraising strategy, and organizational restructuring during a critical transition period. Partnered with board members, donors, and community stakeholders to stabilize operations, rebuild trust, and establish sustainable growth frameworks. Experience includes financial oversight, strategic planning, membership development, and navigating complex stakeholder dynamics in mission-driven organizations. Applied the same operational discipline from the private sector — clear accountability, measurable outcomes, and decisive leadership — to drive meaningful impact in the nonprofit space.See More

Work History

T

Principal

The Common Ground GroupCommon Ground emerged organically from years of operating, investing, and building businesses—often at moments when the work didn’t fit a clean title. Founders, investors, and leadership teams consistently pulled me into inflection points: capital decisions, growth plateaus, operational resets, and leadership transitions where judgment mattered more than theory. Through Common Ground, I partner selectively during these periods—supporting capital strategy, revenue growth, organizational clarity, and execution readiness. Engagements span real estate, hospitality, consumer brands, media, and creative ventures, chosen by design and grounded in trust, alignment, and shared conviction.
L

Principal

Lïef DevelopmentBuilt Lïef Development as a focused real estate platform for projects that sit a little off the obvious path—boutique residential, adaptive reuse, and thoughtfully designed 55+ communities. The work centers on assembling the right people early, being disciplined about capital and underwriting, and staying close enough to execution to know when something needs to change. LÏEF operates as a platform under Common Ground, where development meets the human side of real estate—deals built on relationships, not just spreadsheets.
T

President / CEO

Tellus Design + BuildApr 2006 - Dec 2020 • 14 yrs 9 mosTELLUS was my longest chapter—and the one that shaped everything that followed. I founded the company in the early 2000s around a simple belief: construction could be more transparent, more collaborative, and more accountable. Over nearly two decades, TELLUS grew into a fully integrated design-build firm delivering hundreds of residential and commercial projects across Southern California. Not everything worked. Vertical integration taught me as much through failure as success. Scaling the business revealed how complexity compounds—legally, emotionally, operationally. COVID accelerated hard decisions around dependency risk, stewardship, and timing that couldn’t be deferred. Choosing to wind TELLUS down deliberately—finishing projects, selling divisions, and closing responsibly—became one of the most formative leadership experiences of my career. It sharpened my judgment more than growth ever did and fundamentally changed how I think about scale, risk, and long-term outcomes.
H

President

H.E.E.A.L. Santa BarbaraSep 2010 - Jan 2015 • 4 yrs 5 mosThis role was deeply personal—and formative. I led H.E.E.A.L. during a period of organizational growth, fundraising expansion, and increased board governance, gaining firsthand perspective on how nonprofit leadership differs from for-profit—and where the overlap is more significant than most people admit. Working inside a mission-driven organization sharpened my understanding of stewardship, trust, and accountability when the stakes are human rather than financial. It reinforced the responsibility leaders carry when resources are limited, missions are fragile, and alignment matters more than authority. That experience continues to inform how I approach leadership, capital, and decision-making—especially in values-driven or transitional environments.
S

Sales Director

Smart Systems TechnologiesApr 2001 - Apr 2004 • 3 yrs 1 moSmart Systems was my first exposure to rapid growth inside an entrepreneurial organization during the residential building boom. I led regional sales, opened a new office, and conducted hundreds of buyer meetings while managing a fast-moving pipeline. This role sharpened my instincts for sales leadership, client trust, and scaling operations under pressure—skills that became foundational to every venture that followed.
C

Founder & Managing Partner

Common Ground VenturesFull-time EmployeeFounded and lead Common Ground Ventures, a fractional executive and advisory firm serving founders, investors, and operating partners across real estate, technology, and consumer brands. Provide fractional COO, CRO, and VP Development services to growth-stage companies. Advise on capital strategy, organizational design, revenue operations, and go-to-market execution. Active deal flow across real estate development, construction technology, and AI-powered business automation.

Education

S

Saddleback College

N

North Medford High School

How Pangea Works

Effortlessly discover top talent

We've distilled the candidate search from endless hours down to just a few minutes. Using Pangea's AI-powered search tools, you can find top fractional talent able to take on your next project. Our system looks at your company's niche and your needs to find the perfect match faster than any traditional hiring platform.

Start working with talent today

The top talent on Pangea is ready to get started with you right now. You can message or hire a candidate right from their profile page and start assigning work as soon as they respond. And the best part? Pangea's fractional contract structure lets you start small and ramp up as your needs change, keeping your costs manageable and your team's capabliities flexible.

Track work and invoices in one place

Assign tasks, track progress, and complete invoices all on Pangea. We've combined every part of the hiring process into one platform to eliminate the miscommunication that's unavoidable on other freelance platforms. We even send out 1099s to your contractors at the end of the year!

Talk with a Talent Expert

Members of our team are available to help you speed through the hiring process.
Available Now
Book a Call
Recently Active
I help $1-10M companies build the systems that get the founder out of the bottleneck.
Most of the founders I talk to are in the same spot: the business is working, revenue is growing, but everything still runs through them. They're the bottleneck and they know it, they just don't know how to build the layer underneath them that lets them step back without things falling apart. That's the work I do. I help companies between $1M and $10M build the operational infrastructure, leadership systems, and revenue architecture that gets the founder out of the day-to-day. I've been the person in that seat, so I know what it actually takes vs. what it looks like in a consulting deck. I also spend a lot of time helping people think through where AI and automation fit into their operations. Not the hype version. The practical version, where you figure out which 3 things to automate first and skip the other 47 that sound cool but don't move the needle. Based in Phoenix. Happy to talk through whatever you're working on.

Talk with a Talent Expert

Members of our team are available to help you speed through the hiring process.
Available Now
Book a Call

Top Talent like Jesse are on Pangea

Pangea, a YC company, connects companies with fractional talent. Fractional hiring allows companies to move faster and work with more specialized talent, while giving talent more flexibility and independence. If you are talent open to fractional work, apply here. If you’re a company looking for high-quality fractional talent, learn more here.

Jesse Fowler

Operations Manager
AI & Machine Learning Engineer
Business Intelligence Analyst
Phoenix, AZ, US
Fundraising
Available for hire fromNegotiable
Contracts

Projects

LÏEF Development Midtown Phoenix Adaptive Reuse (301 W Osborn)

Led a $6.3M adaptive-reuse initiative for a 50,000 SF commercial building in Midtown Phoenix, including capital strategy, partnerships, and cross-functional execution.

Common Ground Ventures: Fractional Advisory and Capital Strategy

If you're running a company between $1M and $10M, you probably know you need senior leadership in areas you can't afford to hire full-time. Maybe it's someone to build out your revenue engine, or someone to structure a raise, or someone to just come in and make the operations work. That's what we do. Common Ground embeds fractional executives directly into your team. Not advisors who show up monthly with a slide deck. Operators who sit in the room with you and build the thing alongside your people. Four principals, each covering a core function: brand, revenue, capital, and operations. We work best with companies that have product-market fit but haven't built the infrastructure to scale past founder-dependent chaos. We're not trying to be your consultants forever. The goal is to build the systems, hire the right people into those seats, and get out of the way. Most engagements run 3-6 months. Phoenix-based, working nationwide.

Lip Loi Creative — Brand Strategy & Digital Presence for Portfolio Companies

Founded Lip Loi Creative, an in-house branding and digital strategy studio that serves as the creative engine across a portfolio of companies spanning real estate development, AI automation, sustainable construction, hospitality, and media. Responsible for brand architecture, visual identity systems, website design and development, content strategy, and digital marketing across 10+ active brands. Built and deployed production websites using Next.js, React, and modern frameworks — each serving as a proof of concept for the portfolio's AI automation capabilities. Managed end-to-end brand launches including naming, positioning, logo development, pitch deck design, and investor materials. Lip Loi Creative demonstrates the intersection of operational leadership and creative execution that defines my approach to building companies.

Hospitality Ventures — Restaurant & Consumer Brands

Developed and operated hospitality concepts including restaurant ventures and consumer-facing brands. Handled everything from concept development and brand identity through buildout, staffing, vendor negotiations, and daily operations. Raised private capital for hospitality projects, managed P&L across multiple locations, and built systems for inventory management, labor optimization, and customer experience. This hands-on hospitality background informs a practical understanding of consumer behavior, brand building, and the operational intensity of service-based businesses — experience that translates directly to advising founders and operators in food service, retail, and experiential ventures.

Tellus Design + Build: Scaling a Sustainability-Focused Design-Build Firm

Founded and ran Tellus Design + Build for nearly 20 years, building it into one of Southern California's first green-certified design-build operations. The work was residential, commercial, and hospitality, with a focus on sustainable construction before it was a selling point. The real education was in running the business: full P&L ownership, sales team leadership, estimating, subcontractor procurement, project delivery, and client relations. Built integrated design-build delivery processes that shortened timelines and improved margins. Navigated multiple economic cycles, including building through the 2008 crash when most firms shut down. Successfully wound down the company in 2023 after a deliberate transition, not a failure. The lessons from scaling, managing people, and operating through uncertainty are what I bring to every engagement now.

Nonprofit Board Leadership & Organizational Turnarounds

Served as President of a nonprofit organization, leading board governance, fundraising strategy, and organizational restructuring during a critical transition period. Partnered with board members, donors, and community stakeholders to stabilize operations, rebuild trust, and establish sustainable growth frameworks. Experience includes financial oversight, strategic planning, membership development, and navigating complex stakeholder dynamics in mission-driven organizations. Applied the same operational discipline from the private sector — clear accountability, measurable outcomes, and decisive leadership — to drive meaningful impact in the nonprofit space.

Work History

T

Principal

The Common Ground GroupCommon Ground emerged organically from years of operating, investing, and building businesses—often at moments when the work didn’t fit a clean title. Founders, investors, and leadership teams consistently pulled me into inflection points: capital decisions, growth plateaus, operational resets, and leadership transitions where judgment mattered more than theory. Through Common Ground, I partner selectively during these periods—supporting capital strategy, revenue growth, organizational clarity, and execution readiness. Engagements span real estate, hospitality, consumer brands, media, and creative ventures, chosen by design and grounded in trust, alignment, and shared conviction.
L

Principal

Lïef DevelopmentBuilt Lïef Development as a focused real estate platform for projects that sit a little off the obvious path—boutique residential, adaptive reuse, and thoughtfully designed 55+ communities. The work centers on assembling the right people early, being disciplined about capital and underwriting, and staying close enough to execution to know when something needs to change. LÏEF operates as a platform under Common Ground, where development meets the human side of real estate—deals built on relationships, not just spreadsheets.
T

President / CEO

Tellus Design + BuildApr 2006 - Dec 2020 • 14 yrs 9 mosTELLUS was my longest chapter—and the one that shaped everything that followed. I founded the company in the early 2000s around a simple belief: construction could be more transparent, more collaborative, and more accountable. Over nearly two decades, TELLUS grew into a fully integrated design-build firm delivering hundreds of residential and commercial projects across Southern California. Not everything worked. Vertical integration taught me as much through failure as success. Scaling the business revealed how complexity compounds—legally, emotionally, operationally. COVID accelerated hard decisions around dependency risk, stewardship, and timing that couldn’t be deferred. Choosing to wind TELLUS down deliberately—finishing projects, selling divisions, and closing responsibly—became one of the most formative leadership experiences of my career. It sharpened my judgment more than growth ever did and fundamentally changed how I think about scale, risk, and long-term outcomes.
H

President

H.E.E.A.L. Santa BarbaraSep 2010 - Jan 2015 • 4 yrs 5 mosThis role was deeply personal—and formative. I led H.E.E.A.L. during a period of organizational growth, fundraising expansion, and increased board governance, gaining firsthand perspective on how nonprofit leadership differs from for-profit—and where the overlap is more significant than most people admit. Working inside a mission-driven organization sharpened my understanding of stewardship, trust, and accountability when the stakes are human rather than financial. It reinforced the responsibility leaders carry when resources are limited, missions are fragile, and alignment matters more than authority. That experience continues to inform how I approach leadership, capital, and decision-making—especially in values-driven or transitional environments.
S

Sales Director

Smart Systems TechnologiesApr 2001 - Apr 2004 • 3 yrs 1 moSmart Systems was my first exposure to rapid growth inside an entrepreneurial organization during the residential building boom. I led regional sales, opened a new office, and conducted hundreds of buyer meetings while managing a fast-moving pipeline. This role sharpened my instincts for sales leadership, client trust, and scaling operations under pressure—skills that became foundational to every venture that followed.
C

Founder & Managing Partner

Common Ground VenturesFull-time EmployeeFounded and lead Common Ground Ventures, a fractional executive and advisory firm serving founders, investors, and operating partners across real estate, technology, and consumer brands. Provide fractional COO, CRO, and VP Development services to growth-stage companies. Advise on capital strategy, organizational design, revenue operations, and go-to-market execution. Active deal flow across real estate development, construction technology, and AI-powered business automation.

Education

S

Saddleback College

N

North Medford High School

How Pangea Works

Effortlessly discover top talent

We've distilled the candidate search from endless hours down to just a few minutes. Using Pangea's AI-powered search tools, you can find top fractional talent able to take on your next project. Our system looks at your company's niche and your needs to find the perfect match faster than any traditional hiring platform.

Start working with talent today

The top talent on Pangea is ready to get started with you right now. You can message or hire a candidate right from their profile page and start assigning work as soon as they respond. And the best part? Pangea's fractional contract structure lets you start small and ramp up as your needs change, keeping your costs manageable and your team's capabliities flexible.

Track work and invoices in one place

Assign tasks, track progress, and complete invoices all on Pangea. We've combined every part of the hiring process into one platform to eliminate the miscommunication that's unavoidable on other freelance platforms. We even send out 1099s to your contractors at the end of the year!

Talk with a Talent Expert

Members of our team are available to help you speed through the hiring process.
Available Now
Book a Call
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