We are professional problem solvers who are brought on to tackle complex challenges, scale-up, organizational growth, and company expansion.
We are do-ers
We are innovators
We are problem solvers
We are system disruptors
We are customer-obsessed
We are fixated on your growth
Crayne is your strategic partner-in-growth & innovation
/strategy
We are known to have levelled-up organizations and for having the "perfect blend of strategic and implementation skills".
Advisory
Strategic Partnerships
Our most frequently leveraged service - our partners have us onboard as their dedicated problems solvers, innovation co-conspirators, and fractional senior leaders. We bring our operations, systems and design-thinking, strategic growth; scale-up and executive management expertise to the table. We like to work cross-functionally, because we acknowledge that your organization is an ecosystem and we like to make deep, meaningful, and sustainable impact. We meet you where you are at, work one-on-one with you and your team members, provide direction through your next moves while equipping you with creative and competitive ideas along the way.
Involve us early on in the ideation process and we'll go there with you to design and lead special initiatives and partnership programs to extend your reach and deepen your impact; identify, secure, and solidify partnerships; and ultimately support your organization's growth goals. From A to Z, we have done it all from ideation, goal setting, prospecting, through to implementation, management and scale-up.
Program Operations & Management
We help you build, operationalize and scale-up your efforts so that you can serve and impact more people. Our approach gives you the ability to innovate and keep up with constantly evolving needs, move in to new markets and stay laser sharp focused on your customer and stakeholder impact, revenue and growth goals.
We go deep because we
are in it for your long-game
/insight
We are known to have helped companies "dodge bullets" and for leaving teams feeling better equipped to move forward and thrive.
Product & Program Research
Speaking, Workshops & Facilitation
We love conversion, retention, and when your customers and stakeholders are obsessed with you. Ground your product, program and service decisions with deep insight and future-forward considerations. Our human-centred approach means you can move forward with contextual, practical relevant insight that you can operationalize as you design, pilot and go-to-market.
We strongly believe in investing in the capacity of those we work with. Growth and innovation often requires the power of a spark set to a flame. Sometimes, this is in the form of keynote talks, panel discussions, moderation of roundtables, or facilitation - to help educate, draw lines between vision and know-how, and shift perspective and mind-set.
The truth is, we don't love the conventional approach to consulting. We do things differently to drive deep impact.
Carolyn Van
Principal
Those who have worked with Carolyn would attest to how much she pushed them, their teams and their organizations to grow.
Senior Leaders, Tech Startup Founders and Changemakers often turn to Carolyn to help them tackle, work through or plan for challenges and opportunities - no matter how undefined, hairy or complex they are. This is part of Crayne's origin story.
She is known for being a shi(f)t disturber, her deep and wide insights; technology meets business expertise; systems-thinking; being a catalyst for change and transformation; future-forward thinking; creative problem solving; and having the "perfect blend of strategic and implementation skills".
Carolyn brings more than 12 years of building, growing and scaling up businesses and designing projects, services and programs to expand reach and deepen impact. She has worked with innovation incubators and accelerators; not-for-profits, hundreds of startups; and with companies across various industries and sectors including healthcare, arts and culture, telecom, IoT, human resources, education and CPG.
Carolyn has been awarded by the City of Toronto for her leadership in Digital Innovation and has advised for, worked with, and has been invited to speak by many including Microsoft, Google, Intelligent Automation Summit, Young Adult Cancer Canada, Product Management and UX Associations, CTV News Channel, Rogers Wireless, Global Entrepreneurship Week, Scotiabank, First Nations Tech Council, Boys & Girls Club - National (Canada), The Financial Post, The Globe and Mail, Lean Startup Machine Conference, Oxfam Canada, Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, and the House of Commons (Parliament of Canada).
what they said...
what they said
Carolyn is a very knowledgeable, inventive, and reliable individual. We are really fortunate to have her as a trusted advisor on our startup. She has opened up many doors for us in our customer and business development stages thanks to her large network.
She is not afraid to be honest and tell you if and when you are not on the right track, which is quite refreshing to hear. We really love the way she tackles problems as they present themselves with an out-of-the-box approach.
- Aram, CEO of Crowdlinker
Through her energy, bold-nature, persistence, awesome ideas and wide connections we just rocketed forward.
Carolyn is thoughtful, empathetic, focused and always knows how to plan and execute the next move.
I would love an opportunity to work with Carolyn again - and so should you.
- Declan, CTO & Agile at LeanIntuit
We went from developing a product that people “could see” themselves using to developing a product people will use and that all stemmed from us making a conscience effort to hone in on the value that we were aiming to deliver to our consumers.
This is what Carolyn is able to bring to the table.
- Yohannes, Product Strategy at Google
Her expertise and the time she took to understand our needs and start from where we were, allowed for real change on a personal level and organizational level. She is articulate, open minded, knowledgeable, and efficient. She also offered practical ways to improve our services that will help us in the long run.
I am already looking forward to working with her again and definitely recommend her to anyone looking to enhance and expand their work.
- Karine, National Program Director at Young Adult Cancer Canada
