Alejandra falls into the fewer than 3% of people in the world who can speak over four languages fluently. She was raised speaking English and Spanish and her linguistic talent was easily recognized by peers, teachers, employers, and extended community members alike. In college, she developed her Arabic, French, and German which allowed her to live abroad for two years and hone her language skills in a completely immersive setting. The FBI has confirmed Alejandra’s linguistic aptitude as she’s passed all levels of their language literacy examinations.

Alejandra has worked in customer service since she was 15, her first retail job was at 18, and she has since put in over 1500 floor hours communicating with customers about products and services and driving sales. Notably, she increased the conversion rate at a national retail beauty store by 15% in their prestige category in fewer than 6 months and maintained a personal customer retention rate of 51%. Currently, her top personal sales goal is to reach an average transaction value of $100 among those with whom she has contact. Alejandra consistently leads with a customer-focused mindset.

Alejandra’s retail prospecting experience introduced her to other important elements of retail business management like vendor development and supply chain constraints. On her own, she has researched and learned about the effects of COVID-19 on our industry’s supply chain, how the creation of a product/service vetting system facilitates improved sales channels, and how early strategic international relationships can bolster scaling efforts. She keeps up with retail news on mergers and acquisitions, automation technology, and more through a few favorite platforms including Retail Brew and NRF's SmartBrief newsletters.

Savannah’s business savvy is in her blood. As a third generation business owner, she has experienced firsthand what it takes to develop innovative, hard won ways to grow in the face of obstacles inherent to the 'founder experience'. Since the pandemic started, Savannah has helped open over 30 corporations, facilitated lease renegotiations for 2 restaurants and 2 salons, reviewed more than 60 loan and grant applications, and led multiple webinars on access to capital for minority owned business owners in Upper Manhattan and the Bronx. Years of direct exposure to all aspects of running a business gave Savannah the foundation to serve as a bilingual business counselor in her community until she stopped in early 2021 to study venture capital and apply her skills to Casa de la Luna full time.

Savannah has 6 years of data analytic work and 12 years of fundraising experience under her belt. Notably, she has assessed multiple large data sets using self-made code to answer statistical research questions via linear regression, one of which was published, and has raised over $750k in scholarships for her education. Her love of math, creativity, diligence, and outreach explain her >70% success rate raising capital via real estate equity, loans, credit, grants, and crowdfunding for herself and others. Savannah is motivated by quantifiable results and loves solving profit optimization, market sizing, retention questions and more. Complex problems excite, rather than intimidate her.

Savannah’s natural leadership ability helps her build productive teams and inspire them to achieve growth. She has turned around multiple failing projects by uplifting people and redirecting the team’s strategy for completing goals. In one example, Savannah helped save a $2k benthic survey field day trip after research divers forgot gear critical to data collection back at the lab. In order to maximize time and not jeopardize the project, she managed people’s emotions by allowing them to explain perceived obstacles and then organized a brainstorming session for the group to agree on a time efficient solution to still complete the work. Savannah leads with empathy and drives individuals’ confidence by respecting their individuality and experience. Her goals in a team setting are to serve as a thought partner, utility player, and connector.