Meet an Operator | Alessandra Szul

Meet an Operator | Alessandra Szul

Alessandra has no shortage of crazy war stories. Once, of her drivers once stole a truck full of milk from Pepsi, and went on a drug binge in the surrounding states while holding it hostage.

by

by

The StartOps Team

Published

Published

Oct 30, 2024

Oct 30, 2024

TLDR:

Alessandra has been the COO at some great consumer brands (like Healthy Roots Dolls and Jeng Alcohol-Free Cocktails). But she’s also been a founder (starting her own trucking company, consulting company, and a ginger water beverage at GinjaSnap.com) and product manager (leading carrier-facing product at Coyote Logistics). Today, she brings her unique background to ops challenges as a fractional COO for consumer brands.

Backstory

  • Early beginnings — Alessandra’s operations journey began unusually early — spending middle school summers working in her family's international CPG/beauty business in Venezuela, handling everything from invoicing to scheduling. This early exposure laid the foundation for a career bridging operations and product management.


  • Trucking founder — She spent the first six years of her career using her Applied Computer Science degree while working in supply chain on the side. In 2018, she founded and bootstrapped a long-haul refrigerated trucking business while working as a Product Manager at a SoftBank company, growing it to millions of dollars in revenue. Though the trucking venture concluded during the 2022 diesel price surge, it provided invaluable experience in equipment acquisitions, federal compliance, hiring, dispatching, and broker relationships.


  • Product manager – After Flatbush was acquired via an asset sale to a larger freight conglomerate, Alessandra worked on the product team building internal tools for the carrier side of the business.


  • COO — Alessandra has been a full-time or fractional COO, supply chain strategist, and business strategy consultant at a number of consumer brands, including Jeng, Healthy Roots Dolls, Ginja Snap, Brae, Zomes, and more. She’s handled projects like end-to-end manufacturing and distribution for hemp beverages and toys into big box retailers like Target, preparing businesses for Reg CF and other types of fundraising rounds, and complex international import and export initiatives.


Fun facts

Alessandra has some insane war stories from her days founding Flatbush Freight. At various times, her drivers:

  • Stole a truck full of milk from Pepsi, and went on a drug binge in the surrounding states while holding it hostage.

  • Crashed into the sign of a nursing home

  • Put the wrong liquid in the fuel tank

  • Abandon their trucks on the side of the highway with no gas

  • Lock themselves out of their cab at 4 AM

  • Have their trailer catch fire in the middle of the desert.

Somehow, she managed to handle all of this and get to an exit!


Availability

Alessandra is available for both full-time roles and consulting engagements.

Her consulting work spans projects of all sizes, bringing operational expertise with a unique technical background to companies at various stages of growth.

You can get in touch at a@roeblinginnovation.com.

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Search detailed pages on every vendor you might need as a D2C operator — and who you know who’s already using them.

Discover the best ops products and services

Search detailed pages on every vendor you might need as a D2C operator — and who you know who’s already using them.

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Your first and last stop for consumer supply chain resources

Sign up to stay in the loop on all things StartOps, from announcements, to articles and new

Copyright © 2024 StartOps, Inc.

Your first and last stop for consumer supply chain resources

Sign up to stay in the loop on all things StartOps, from announcements, to articles and new

Copyright © 2024 StartOps, Inc.