About Michelle Messina

Michelle E. Messina is CEO of the international advisory and training firm Explora International, and a serial entrepreneur who sold her first company at age 19.  She is co-author of the best-selling book Decoding Silicon Valley: The Insider’s Guide and a board member at Startup Chile. Today, Michelle trains corporations to innovate more like startups and trains founders, investors, and mentors to be more effective using the best practices of Silicon Valley.  

Michelle has worked in more than 65 countries and has heard 6000+ company presentations. For startups and growth mode companies, Michelle has been instrumental in identifying new opportunities, creating market development plans, turning around difficult situations, and contributing to building sustainable companies with predictable revenue. She has positioned companies for funding raising and acquisition and is frequently engaged as a CEO coach for international companies. Her practical and functional experience includes developing strategies and budgets for marketing and sales, establishing sales targets and forecast, negotiating sales contracts, coaching the strategic sales process. She is also a CEO coach with sector expertise in hardware, mobile apps, e-commerce, BPO|KPO services, enterprise and SaaS applications, food technology, home accessories, AG technology, and computerized robotics. Prior to her Explora International consulting practice, Michelle  was a VP Sales, VP Marketing, and VP Business Development for public and private venture-funded tech companies. 

Michelle is an expert pitch coach and has trained winning companies at Startup Grind, Microsoft Inspire Middle East finals, Silicon Valley Forum, LeWeb, and Taiwan Tech Arena among other programs.  She is a mentor Startup Wise Guys, NASDAQ Entrepreneurial Center, Telefonica’s Wayra academies, and Innovation Center Denmark in Silicon Valley.  Michelle is Chairperson of the Impact Hub Belgrade (Serbia) Advisory Board, Treasurer and Board member at LatinaVida, and a NASDAQ Author-in-Residence. She is fluent in English/Spanish and currently studying Portuguese. Her book, Decoding Silicon Valley: The Insider’s Guide, is available online in English, Chinese, and Vietnamese.