01
The business is easier to understand and choose.
What it is, who it's for, and why it matters — in language the market can grasp and repeat.
Being misunderstood
is
expensive.
It costs you revenue, momentum, and better decisions. I help founders and leadership teams name the real problem and decide what to do next.
50+
Ventures advised, worked with
6+
Sectors worked across
4
Sides of the table
2
Startups built from scratch
Where I come in
The obvious problem is rarely the one to solve.
Ask three people what the business does and you'll get three answers — including from inside the company.
Your offer grew by accident not design, so it's hard to price, hard to pitch, and hard to sell.
You keep reworking the website and the pitch, when the real problem is you haven't pinned down the foundations.
What you offer is strong, but hard to explain — and if people don't get it, they don't buy.
You're stretched across priorities. You know you need to focus, but cutting even one feels too hard.
The business has grown into something bigger than the way you still talk about it.
In practice
Get to the decision that matters most.
Most problems that reach me are symptoms. A site that won't land or a team that can't agree points to something underneath. I find it, pressure-test it, and help you decide.
01
Hear what's underneath — the assumptions no one's questioned, the decision that keeps getting deferred.
02
Find the real problem — usually not the one you came in with.
03
Challenge the frame — if the question is wrong, the answer will be too.
04
Make the choice — the point isn't options; it's a call you can act on.
The shape of the engagement follows the problem — a focused sprint, an advisory relationship, or a facilitated session for a team deciding together.
What the work produces
You leave with the decision, not just better language.
02
You know what to lead with — and what to let go.
A firm call on what comes first, what supports it, and what no longer belongs.
03
The next decision starts from solid ground.
The thinking is captured and usable, so the next pitch, site or hire builds on it instead of reopening it.
Strategy when the ground is moving
AI changes the conditions. It doesn't change the need for judgment.
Information is everywhere and competent-looking output is cheap. The hard part is judgment: which question actually matters, and which call the business should make.
AI runs underneath the work — the research, the synthesis, the pressure-testing. It makes the analytical layer faster. It doesn't make the decision.
About Katrina
Senior judgment, from more than one side of the table.
I'm Katrina Foster, a strategic adviser with deep expertise in positioning, commercial narrative and the decisions that shape how a business is built, understood and valued.
Over more than twenty years I've been the operator and the adviser, the investor and the director — I co-founded a startup, raised capital, invested as an LP, and sat on boards where the direction, proposition or story had to withstand real scrutiny. That range is the point. I've made the decisions I now help others make, and I know how differently the same problem looks depending on which chair you're in. It's what lets me spot when the stated brief is hiding a more consequential choice.
I work with founders, CEOs, leadership teams and the venture firms backing them — people making consequential choices about what they are building, what should lead and how it should be understood.
"Katrina has a rare ability to quickly assess where you are and deliver high-value, actionable guidance — whether that's refining positioning, shaping an investor pitch, or providing strategic counsel."
Shayna Rector Bleeker · 7Gen Co-Founder"Katrina thinks rigorously and explains simply, and can hold a room of opinionated senior people in a way that moves the work forward rather than just servicing it."
Jill Earthy · Board Director, EasyParkThe wider work
Where the thinking gets sharpened.
01
The Red Thread
I write weekly on Substack about positioning, AI, commercial judgment and doing senior work in a changing market.
Read on Substack02
The Generous AI Society
I co-founded a working community for women thinking seriously about how AI is changing work, leadership and daily life — sustained, hands-on, and close to the actual shift.
Explore the Society03
In the ecosystem
Board Director at The Forum. Entrepreneur in Residence at Foresight Canada. Peer mentor through WeBC and the Squamish Chamber.
Contact
Tell me what's stuck.
You don't need to know whether it's a positioning problem, a direction problem, or something further upstream. Start with the decision, disagreement or explanation you keep circling — and why it matters now.