Stephane Ritty
Stephane Ritty

0→1 Builder

Before it's a business, it's a mess. That's where I start.

0→1 products, services and businesses — from the first idea to something that works. I take ownership beyond the product: customer, business model, product, team and launch.

Inside Thermo Fisher and Dow, or on my own, I run the whole thing.

  • $70Mnew revenue in four years, from the portfolio I ran
  • 9 monthsto launch a rental model after ten years of attempts
  • 26 → 5 daysprocess time on a service built in three months
See the workEmail me

Shipped.

Corporate 0→1

Inside Thermo Fisher and Dow, with everything a large company brings: finance, legal, operations, politics.

  1. Thermo FisherNew operating modelRunning the new-service portfolioFive project managers, a stage-gate that sorted projects by what we didn’t know yet, and $70M of new revenue in four years.Operating model
  2. Thermo FisherNew businessA marketplace for medication adherenceTried twice internally before I picked it up. Business plan in three months, launched in nine, $20M revenue in year three.Launched
  3. Thermo FisherNew serviceJust-in-time labelingSold into a ten-year clinical trial before the service existed. Built in three months; process time went from 26 days to 5.Launched
  4. Thermo FisherNew business modelFrom selling equipment to renting itTen years of attempts on a $40M business. Launched in nine months; the finance director who blocked it asked to run the pilot.Launched
  5. DowPlatformA roofing marketplace at DowA four-sided platform to reach building owners in a market where Dow had almost no presence. Built and contracted; stopped by a restructuring before launch.Stopped before launch
  6. DowConceptPlastic waste as a building materialA Sustainability Academy project with four colleagues. It never got past concept.Concept

Independent 0→1

The environment changes. I still build. Small AI products I design, build and ship myself.

  1. AI productFood intolerance finder for new parentsVitalEatOur baby was allergic to dairy, and it took us four months to find out. Four horrible months. I built VitalEat so new parents can spot a food intolerance sooner: log meals by voice, and it looks for patterns between food, symptoms, stress and sleep.Prototype
  2. AI productYour pocket sommelierWineCard SelectorA restaurant wine list gives you names, vintages and prices, but not what you need to choose. Photograph the list or a bottle and get the information that helps you decide.Live beta
  3. AI productSocial dinner gameMissionMotA dinner-party game. Each player gets a character and a rare word, and has to get the others to say it.Live
  4. AI productIkigai coachLumiSomeone asked me to help him find his ikigai, the Japanese idea of a reason for being. Lumi is a coach that works through it with you: what you love, what you’re good at, what the world needs and what you can be paid for.Prototype

Try them in the browser

Building 0→1

A 0→1 doesn’t work because the product works. The customer, economics, team, operations and organization have to work too.

  1. 01

    Start before the business case is finished.

    On the adherence marketplace I ran Strategyzer tests with senior directors alongside the stage-gate business case. Some tests touched contracts, so Legal sat in from the start. A marketplace for medication adherence

  2. 02

    Sort projects by what you don’t know.

    With the PMO director we added a filter to stage-gate. Predictable projects kept the standard path. Uncertain ones came to my portfolio and were tested in small steps before any large spend. Running the new-service portfolio

  3. 03

    Learn the blocker’s system before arguing with him.

    The finance director said his systems couldn’t support rental. I spent four hours learning them, then two weeks of daily calls mapping the accounting of every site. Two months later he asked for his sites to run the pilot. From selling equipment to renting it

  4. 04

    Find the department nobody invited.

    Before the adherence launch I found that Accounting had been left out of the project process. A signed contract doesn’t make money move. A marketplace for medication adherence

  5. 05

    When time is the constraint, decide every day.

    For the labeling service I set up a daily steering committee with executives. Hiring, a compliant packaging area and a new process ran in parallel instead of waiting on each other. Just-in-time labeling

  6. 06

    Write down what went wrong.

    Adherence adoption was slower than planned, and I lost the argument for more lead-generation budget. The Dow platform stopped before launch; I had underestimated the internal politics. A roofing marketplace at Dow

Background

The titles changed. The work didn’t.

Product director, program lead, product owner, portfolio lead, now Head of Product. Across Thermo Fisher, Dow and my own projects, the job has stayed the same: take something ambiguous and build it into something real.

Like a rugby forward, I go into the rucks no one wants, so the team can move forward.

Contact

Email is the fastest way to reach me.

stephane.ritty@gmail.comLinkedIn