Laís is a community-led growth strategist and fractional executive. She builds go-to-market systems where belonging is the engine.

For 15+ years, across four continents, she has turned ideas into businesses, led teams through ambiguity, and designed growth systems where customer success becomes advocacy, which becomes movement.

What I do

  • Designing growth systems where users become advocates: from research and customer success journey development to hyper-local activation and movement building.

  • Embedding as a fractional Head of GTM or growth strategistL leading cross-functional teams across product, ops, and marketing through ambiguity, across time zones, and into new markets. Senior leadership, without the full-time overhead.

  • Human-Centered Systems. Building community systems from the ground up leveraging my signature engagement frameworks: customer onboarding and success journeys, the 5 P's of Community, Closeness Circles, and Engineering Serendipity.

  • Clarifying voice, sharpening positioning, and turning complex missions into stories that move people to act: from pitch decks to keynotes to content strategy.

  • Scaling operations across markets and cultures from startup ecosystem strategy and government advisory to multi-city launches and distributed team building.

Trusted by Teams, Leaders & Partners

  • "Most people who talk about community building want to romanticize it, or worse, they want to make it into a series of actionable 'steps' without heart. Lais de Oliveira explains the required actions in amazing detail, but she does it with a sensitivity and a wisdom that can only come from experience. Every page gets better and better."

    Roy H. Williams
    Author, Wizard of Ads

  • "Laís is one of those rare people who lead their life by how they think the world should be, and in ways that can help the most people possible around them. This is what makes her the best type of community builder."

    Derek Andersen
    Co-founder and CEO at Startup Grind and Bevy

  • "While Laís has proven herself as an impactful community builder [with ODCB and Hacking Communities], what makes her unique is she is both a skilled practitioner and a teacher. As a result, she understands the theory and the practice of community building, and her insights are rooted in what works."

    Erik Torenberg
    Founder at Turpentine, On Deck, and Village Global:

  • "Laís has been crucial in helping us develop our programs at Startup Genome. Her proactive, solution-oriented approach to building community is invaluable. She excels at leading by example, which is crucial for fast-moving teams. She has a special blend of strategic and operational focus that any community-focused organisation would be lucky to have"

    Liam Ward
    Programs Director at Hypergrowth (by Startup Genome)

  • "Laís can do it all! She is a skilled strategist and leader, who is also adept at designing and implementing key systems and processes. At Startup Genome, Laís established and managed a global expertise network from scratch, meeting complex requests with 'ideal' matches within weeks. She is diligent and focused, an engaging and credible contributor in group settings, generous with her knowledge, and collaborative in her approach. The impact of what she can achieve in a short space of time cannot be understated."

    Ama Williams
    Startup Ecosystems & Innovation Expert and Peer at Startup Genome

  • "Laís has been absolutely instrumental in helping us define a hybrid community strategy, combining local chapters as well as a global membership community. Her passion, deep expertise and hands-on approach has been invaluable and key to the success of our community"

    Maiko Schaffrath
    Founder & CEO, Impact Hustlers

  • "I wanted to give my utmost thank you for our time together in our coaching relationship. Your wisdom and experience provided the foundations needed to really hack a community from scratch. Since our times together I've been able to refine that there are many different communities of donor organizers, and each of these communities needs different kinds of support."

    Haley Bash
    Founder & Executive Director at Donor Organizer Hub and Lais’ Client at Hacking Communities

  • "[Laís'] leadership showed us what strength with empathy looks like, what it means to hold space for others while still pushing the mission forward with boldness. She balanced drive and warmth in a way that made this fast-paced, ever-changing journey feel a little more grounded.”

    Lara AlBarazi
    Experience Manager and Canada Lead at Timeleft (reported directly to Laís)

Book a Call

Most engagements begin with a conversation. Book a call with Laís to talk through what you're building, where you're stuck, and whether working together makes sense.

Let's Connect

Let’s Work Together

Strategy Consulting & Mentoring

Gain clarity. Decide with confidence.

  • One-on-one advisory for founders, community leaders, and growth executives navigating what’s next

  • Strategic sprints with a clear endgame: from GTM design to community architecture

  • Mentoring programs for teams building community capacity in-house

Fractional & Executive Leadership

Your partner in getting it done.

  • Fractional Executive: embedded in your team, leading across product, ops, and marketing

  • Executive Leadership: full commitment from strategy to execution, across time zones and through ambiguity

  • Project-Based Consulting: Strategic engagements for market entry, community-led GTM design, or scaling operations into new markets

Advisory & Speaking Engagements

Ideas that move markets.

  • Keynotes on community-led growth, the neuroscience of belonging, economic agency, community and movement building

  • Panel moderation, emceeing, workshop facilitation, roundtables, and masterminds

  • Custom sessions for teams, offsites, and conferences

Highlighted Roles as Consultant, Executive Partner, Mentor & Speaker

Leadership Experiences

  • Designing and leading the community-led go-to-market strategy for GigU's U.S. expansion. This includes qualitative and quantitative driver research, persona development, customer lifecycle mapping, advocacy engine design, and hyper-local market activation. Working closely with product and marketing leadership to align community intelligence with product strategy. Building the system where driver success becomes the growth engine.

  • Head of Strategic Initiatives: Spearheaded the launch of Timeleft Campus, leading product development from idea to MVP.

    Head of North America: Managed the company’s largest and most successful region, managing a multi-million revenue portfolio. Expanded operations to 70+ U.S. cities, and led a team of eight people coordinating over 2,000 live venues.

    • Directed global strategies for community-led innovation and startup ecosystem development across 70+ cities.

    • Advised governments and civic partners in LATAM and APAC on using data-driven frameworks to foster entrepreneurial growth.

    • Partnered on national innovation strategies, contributing to public-private projects with lasting economic impact.

    • Designed and led the Community Builders Fellowship, a cohort-based program for global leaders from companies like Google, Reddit, and Duolingo.

    • Scaled the program from idea to global reach in under 12 months, combining peer-led curriculum, lifecycle engagement, and community operations.

    • Led regional growth across Africa, APAC, and Eastern Europe, launching 80+ chapters and onboarding over 100 community leaders.

    • Developed scalable onboarding and engagement systems that remain foundational to Startup Grind’s global community playbook.

Entrepreneurial Background

    • Founded 8Spaces, a B2B marketplace for real estate and flexible workspaces in Southeast Asia.

    • Scaled the platform through strategic partnerships and community-led marketing.

    • Successfully exited via acquisition by FlySpaces, where Laís served as Country Manager & Chief Community Officer, leading team expansion and growth operations

    • Works as a fractional executive, advisor, and consultant for education, wellness, and social impact platforms.

    • Built and implemented engagement frameworks that convert users into contributors and foster long-term retention.

    • Recent focus on care infrastructure, parenting-centered innovation, and community-led growth strategies.

  • A creative strategy studio for leaders and organizations navigating what's next. Two threads: consulting engagements focused on community strategy, brand narrative, and experience design. Creative projects including the Nest & North podcast, a children's book series on belonging, and storytelling-driven clarity journeys for people in seasons of transition. Where Hacking Communities is the business, Nest & North is the body of work.

Advisory & Public Speaking

  • Steered innovative initiatives to accelerate positive change toward the SDGs by mobilizing young talent in community leadership, problem-solving, and launching social and environmental solutions

  • Co-created and taught the first academic course on Community Marketing in Brazil at ESPM, the leading Brazilian university in Communication and Marketing.

    • Published two books: Hacking Communities and Reinventando Comunidades (Lisbon Press, 2024), offering actionable frameworks for designing human connection at scale.

    • Regular speaker and mentor for global programs focused on innovation, equity, and future of work.

Public Speaking Highlights:
Innovation Ecosystems Development & Community Strategy

  • Emceeing at Web Summit 2019

  • Interviewing Brad Feld at CASE 2020

  • Keynote at Startup Grind Europe, Barcelona

  • Expert Panel at CASE 2019

  • Expert Panel at Ecosystem Summit, Collision 2018

  • Emceeing at Forum, Web Summit 2017

  • Emceeing at Startup University, Web Summit 2018

  • Moderator at Startup Grind 2019

  • Expert Panel at Ecosystem Summit 2017

  • Expert Panel at South Summit 2017

Original Frameworks from Hacking Communities

Every engagement draws from 15 years of building communities and the frameworks that came out of them. Pick one or start with a conversation — the work always begins where you are.

  • Defining customer segments, value proposition and monetization with the 5Ps framework (People, Purpose, Programming, Platform and Participation)

  • Activating user participation is at the core of creating and delivering community value. Make it possible and sustainable by defining 1) how members can contribute to delivering your value proposition and 2) for how long will they do that.

  • Borrowed from chemistry's collision theory: for a reaction to occur, molecules must collide with enough frequency, enough density, and the right catalyst. The same is true for people.

    Frequency — a recurring rhythm of encounters. One event builds awareness. A cadence builds relationships.
    Density — spaces designed for conversation, not presentation. Round tables, not rows of chairs.
    Catalyst — anything that lowers the activation energy of a human connection. Strategic introductions, shared activities, food, a well-placed question.

    There's a natural limit to one-on-one introductions. Engineering Serendipity is how you scale connection. The point where you stop making introductions and start throwing parties with a purpose.

  • Lay the foundations to engineer serendipity by designing consistent collisions that build trust. Use the Attract > Engage > Commit framework to create excuses to bring people together (regularly).

  • Define a data-driven organizational structure and communication systems to reward and reinforce user contribution, deepening people’s sense of ownership and commitment to your community. Learn more about Closeness Circles.

  • Identify the key players in your industry or ecosystem, who could either become a reference point for differentiation, or key partners in the process of growing your community and delivering value to its members.

Let's discuss it over email

In a Nutshell: Community Success, Tailored to Your Needs.

Seasoned Community Executive on a Flexible Basis. If community is key to your business success, I can help: from building a community team to devising a solid strategy to enhance their capacity and achieve your goals. Let’s work together.

Let's Connect