Consulting and Advisory services
Based in San Francisco, LK Hillside is an executive consultancy led by Judy Ko, focused on connecting products to markets in climate tech. Judy provides both advisory and hands-on consulting services.
Her philosophy is to focus on the intersections between:
Products and markets
Speed and scale
Organization and innovation
Strategic planning and agile execution
Judy brings a unique combination of experience from both the climate tech/energy and enterprise software worlds. This includes expertise in:
Climate tech, in particular software systems
Renewable energy, including distributed energy resources (DERs) and solar
Enterprise software
Data & machine learning
Cloud
Focus Areas
honing strategy in the face of execution reality
Market vision and technical/business model innovation are essential to success in climate tech. But no strategic plan is ever executed as written. You’ve got to find the sweet spot between being agile in response to customer input, technical constraints and financial realities; and holding true to your vision and key objectives. And you’ve got to foster an organization and culture that can work though those tensions and get to the growth zone.
product
Yes, it’s about market requirements, good architecture, features-n-functions, and great design. But it’s about way more than that. How do you achieve breakthrough innovation while being responsive to customers who may be set in their ways? You’ve got to ensure that the entire organization is absolutely clear on which markets you are targeting, why you are building the product, why customers just gotta have it, and how each person is going to make sure it all happens.
positioning
What is the story? Who should listen? And why should they care? The best products in the world don’t find their customers unless you craft the story that connects and compels.
go-to-market
This is where the rubber meets the road. Where well-built product generates its own demand. Where campaigns are crafted. Where ecosystem players multiply reach. And where sales is empowered to go out and win.
Profile
Judy Ko is a climate tech executive focused on bringing transformational products to market and accelerating growth. She has a proven track record scaling startups leading to successful exits, as well as growing public companies. She thrives on galvanizing product, user experience, growth, marketing, sales, and customer success teams to work together to create breakthrough innovations, deliver triple bottom line impact and attain a market leadership position. As software, data and machine learning play an increasingly critical role in the management and optimization of complex climate and energy systems, Judy brings a unique combination of experiences from both worlds.
In the climate tech world, Judy led product and corporate marketing at AutoGrid Systems, where she launched AutoGrid’s flexibility management platform, garnering industry recognition as the Energy Internet software leader. Previously, Judy led product management and marketing at REPOWER America, a software-enabled network of residential solar providers. In addition, Judy mentors startups at CleanTech Open and the National Science Foundation Convergence Accelerator.
In the enterprise software realm, Judy was the Chief Product Officer at StreamSets, the leader in data integration software for DataOps, where she transformed the StreamSets Platform to a cloud-native service and launched the company’s product-led growth initiative, leading to a successful exit via acquisition. Previously, Judy was at Informatica, the leader in data integration software, where she held a variety of senior leadership roles including product management, product marketing, demand generation and corporate marketing. Judy has also spent time at BEA Systems, and Calico Commerce.
Judy holds a bachelor’s degree in engineering and management systems from Princeton University and a master’s degree in business administration from Harvard Business School.