About Dave
My Approach to Life and Leadership
I am a father, a leader, an entrepreneur, a board member, a social-good innovator and a loving partner.
Entrepreneurship
I have built multiple venture-backed companies and sold them to big-name companies (see Professional History for more details). I have done the work of raising money, building boards, hiring key talent, developing products and services, growing sales, adapting business models, and seeing my creations acquired and integrated. I’m deeply familiar with the processes and difficulties with each step along the way and have experience in making each step successful. I will advise you on your steps and provide needed emotional support to endure and ultimately thrive.
Leadership
We will explore your leadership and communications styles, learn and incorporate best practices, and develop you into the leader you want to become. We will go hands on with your communications and presentations, and dive deeply into communications and management issues with your team. Then we will define systems to keep you accountable to your desired leadership goals.
Career
Moving beyond your current work, we will explore your life trajectory, identify your core sources of joy, and identify a path for career and life that meets and exceeds your needs and wants. We will explore where you need to improve, learn, and develop, and help you continue on that path while also exceeding in your current work.
Relationships
Life at home is often said to be top priority, but at times we don’t treat it that way. And challenges at home affect the other aspects of our lives and can leave us feeling unfulfilled despite outside achievements and successes. For those who would like to integrate home, partner and family into our discussions, you’ll find in me a father of five teenagers who has seen a lot and has some wisdom to share. And we can explore all aspects in a judgment-free environment.
Spirituality
For those who would like to explore the spiritual roots of their human experience, we will explore how you incorporate spiritual and mindfulness practices into daily life, how you integrate your spiritual self into your work and family life, and how to safely and appropriately bring those aspects of yourself into your work, career and homelife.
My Professional History
Dave Hanley is a serial entrepreneur with successful exits to Amazon, Deloitte and Ethos. With a track record for finding innovation early, Dave excels at building organizations that create value and have meaningful impact. Spanning industries as diverse as microcredit banking, social media marketing, digital music and financial technology, Dave finds a vision for the future, creates products and services that create that future, and builds teams and technology that realize that vision.
Dave was founder and CEO of Tomorrow (acquired by Ethos), a financial services app that brings economic security to millions by empowering everyone to set family financial goals and accomplish them on their phones – including legal wills, trusts, savings, and life insurance.
Previously, Dave founded Banyan Branch (acquired by Deloitte, 2013), a leading social media marketing agency that propelled blue-chip companies into the new world of engaging customers on social platforms. Dave continued that work post acquisition as Partner at Deloitte Digital.
Dave’s love of music and technology positioned him to lead product development for the Rhapsody Music Service, where he helped bring the service natively to the web, then to a multitude of social sites via its web services program. Inspired by the early work of those social networking sites, Dave along with Rhapsody colleagues built a social network for readers called Shelfari. The service grew rapidly through solely social and viral marketing — reaching millions of members within 18 months — and was acquired by Amazon.com in 2008.
Dave’s entrepreneurial efforts in microcredit banking include founding and editing the first academic journal and the largest conference on the subject, advising education microloan innovator Vittana, and authoring Grameen Reference while a Fulbright scholar with future Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus at Grameen Bank.
In 2012, Dave was appointed a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum, where he sits on the advisory council and frequently attends Davos and regional Forum meetings. Dave advises numerous social initiatives and is always looking to help social innovators create positive change in the world.
Dave has been recognized as an entrepreneurial innovator at TechCrunch Disrupt, Money2020, and SXSW, and has been awarded a Fulbright scholarship and a Kauffman Foundation social entrepreneurship grant.
Areas of Deep Experience
Company Founding: Do it right from the start as you create a founding team, define products and customers, and begin creating the future.
Executive Management: Hiring, firing, and managing high-performance teams, and communicating your vision appropriately.
Personal Brand: Define the elements of who you are, and effectively communicate yourself to the world.
Fundraising: Raise the right rounds of financing that meet your needs and those of the company and other stakeholders.
Compensation: Negotiate optimal compensation that reflects your future value to the company.
Boards & Board Meetings: Recruitment and manage a top-tier board of directors, and create meaningful board meetings.
Let’s Work Together
Get in touch so we can start working together.