MARIA STARTSEVA
I’m a researcher, behavioral strategist, and a founding member of a venture studio that connects science to impact in climate space.
WHAT I DO IS...
STRATEGY BLUEPRINTS
Problems that excite a few and impact many
Helping teams articulate ideas and desired future states, prepare to secure funding, team up with others, and make sales. This involves refining the value prop & defining the product, deciding on where to play, and communicating the impact they want to create.
Proposal Development
SCIENCE-TO-IMPACT
How scientific research can help our planet
I explore how scientific research can provide solutions for our planet, and how markets and policies can advance the research. Using “theory of change” and “system mapping”, I identify and evaluate potential impact areas. This approach aligns scientific thinking with market and policy flows to find paths-to- impact.
Science-based Climate Solutions
Subtle ways to create sustained change
How we decide shapes personal and business outcomes. And it’s all about figuring out why we want certain things, why we might hesitate, how we act under uncertainty, or why sometimes we throw logic out of the window. I apply human insights to products and experiences (UX) to nudge towards outcome-based change.
Behavioral Insights
DECISION HACKS
RESEARCH DESIGNS
Evidence-based guidance to corporate innovation
Research design grounds innovation in market data. Companies use it to empathise with users, decide on product directions, allocate innovation resources and try new things without too much risk. I can make sure that a study is set up correctly from the start, runs smoothly, and produces actionable insights.
Innovation Decisions
CURRENT PROJECTS
B-Theory
Partner, Insights
B-theory turns pioneering microbial science into new ventures that address the climate and biodiversity emergency. Leading off our work with SPUN, a research organization mapping the global mycorrhizal biodiversity, our goal is to accelerate science-based solutions without compromising the integrity and quality of the scientific process.
Primitive AI
Product Strategy
Primitive AI is developing a platform to scale sustainable building design that reduces and mitigates the environmental harm of our growth. It combines architecture with advanced computational methods to create local living with global impact.
BEFORE
Early in my career, my focus was on the intersection of Behavioral Economics and Artificial Intelligence. By leveraging data to understand human behavior, I helped big-name companies digitally transform and reduce bias in placing future bets.
Designed a new business accelerator to focus on sustainable startups for one of the Netherlands’ oldest private banks.
Integrated behavioral change and design to guide financial choices for a Norwegian pension fund.
Coordinated research to uncover financial behavior patterns, enabling user-centric transformation of digital products.
Provided insights and recommendations to inform decision-making on the product portfolio for DevOps and Design team.
Designed frameworks to widen the innovation funnel and de-risk investment decisions for a pharmaceutical company.
Defined a vision and roadmap for the evolution of the operations control capability for one of Europe’s largest airlines.
Created methods and tools for scientists to make system-aware decisions for a scientific research organisation (SRO).
