MIGHTY WAVES ADVISORY
The strategy is rarely the hard part
I’m Jen Malhotra, a fractional CRO and independent technology and AI advisor. Growth, sales, and leadership counsel for businesses and the leaders running them. I walk alongside you to stand up your sales and growth engine, to discern which technology and AI tools are actually worth choosing, and to negotiate and navigate the road from decision to implementation. Twenty-five years of carrying the number sits behind every recommendation.
The work, and where it lands
The recurring seven
Revenue has plateaued and no one can quite name why
The sales process is the founder, and it does not scale past her
A first real team needs hiring, structure, and something to be held to
A leader who is the constraint, whether through capacity, delegation, or confidence
Pricing that is too low and has been for years
A hard conversation that has been waiting for months
A technology or AI decision that everyone has an opinion on and no one wants to own
I am not interested in being the smartest person in your business. I am interested in you having someone honest to think out loud with, and unlocking outcomes that move you forward.
WHERE THIS HAS WORKED
Four engagements. No names.
A ministry, a nonprofit, a founder-led company, and a national insurer. Different rooms, and in each one a decision that was not going to get made from the inside. Three of them because something was broken. One because nothing was. Clients are described, never named. That is how I work, and it is how yours would be described too.
FAITH-BASED MINISTRY
The campaign needed a system before it needed an ask
A church was preparing for a capital campaign, the kind of ask that only works when you actually know your congregation. Their membership database could not tell them who was who.
I segmented the membership so the campaign could speak to people rather than at them, ran the selection of a donor management system and a CRM, chose the implementation partner, and built the stewardship plan sitting underneath the ask.
Within eighteen months: platforms chosen, implementation underway, and the campaign closed 37% past its goal.
NONPROFIT
They had a cause. They needed something to be known for.
A nonprofit wanted to grow its awareness and could not get there by asking for money on the strength of the cause alone. Everyone in their space was already doing that.
We built two signature annual events out of the stories of the people they serve, shaped as marquee moments the organization could be known for rather than one more fundraiser, and designed year-round giving alongside them, including sponsoring a single day of ministry for one child.
What changed: instead of one annual benefit carrying the year, several giving lanes now run alongside it, and the impact of the work finally has a way of being seen.
FOUNDER-LED, MULTI-SITE FITNESS
Ten studios, and the founder was still the sales team
She had built something real, more than ten fitness studios, and she was still personally carrying the sales of the business. Her management team was not yet carrying what it needed to. A sale was on the horizon, which meant the company had to be able to run without her.
We stepped back and audited what was working across people, process and technology. What the team she had could carry, and what leadership had to be hired from outside. Which processes were broken and only still there because they had always been there. And systems still running the way they had since the beginning, where I brought in AI fitted to their market and built the adoption across the leadership team at every site.
What changed: she got her bandwidth back, and the business got the decisions it needed in order to scale attractively. The decisions a family-led company finds hardest to make from the inside.
FOUNDER-LED, NATIONAL INSURANCE
Nothing was broken. That was the point.
Family-owned, profitable, growing, and a CEO who could see that the next level of the company would ask something of her that the current one had not. Not a turnaround. A decision to change before she had to.
We worked on a biweekly cadence for close to a year. Confidence first, then the hiring that had been waiting. Repeatable processes so the company ran on systems rather than on her being in the room, and AI brought into the office to take back the administrative hours that were eating the team’s day.
What changed: she stopped expanding by location and chose to go deep and wide in the one she has. The harder call, and the more confident one. It gave the company a long-term plan, with succession in mind.
If any of that sounds like your company, start with a complimentary 30-minute call, or email me directly at jmalhotra@mightywaves.org.
HOW THIS WORKS
Two ways I come in. Both of them are alongside you, in the work rather than above it.
Standing up the sales and growth engine
Bring me in as your fractional Chief Revenue Officer, growth leader, or growth adviser. Senior go-to-market leadership, part time, without the headcount. I step in for a set number of days a month and own something real — revenue, partnerships, the sales team, or a practice you are trying to stand up — and I build it so that it holds after I am gone.
Revitalize a sales process that has quietly stopped working, and rebuild it into something repeatable
Structured pipeline and pricing optimization that turns the demand you already have into measurable growth
Territory, quota, and compensation design a team will actually run on
Partner and channel programs stood up from nothing, or restarted after a stall
A first sales hire or a first sales leader — defined, hired, onboarded, and held to something
Sales leadership and management operating excellence — cadence, forecasting discipline, pipeline reviews, and the coaching rhythm a team actually improves under
Technology and AI decisions
Choosing a new platform or an AI tool is rarely a technology decision. It is an operating decision wearing a technology costume, and it will shape how your people work for years. I help you frame what you actually need, shortlist honestly, weigh the implementation options and what each one truly costs, and then sit on your side of the table through the negotiation and the rollout.
Facilitate platform evaluations — requirements, an honest shortlist, a scored comparison, and a recommendation you can defend
Run the implementation partner selection, then negotiate the statement of work, the rates, and the milestones
Pressure-test an AI use case before you fund it, and name what it will actually change
Build the rollout plan — sequencing, training, and the adoption measures that tell you it worked
Sit on your side of the table for renewals, escalations, and the contract you signed two years ago
NONPROFITS, MINISTRIES & BOARDS
For nonprofits, ministries, and the boards that carry them
Every dollar in your budget was somebody’s offering. That changes how a technology decision should be made, and who should be in the room when it is made. I come in as an independent advisor with no software to sell and no implementation fee riding on the answer. That is the seat most organizations are missing: the vendors are in the room, the integrators are in the room, and very often nobody there is paid to tell you to walk away.
Board advisory
The outside voice in the room when the stakes are governance, growth, or succession.
Governance, growth strategy, and the honest read a board needs before it votes
The seat between a founder and her board when the two are not hearing each other
Preparing the ask — the deck, the numbers, and the questions you will actually be asked
Succession and executive search conversations, including the ones nobody wants to open
Serving as an independent advisory board member where that is the right fit
Building a board that governs rather than admires
Platform and CRM selection
From requirements to signed contract, with nobody’s thumb on the scale.
CRM and donor platform selection for nonprofits, ministries, and churches, from requirements through signed contract
Independent evaluation of vendor proposals — no reseller relationship, no referral fee
Facilitated demos and a scored comparison your board can actually read
Negotiating the statement of work, the rates, and the milestones that protect you
A clear-eyed read on what an AI tool will really change before you fund it
Center of Excellence
So the capability stays with your team after the consultants go home.
Standing one up so the knowledge lives with your team instead of your vendor
Training, documentation, and the habits that outlast the rollout
Naming the internal owner and giving them something to be held to
Governance for how the platform changes after go-live
The adoption measures that tell you whether any of it worked
Fundraising operations
For-profit discipline, applied to the work of asking well and thanking well.
The reporting that lets you show a donor exactly what their gift did
Campaign and pipeline discipline brought over from the for-profit side
Segmentation and stewardship rhythms a small team can actually keep
Major gift pipeline built and run like a sales pipeline, without losing the ministry in it
Clean data, because every report you will ever run depends on it
INVESTMENT
Three ways in
No packaged retainer with a premium baked into it, and never a charge for a first conversation. We agree the shape of the work and the number on a call, before you pay for any of it.
An hour
One decision, worked properly. Send me the context beforehand and I will read it. You leave with a written recommendation, not a deck, and two weeks of email follow-up.
A working half day
Three hours in the problem rather than around it. A pre-read of your numbers, your process, or your plan, then a sales process, team structure, or pricing rebuilt, with an order of operations you can actually follow.
A fractional engagement
A sprint at one defined problem, or a quarter where I own a function outright. Custom models, discussed and negotiated, and scoped to what the work actually needs rather than to a package.
I would rather scope you into six weeks that change something than twelve months of retainer that changes very little. Start with a complimentary 30-minute call, or email me directly at jmalhotra@mightywaves.org.
WHY ME
I have sat on your side of this desk
Most of my career was spent carrying a number. I have hit it, missed it, hired for it, and had the conversation where somebody is not working out. I have built a consulting practice from very little and watched what growth costs the person doing the growing.
So I am not going to hand you a framework I read about on a flight. I am going to ask you harder questions than you are asking yourself, tell you what I actually think, and stay in it with you until something moves.
The founder is almost always the constraint. Saying that out loud is the beginning of the work, not an insult.
MBA in Organizational Management. B.A. in International Business. Board Advisor. Certified life coach and licensed care minister. English and Portuguese, both native.
SPEAKING & WORKSHOPS
Bring me to your room
Sales kickoffs. Leadership offsites and senior leader summits. Management team days. Industry conferences, ministry gatherings, and women’s groups. I open the year for sales teams that need to believe the number is possible, and I close the day for leadership teams that need to say the true thing to each other before they go home.
I have keynoted industry conferences, taught from a founding partner leadership council, and stood in front of ministry audiences on two continents, including a season speaking across the United Kingdom for faith-based ministries and corporate philanthropy groups. I have also carried a number, which means a sales floor works out inside ninety seconds whether I have done the job or only read about it.
The talk is never a performance. It is the same conversation I have one to one, held in a bigger room. For a sales team it lands on what actually moves a quarter. For a leadership team it lands on the conversation they have been avoiding. And for a room of women it lands somewhere near this: most of them are more capable than they are being allowed to be, and most of them have nowhere to say so.
FAQ
The questions I always get
What does a fractional CRO actually do?
A fractional Chief Revenue Officer owns revenue the way a full-time CRO would, across sales, growth and the systems underneath both, without the full-time seat. In practice I stand up your sales and growth engine, fix what is leaking, and stay long enough that your team can run it without me.
When do companies bring you in?
Usually at one of three moments. Growth has stalled and nobody can say exactly why. A CRM or AI decision is on the table and the wrong call is expensive. Or founder-led sales has hit its ceiling and the next layer has to be built. Twenty-five years of carrying the number sits behind every recommendation.
What does an advisory engagement cost?
It is quoted after we talk, because scope is the variable rather than me. A single decision reviewed is not the same as a two-quarter build. We spend a call getting clear on what you actually need, and you get a number and a shape of work before you commit to anything.
How many clients do you take?
A limited number, deliberately. This is advisory rather than agency. You are getting me, not a bench, and I would rather do a handful of engagements properly than spread myself across a dozen.
Do you work with nonprofits and ministries?
Yes, and often. Donor platforms, development strategy and board counsel are close cousins of CRM, revenue and go-to-market. The vocabulary changes; the discipline does not.
Are you a consultant or an implementer?
Both, on purpose. Strategy that stops at the recommendation is not worth much. I walk the road from decision to implementation with you, through vendor negotiation, rollout and adoption, because that is where most of these projects actually fail.
Where are you based, and do you work remotely?
I am based in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, and most engagements run remotely. I come on site where it earns its keep, nationally or internationally.
Still not sure which door is yours? Start with a complimentary 30-minute call, or email me directly at jmalhotra@mightywaves.org.