You have the vision.I build the rest.

Leisl Algeo. Builder. Founder. Operator.

Strategy is just a story. I make it real.

The thing that gets me up in the morning is building the operational framework for something new. I find founders and leaders who are doing exciting things that will fundamentally make the world a better place, and I hold the why whilst building the how, at the same time.

Let's talk

$Leisl Algeo, fractional COO and startup builder$

The story so far

Fifteen years. Six sectors. Capturing dozens of organisations at the moment they were bringing something new to life. I've founded schools, built fintech sales teams, led nonprofit turnarounds, and helped founders turn something that was just an idea into something people could actually use. I don't sit at the periphery of an organisation. I get in and build.

Right now, I'm based in Cape Town, working as a fractional COO for a tech startup in the neurodivergent education and healthcare space. I'm on the hunt for my next thing, a challenge where there's a big, juicy problem, there's a kickass team to build alongside, and a blank page for how to get there.

Case studies

Things I've built

Four organisations, taken from an idea to a living, working thing.

Launchpad Montessori

Founder & Director

I started Launchpad because I had two young children and the kind of early childhood education that I wanted for them didn't exist yet. So I spent some time travelling the globe and finding best practice in the US and the UK, and ended up building three multilingual Montessori preschools from the ground up. I found the properties, built out inspirational classrooms, co-designed new curriculums, managed the hiring and finances and built the customer base up. I also raised capital for us to grow and ultimately, had a successful exit.

GoTyme Bank

Founding Growth Team

GoTyme Bank is the first phygital bank in South Africa, a digital bank that had a physical presence in Pick n Pay and Boxer stores. I joined as the company came out of Deloitte where it was consulting to the global telco, MTN on a mobile money offering. Within a matter of months, I hired a team of 50 Tyme Ambassadors and deployed them across the country. We were part of the team that took the bank from zero to a million customers in just over a year. What I loved about this role was the dream that the founding team held and ultimately achieved: that financial access and literacy shouldn't be a privilege, but that we could make it real for millions of underbanked South Africans. Helping build something so deeply impactful inside such a fast-moving commercial environment helped me see that purpose and profit can be achieved at the same time.

African Leadership Academy

Programme Director

ALA has over 1,000 alumni living across the globe. These are young Africans who left the continent to study and build skills that could be brought back home to build Africa. My job was to build a system to make that possible: a network of internships and career opportunities, sourced across the continent, that gave alumni a real pathway home. This programme was done with a Mastercard Foundation grant which taught me to have the rigour that a funder of that scale expects whilst delivering a programme that actually worked for the people it was designed to serve. Achieving that balance has been something I've carried with me ever since.

Dalza

Fractional COO

Once again, my experience as a mother has led me to a purpose-driven role: working as a fractional COO for a tech startup for children with neurodivergent needs. It's a new role where I'm digging in to understand what's been built, where the gaps are and what the organisation needs to move from proof of concept to sustainable growth. I'm focusing on building the operational infrastructure and go-to-market strategy that give the product, and the team, the best possible chance of making a lasting difference for the families who need it the most.

How I work

The organisations I'm drawn to are building something; a new product, a new idea, a new way of solving a problem that hasn't been solved well enough yet. What they need is someone who can take that idea, refine it to market fit, and then build it. That's what I love doing.

I work on a fractional or part-time basis and my M.O. is to get in and get my hands dirty. I don't stand on the outside and offer ideas, I make them happen. My point of departure is talking to people. I want to understand what they do, how they do it, what's working and what's quietly draining the organisation. I want to know where you're trying to go; whether that's raising capital, growing to a million customers or creating meaningful change in a community. Once I understand that, I work backwards to help you achieve your goals. It's also really important to me to help grow the team that I work with, to build their capacity and ultimately help them reach their personal career goals.

I work with for-profits and nonprofits alike. Whilst the problems are different, the work is the same: take what is there, understand it honestly and build the road to get where we want to go.

I don't hand you a map and leave. I stay until we make the thing real.

Let's talk

The first step is a conversation.

If you think my skillset could be useful in the work you're doing — a real problem, an enthusiastic team and a mostly blank page — tell me what you're building and we can bring that to life.

leisl.algeo@gmail.com

Leisl Algeo — Builder. Founder. Operator.

Cape Town, South Africaleisl.algeo@gmail.com