Our team is your team.
We happen to be an all-star group of creative thinkers and do-ers. Our backgrounds are purposely diverse, which works because we all share a curated problem-solving skillset and a natural competitive drive to make you better. All team members have worked client-side and agency-side, and will adopt your organization as their own.
President
Nate Heckman
Nate Heckman is at heart a social scientist. His belief in the de-evolution of market intelligence even extends to his agency’s tagline – Tested on Humans – highlighting what his team does differently with their data. Nate is known for his passion, candor, competitiveness and ardent objectivity.
Beyond stints internally running corporate market intelligence efforts for global brands, Heckman also has worked in a consulting capacity with a myriad of product and service entities, including AT&T, Wells Fargo, Starbucks, Disney and others.
Managing Director
Jake Sherman
Jake Sherman is a creative problem solver who is passionate about helping companies answer their toughest strategic questions. To Jake, the more complex and nuanced a customer problem is, the greater the opportunity for a ground-breaking solution. He has worked with both US and multinational companies across industries and sectors, partnering with them to leverage market research and data analysis to uncover actionable, real-world insights.
Prior to Stitch, Jake spent his career working in the field of innovation consulting, with an emphasis on customer/consumer research, new product development, and growth strategy. He is the author of two published books on innovation and regional economic development.
Senior Director of Insights
Kate Hartzell
With nearly twenty years of experience, Kate has conceptualized and executed insights programs for some of the world’s leading brands such as FIJI Water, Instagram, Netflix and Hulu in more than a dozen countries. She has particular expertise in identifying key needs and core values so that brands can resonate with their consumers on a deeper emotional level. This often takes shape in the form of brand positioning, strategic innovation, and pre-launch category / market analysis.
She received her MA in Social Sciences from the University of Chicago and her BA in Sociology from UCLA.
Senior Director, Research & Strategy
Jyoti Falero
Jyoti is most curious about the human decision-making process. She has spent the greater part of her career exploring the psychological and emotional drivers of the individual, and uses her academic research background and expertise to better understand consumer motivations and decision processes.
A graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, Jyoti is trained first and foremost as a researcher, ensuring the validity and precision normally associated with scholarly studies. Her interest in qualitative design led her to marketing research, where she gets to observe and understand consumers in their natural habitat!
Project Director
Julie Chavanu
With a background in economics, Julie is driven by the intersections of behaviors and the resulting outcomes in the world around us. For clients, she grasps the significance of delving into their industry’s broader marketplace as a piece of the puzzle in answering specific business questions.
Over the course of her career, she’s been involved in a wide variety of strategy initiatives, ranging from consumer goods to branding to education services. She’s been a business owner and worked for global firms in consulting and telecommunications and draws on all those experiences in her role as a researcher.
Program Manager
Mariel Mostacero
Mariel Mostacero is driven by a fascination with the way people consume and perceive media and marketing of all kinds. She started her career in the film industry, managing projects end-to-end as well as coordinating commercial shoots both on and off set. This overarching skillset and passion for people segued perfectly into the world of primary marketing research.
Mariel graduated from San Francisco State University and worked in San Francisco before moving back to her hometown in San Diego, where she now gets to flex her skills in market research. Throughout Mariel’s career, she has worked closely with clients in various industries, including Toyota, OneMedical, and Amazon.
Senior Account Manager
Carol Borkowski
As an executive interviewer moderator, project manager, or strategist, Carol Borkowski takes a hands-on and honest approach with all aspects of the marketing research process for client.
Carol has over 20 years marketing and market intelligence experience, which includes evaluating customer behavior, planning/implementing marketing strategies and executing the release of new customer products and services.
Qualitative Lead & Strategist
Cindy Langston
A graduate of Northwestern University, Cindy began her career in qualitative research as a strategic planner in NYC advertising agencies. To gain client-side perspective, she then assumed the role of Consumer Research Director at Diageo, where she continued moderating, along with managing and executing a broad range of quantitative studies.
Cindy’s current focus on marketing/strategic planning and in-depth qualitative work covers a vast list of category experience that includes top global brands of beauty, personal care, coffee, soft drinks, snacks, fashion, retail, finance, travel and entertainment.
Operations Director, Consultant
Mark Kilgore
Mark is an accomplished business leader with a diverse range of strategic and operational experience helping companies build processes and scale up with top to bottom implementation. Mark has held positions with global brands, including Nike, TaylorMade Golf, Acushnet Holdings, and Easton Sports, as well as providing professional services for brands like Lockheed Martin, LazyBoy, and Reebok. In addition, Mark has extensive international operations and strategy experience in Asia and Europe including multiple assignments in China, Thailand, Taiwan, Vietnam, and Italy. He has led teams across Product Management, Marketing, and Sales, and was most recently involved in Saas marketing strategies and mobile app development bringing a multi-industry perspective to Stitch.