I study the invisible threads that make collaboration work.

Hi, my name is Raquel Cardoso.

I’ve spent my career moving between strategy, operations, and project management, building bridges between vision and execution.

I started in advertising and the arts, where I learned how creativity moves people. Later, I transitioned into the startup world, working across education, sustainability, and deep tech.

I’m also an exited tech entrepreneur. My firsthand experience leading the strategy and operations of a deep tech startup taught me something we all secretly know but rarely admit:

The challenges that truly threaten a company’s existence are almost never about the product or the market.

They are relational. Every single one of them.

Think about it.

Not knowing whether your product truly fits your customer’s needs? That’s relational.

Struggling with B2B sales? Still relational, and pricing strategy comes second to trust.

Misaligned priorities in your leadership team? Entirely relational, and it will profoundly determine your odds of success.

Investor dynamics, team resilience, creative problem-solving, strategic partnerships — every one of these depends on how people relate to one another.

During my years as a founder, I worked with some of Europe’s leading VCs, angel investors, and accelerator programs, and met countless founders along the way. What struck me most was how little we talked about relationship-building and collaboration, despite it being the hidden engine behind every success and every failure.

For over a decade, I’ve been studying relational ontologies: the philosophical framework that understands reality not as independent objects but as webs of relationships.

I trained as a psychoanalyst to understand the unconscious dynamics that shape how people actually relate under pressure (versus how we pretend they relate).

I researched how creativity emerges from systems, not individuals. How innovation happens at boundaries. How value gets created in the spaces between entities, not inside them.

After successfully landing my startup into a new home, I decided to dedicate my work to helping other teams see their challenges through this relational lens.

Because behind every strategy, every product, and every innovation, there’s one force that determines whether it thrives or collapses:

The quality of the relationships that hold it together.

  • After successfully landing my startup into a new home, I'm dedicating myself to helping other teams think relationally and overcome their challenges from the most important element of any endeavor: relationships.

    I work with startups and growing companies as:

    • A consultant who helps you see the relational architecture beneath your org chart and redesign it for flow instead of friction.

    • A fractional operator (Operations | Strategy | Chief of Staff) who embeds in your team and drives relational transformation from the inside.

  • I'm not a theorist who's never built anything.

    I've led strategy and operations. I've hired and fired. I've raised capital. I've negotiated partnerships. I've navigated crises. I've felt the pressure of payroll and the terror of product launches and the exhaustion of trying to hold everything together.

    I know what it's like to be in it.

    And because of my training in philosophy and psychology, I see patterns others miss:

    • The unconscious team dynamics blocking collaboration

    • The relational configurations that enable innovation

    • The boundary designs that make or break partnerships

    • The soft skills that actually determine whether your strategy works

    I can sit in leadership meetings and help you make hard decisions. I can facilitate a conflict that's been festering for months. I can redesign your org structure. I can train your team in dialogue and feedback. I can build your partnership strategy. I can help you navigate a crisis.

    And I can do it all from a relational foundation that most business advice completely misses.

  • Professional:

    • 15+ years in strategy, operations, and project management

    • Started in the creative industries, transitioned to startups

    • Founded and exited a deep tech startup

    • Led strategy and operations from early stage through exit

    • Worked across education, sustainability, and tech sectors

    • Partnered with leading European VCs and angel investors

    • Accelerator alum and mentor to founders

    Training:

    • 10+ years studying relational ontology (in art, human ecology, and organizational contexts)

    • Trained in psychoanalytic theory and practice

    • Research on creativity, systems thinking, and collaborative emergence

    Current:

    • Based in Stockholm, working globally

    • Consulting and fractional leadership with startups and SMBs

    • Teaching relational leadership and soft skills to founders and operators