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Lauren Dunford

Co-founder and CEO of Guidewheel

Lauren Dunford

Lauren Dunford is a tech entrepreneur and the CEO and Co-Founder of Safi, a company that is building a manufacturing operations cloud for real-time platform. The platform enables manufacturing teams to achieve operational excellence quickly, cost-effectively, and simply. Lauren is an expert in building and leading teams, and she manages the day-to-day activities of the company to ensure that it runs optimally.

Lauren is a graduate of Stanford University where she got her BA and MBA. She is also a former Fulbright Scholar, where she researched supply chain efficiency in New Delhi.2 She has an extensive background in sales and operations, having worked at Revolution Foods' East Oakland plant for five years, where she led a team managing $65M in revenue.

Lauren is passionate about helping manufacturing teams achieve operational excellence and visualizing data to help teams make informed decisions. She is happiest when she is trail running with friends or Zumba dancing with her husband, Jason.

In 2018, Lauren participated in Launchpad, an action-based program at Stanford d.school that takes new ventures through prototyping.1 The learnings from the course have come in handy, especially when the COVID-19 pandemic struck.1 A year after graduating from Launchpad, Safi was now a team of nine, including three Launchpad teammates.1

Lauren initially joined Savannah Fund with a focus on exploring and launching a tech startup in the Energy sector.3 Her research led her to launch Safi Analytics, a startup that leverages the Internet of Things to make factories smarter and provide factory managers with valuable insights to drive smarter, cleaner growth.3

Highlights

Sep 9 · Disrupt Africa
How a Kenya-founded manufacturing tech startup is going big in the US - Disrupt Africa
Jul 26 · AiThority
Guidewheel Closes $8Million Series A Led By Greycroft, Completes Rebrand - AiThority
An Interview with Lauren Dunford: CEO of Safi - Girls For Business
An Interview with Lauren Dunford: CEO of Safi - Girls For Business
How one founder applies Launchpad methods to continuously ...

Related Questions

What inspired Lauren Dunford to start Safi?
How did Lauren Dunford's experience at Stanford influence her career?
What challenges did Lauren Dunford face while building Safi?
How does Safi's platform improve manufacturing operations?
What role did the Launchpad program play in Safi's development?
Lauren Dunford
Lauren Dunford, photo 1
Lauren Dunford, photo 2
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Experience

CEO and Co-Founder at Guidewheel since July 2018
Chief of Staff at Revolution Foods from January 2016 to July 2016, Regional Partnership Director, Regional Partnerships Manager, Partnership Executive, School Account Manager

Location

San Francisco Bay Area