We love the story of the Raising of Chicago. The city grew too quickly and lacked modern infrastructure, so they used thousands of jackscrews - vertical screws that rise up when rotated - to elevate full city blocks to install sewers. It was an ambitious vision and it worked.

It's a great story about the problems that come with rapid growth. It's a story about pulling off a big idea with a lot of planning and coordination. And it's a story about using simple solutions to address complicated problems.

We understand these things. Over the last decade, we worked together at Twitter in business strategy and operational roles. During this time we helped the company navigate its own growing pains and lacking infrastructure, giving us the opportunity to lift up full city blocks. Now we’re eager to bring our experience to other businesses in need of strategic and operational support.

We are Jackscrew and we're here to help you pull off your ambitious vision.

Our team prioritizes high impact, results-oriented advisory and project-based consulting work. We will engage with you to scope and design the right engagement model to fit your needs.

  • We help drive organizational clarity, alignment, and execution through strategy and planning improvements, and defining the processes to communicate, evaluate, and iterate to see results as you grow and scale.

  • We have deep expertise in designing developer ecosystems, including strategy, communications, partnerships, pricing and packaging, and more. We can advise on strategy and approach to this unique and increasingly important audience for tech companies.

  • We can improve your organizational culture and team engagement – and ultimately, your business results – through facilitation, coaching, and advisory work with your leadership team.

  • Whitney Riker

    CO-FOUNDER / PARTNER

    Whitney is a proven operational leader with significant experience helping organizations design and implement processes, operations, and programs to drive change and improve effectiveness. For the past 8 years, Whitney worked at Twitter, as a Program Leader and Director of Strategy & Operations. In her roles, Whitney owned core business functions such as strategic planning, sales operations, data analytics and insights, strategic program development, and internal communications. During her time at Twitter, Whitney also led some of the highest priority work for the leaders she served, such as developing and implementing the first Customer Success Program.

    Prior to Twitter, Whitney spent 7 years in management consulting, leading large-scale global change management, workforce transition, talent strategy, and business transformation projects. She began her career working for Deloitte’s Human Capital Practice, where she also served as the National Leader for Deloitte’s Talent Strategy Community of Practice, evangelizing new service offerings in the Talent Management practice. Whitney has a masters in Organizational Psychology from Columbia.

    Whitney moved from New York City to Boulder, CO 10 years ago, and enjoys rock climbing, hiking, gardening, comedy, and spending time with her husband, son, and pugs.

  • Zach Hofer-Shall

    CO-FOUNDER / PARTNER

    Zach is a seasoned strategist and trusted executive advisor with a proven track record of growing businesses and supporting senior business leaders. For 10 years, Zach worked at Twitter in a variety of BD, strategy, and senior advisory roles. He planned and executed complex business strategies and acquisitions, helping grow adoption of Twitter's Developer Platform and Platform Licensing business to over $400M. He navigated a lot of change and played many roles, including Head of Twitter’s partner Ecosystem and serving as the Chief of Staff for several of Twitter's senior leaders.

    Prior to his time at Twitter, Zach spent five years as an Industry Analyst, writing reports and consulting for Forrester Research with a focus on data and analytics. In this role he advised many dozens of early and growth-stage tech companies on their product and go-to-market strategies; and he consulted with some of the world's largest brands on implementing new data strategies to grow their businesses.

    Before Forrester, Zach led strategy for a marketing firm and helped launch a data startup, along with a handful of other tech jobs.

    Zach moved from the Bay Area to Boulder, CO where he lives with his wife, twin boys, and cat. He enjoys puzzles and he runs a lot.

  • Lauren Jenkins

    CO-FOUNDER / ADVISOR

    Lauren is an experienced and tenacious sales program leader and strategist who has built and run Sales and Partnership programs from scratch and advised companies of all sizes. For 12 years, Lauren worked at Twitter, where she was the Global Head of Twitter’s largest partner program driving targeted revenue growth. Lauren is adept at building critical programs, solving complex problems, and turning high-level, strategic visions into actionable outcomes. Lauren’s passion lies in forging strong long-term relationships with external business executives and internal cross-functional leadership to launch and execute on revenue-producing initiatives.

    Lauren joined Twitter as one of the founding members of the Advertising team, eventually closing Twitter’s first ever upfront deal and leading strategic client relationships. Upon her exit from Twitter, Lauren was one of the most tenured employees at the company.

    Prior to her time at Twitter, Lauren worked in the Silicon Valley startup scene, wearing many different hats, including Business Development, Sales, and Marketing.

    Lauren lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband, three kids, and Golden Retriever, Hank. She is a self-proclaimed foodie, wannabe sommelier, and a shameless lowbrow pop culture junkie.