# Seda Kahn

> Startups | PM | Venture | Design

Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Profile: https://flows.cv/seda

A designer by training, builder at heart, and continuous learner by passion — I’m on a mission to make the world's products & services more honest, purposeful, and magical. 💫 

Though educated in Oxford and Dubai, I’ve since immigrated to San Francisco, where I'm exploring how “service productization” can be applied to wicked problems like education, immigration, and self-development. 🤲  I currently operate the flagship accelerator program (Launch) at Entrepreneurs First, a top-decile startup accelerator. Please reach out: www.sedakahn.com

Previously, I've served as a lecture translator & conference organiser in areas like AI and EdTech. I later founded language-learning startup Matrëshka to help Russian-speaking children access the English-speaking world. I am also the author of “A Very Unofficial Guide to the K-1 and CR1 Visas”, a book born of my experiences navigating immigration to the United States during a time of war. ✈️ Today I live in San Francisco, where in my spare time I’m known to enjoy mushroom jerky, binging John Oliver, and the occasional game of Rummikub.

👋 I enjoy working with similarly passionate & dedicated people — if that's you or your team, get in touch with me: seda@sedakahn.com

## Work Experience
### Associate @ Entrepreneurs First
Jan 2025 – Present | San Francisco, California, United States
Entrepreneurs First (EF) is a talent-centric startup accelerator backed by Google DeepMind’s Demis Hassabis, Stripe’s Patrick & John Collison, LinkedIn’s Reid Hoffman, and other Silicon Valley luminaries. I operate our flagship accelerator program, Launch, in San Francisco. Apply now: JoinEF.com

### Board Chair, CCIS (Bechtel) @ Stanford University
Jan 2023 – Present | Palo Alto, California, United States
• Board Chair (marketing & communications) at the Stanford University Bechtel International Center’s CCIS, serving Stanford graduate students, postdocs, and visiting scholars
• Co-create new programs & services in career development, coaching, and other key offering areas

### Project Manager @ Raydiant
Jan 2024 – Jan 2024 | San Francisco, California, United States
• Automated key business processes to accelerate turnaround >50% across Board reporting, RFP response generation, OKR tracking, and more using Google Apps Scripts, Zapier, and workflow automation tools
• Coordinated go-to-market (GTM) planning for the new Employee Experience (EX) product to 2x Raydiant’s upsell opportunities from $X to $Y million – aligning product marketing with R&D execs, sales enablement, vendors, and consultants
• Drove market & competitive research projects including customer surveys and competitor feature analyses, generating actionable data for product development and positioning
• Proactively contributed to product strategy, including pitching new revenue streams (won 2nd place at annual hackathon for repurposing an existing SKU in net-new segment); facilitating the new Customer Advisory Board (CAB); and diagnosing dropoff points in the Sign-Up flow to boost conversion rates
• Served as the CEO’s cross-functional liaison to product & engineering teams, the Board, and corporate vendors, tightening communication and accelerating project completion
• Delivered teamwide events and conference travel consistently on-time and >15% under-budget, through detailed project management, resourcefulness, and agility

### Co-Founder, Product Manager @ Matrëshka Box (matreshkabox.com)
Jan 2021 – Jan 2022
• Created subscription-based (D2C) educational game kits + digital companion offerings, incl. 50+ child-safe parts sourced from >200 components spanning 25 global suppliers
• Designed digital English Learning (ESL) supplements, incl. interactive bilingual reading assistant (alpha Web App) and top-quality video library (30+ footage-hours)
• Owned mission-driven MVP and go-to-market, from idea to implementation: Roadmapping, customer research, competitive/USP analysis, prototyping, user testing, packaging design, sourcing, and distribution
• Developed brand & visual identity in collaboration with co-founder, generating original graphic/video assets and defining cross-platform social media content calendar
• Researched strategies to increase learner efficacy, boost end-user satisfaction, lower CAC, and grow brand engagement

### Conference Manager — VIP & International Speakers @ EdCrunch
Jan 2019 – Jan 2021
• 25k attendees & blue-chip speakers from 30+ countries (Europe’s largest annual EdTech conference) in partnership with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Skoltech
• Managed programming, logistics, and press events for a portfolio of dozens of VIP & international speakers (CEOs, U.S. university leaders, etc.) on topics like AI, management coaching, and MOOCs in collaboration with other conference coordinators & the organizers
• Content strategy, localization (i18n/L10n), and translation for EdCrunch web & native apps
• Rehired for every single EdCrunch conference due to top performance with clients (VIP speakers)

### Advisory Board @ British Higher School of Art and Design
Jan 2019 – Jan 2021
• Oversight & guidance for budget re-allocations and academic strategy for subsequent fiscal years
• Negotiations between BHSAD administration, faculty, student body, and fellow Advisory Board appointees

### Product Designer @ Industrial design smirnovdesign
Jan 2020 – Jan 2020
• Client-facing presentations of team’s design concepts/solutions backed by research findings (user testing, field studies, market intelligence)
• Designed interactive app wireframes with UX storyboards in Figma
• Prototyped low-fi physical products for IDEO-style Human Centered Design (HCD) testing in collaboration with fellow designers
• Analyzed annual reports of grocery chains to predict retail technology & retail sustainability trends

### Accounts Payable Associate @ Luxaire HVAC Services, Inc.
Jan 2016 – Jan 2017 | Oxford, England, United Kingdom
• Operated the financial ops automation system (1C:Enterprise Cloud) to service cross-border AP in multiple currencies
• Contract management (in collaboration with senior accountants/ops and vendors) to streamline payments while limiting errors & exposure


## Education
### Foundation degree in Design and Visual Communications, General
British Higher School of Art and Design

### B.A. (Hons) in Industrial and Product Design
University of Hertfordshire

### A-Levels (Mathematics in Economics, Biology)
Magdalen College School, Oxford


## Contact & Social
- LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/sedakahn
- Portfolio: https://SedaKahn.com

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Source: https://flows.cv/seda
JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/seda/resume.json
Last updated: 2026-04-13