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Work

1. Category Design & Market Making

Whoever defines the problem owns the solution. 

 

Category design is emerging as a standalone discipline after a few decades of being called various names: market making, market forming, category shaping, presegment market, evangelizing, etc.. Here are the first 5 things to learn about Category Design: 

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1. Category Design is the collective work completed in order to create or redefine a market category with the scope of establishing and maintaining category lead. 
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2. CD is needed in the case of disruptive technologies (think: neverbeforeseen AI-native solutions), methodologies (think: medical premieres or new financial maneuvres),  or to change a status qvo (think: lobby). 
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3. CD is for market categories what Branding is for the company and what Product Marketing is for the product. 
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4. CD is centered around positioning the problem.
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5. In proper CD, you work with your competition, not against. Happy to talk to you about what ISN'T CD. 

 

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  • Zero-to-One launch architect: Advised 7 startups from stealth through launch, building the foundational narratives required for successful market entry.

  • Emerging category formation: Traceably contributed to the creation and definition of multiple new categories, including Decision Intelligence, Streaming Analytics, and dark pool trading.

  • Growth ecosystem design: Built messaging frameworks and opportunity maps that secured strategic partnerships and enabled rapid market entry across high-ambiguity sectors

  • Analyst dominance: Owned the end-to-end narratives that secured inclusion in multiple Forrester Wave, Ovum, Bloor, and Gartner Magic Quadrant reports.

2. Product Marketing & GTM Architecture

The story is as good as the scalable reality it creates. 

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  • Revenue systems engineering: Architected zero-to-one revenue operations frameworks, event-to-pipeline conversion flows, and CRM-based revenue OS.

  • Enterprise translation: Translated foundation-layer technologies into product messaging maps and concrete enterprise use cases across ITS, Financial Services, Retail, Cybersecurity, Smart Homes, Oil&Gas, Health, and Telecom.

  • Sales enablement architecture: Designed modular asset systems and joint value propositions for complex enterprise ecosystems directly accelerating sales and SE cycles for technical teams.

  • Mixed-method market research: Designed flexible frameworks to directly inform product direction, vertical expansion, and Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) development for multiple clients. ​

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3. Creative Work & Community Building

Understanding the human condition brings clarity to the chaotic playgrounds of emerging spaces.

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  • Executive production & creative direction: Produced and provided the backbone narrative for over 30+ strategic collaborations, high-profile media appearances, and editorial podcasts.

  • Cross-functional orchestration: Managed and aligned specialized external teams—including design agencies, PR firms, and web migration partners—to ensure cohesive narrative execution in high-ambiguity environments. 

  • Built and maintained online communities of 100k+.

Portfolio

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Education

University of Amsterdam

Research Methodology and Quantitative Methods

MIT Sloan School of Management 

Artificial Intelligence: Implications for Business Strategy

Emerson College 

MA | Integrated Marketing Communications​

University of Bucharest

BA | Advertising & PR

 

​​​LANGUAGES: English, Romanian, French, Spanish, Italian, Farsi

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© 2026 by dana sandu

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