Hey, I’m Ionah Nguyen
A product & business leader in San Jose, CA. For 10+ years I’ve worked where product, growth, and operations meet: in big tech, a fintech unicorn, and early-stage startups, including two I founded.
What do I help with?
I find the opportunity, build the solution, and align the people to get it done.
Senior PM · Growth PM
Product
Find the real customer problem in the data, then ship AI-enabled products that move business metrics.
See the workProduct Marketing · GTM Strategy
Go-to-Market
Position complex products, build the funnel, and turn acquisition, activation, and partnerships into growth.
See the workChief of Staff · BizOps
Strategy & Ops
Own the P&L, build the operating system, and keep leadership, teams, and investors aligned on what matters.
See the work
The path
One career, three tracks. Each move added a layer: growth, business ownership, product, operating leadership, and founding.
Download resume2025 – Present
Vbrain · Co-Founder & Head of Marketing
I’m building an AI-powered orchestration platform for R&D that connects domain experts, AI agents, and structured playbooks in one workspace. I took it from customer discovery to five enterprise pilots within three months of launch.
Case study
An AI-powered orchestration platform for R&D
5
enterprise pilots
2024 – Present
Brainy Hearty · Founder & CEO
I founded an educational tabletop game studio, designed five original games through 30–50 playtests each, and took them worldwide through two publishing deals and three licensing agreements.
Case study
A tabletop game studio from 0 → 1
5
original games launched
2022 – 2024
Koidra AI · Chief of Staff to the CEO
At a seed-stage industrial AI startup, I was the CEO’s partner across strategy and execution. I repositioned the flagship product, built Sales Ops from scratch, brought AI workflows to four functions, and ran investor and board communications.
Case study
Chief of Staff: taking AI greenhouse automation to market
+24%
lead-to-opportunity conversion
2021 – 2022
Amazon · Senior Product Manager
I moved from business owner to product owner. I launched an AI-assisted vendor onboarding program and an AI-powered recategorization solution for a catalog of 5M+ listings, partnering with Engineering, ML, and Vendor Management.
Case study
AI-assisted vendor onboarding at catalog scale
−35%
vendor onboarding time
2020 – 2021
Amazon · Senior Vendor Manager
I owned the P&L for two Home & Kitchen categories with $300M+ in revenue and delivered 56% YoY revenue growth and 42% YoY profitability growth through assortment, pricing, vendor negotiations, and better forecasting.
Case study
Owning a $300M+ Home & Kitchen P&L
+56%
YoY revenue
2019
Kaleido · Business Operations & Strategy MBA Intern
At a venture-backed enterprise blockchain SaaS startup, I ran customer interviews and competitive analysis on pricing and product bundling, built a product-market fit framework to prioritize target industries, and presented segment, packaging, and pricing recommendations to the CEO.
2016 – 2018
MoMo · Growth Lead → Product Experience Lead
At a Series B mobile-payments startup in Vietnam, I led a 20-person team on acquisition. My referral program drove 700% MAU growth in six months. Then I moved into product experience: activation, engagement, lifecycle CRM, and trust. This is where I learned that growth is a product problem.
Case study
Scaling a fintech app from acquisition to retention
700%
MAU growth
Beyond the day job
Side projects, hackathons, and the community I help run.
Side project
AI Storybook: a picture book that stars your child
A side project I led end to end with a team of 4: a personalized storybook service where parents choose what the story should teach, and AI writes and illustrates an 8-spread book starring their child in about 10 minutes.
Read case study
Hackathon
AI-powered local customer acquisition
A hackathon prototype for AI-powered local customer acquisition, which reached the finals of the Boston Dell × NVIDIA Hackathon.
Read case study
Volunteering · 2020 – Present
Viet Spark · Founder & Board Member
- Founded and scaled a 501(c)(3) nonprofit supporting 10,000+ US-based Vietnamese professionals building careers in tech.
- Recruited and led 5 core members and 20+ volunteers, launching Vietnam Tech Summit, a startup competition, mentorship programs, and networking events.
Education
Duke University, The Fuqua School of Business
2018 – 2020MBA, Decision Science concentration · Management Science & Technology Management Certificate
- Forté Women Fellow, Mary R. Few Memorial Scholar
- Exchange programs at HEC Paris & Tel Aviv University
- Strategy consultant for Ubuntu Healthcare (Nairobi, Kenya), Fuqua Client Consulting Practicum
Hanoi Foreign Trade University
2008 – 2013Bachelor of Business Administration, International Business
- Vice President, Marketing Club
- Second prize, Kawai Startup Contest
Awards & certifications
- Finalist, Boston Dell × NVIDIA Hackathon (Top 8 of 60 teams)
- Finalist, Vietnam AI Stars competition (Top 10 of 140 teams)
- Employee of the Year, MoMo
- Machine Learning Foundations for Product Managers (Duke University)
- Principles of Designing for Humans (MichiganX)
Let’s build something meaningful together
Product, go-to-market, Chief of Staff roles, or a tabletop game partnership: I’d love to hear what you’re working on.