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Yolanda is an experienced entrepreneurship consultant, advisor, and a Forbes contributor. She is also an educator, speaker, writer, and a non-profit fundraiser.

A skilled and collaborative project manager and leader, Yolanda specializes in creating and improving processes to maximize efficiency, reduce costs, and increase customers and revenue. She loves working with diverse stakeholders to manage expectations and outcomes with limited resources.

Since 2010, she has been focused on preparing knowledge workers, educators, and students for the future of work.

In 2015, she co-founded FlexTeam with two other MIT alumnae. 






Project-Based Work


Project-Based Work

If you own a business, project-based work can help you manage and grow your business.

How?

Project-based consultants can:

  • perform strategic analyses
  • craft a go-to-market strategy
  • help you decide whether to create a new product
  • assess your competition
  • determine where to cut costs
  • generate blog posts
  • manage your social media
  • guide you through a difficult negotiation
  • help you decide whether to enter a new market
  • craft customer acquisition strategy
  • create financial models
  • craft marketing or communications strategy
  • write press releases
  • assist with legal issues
  • plan events
  • and help hundreds of other types of business projects

Grow and manage your business with the help of project-based consultants.

About Yolanda Lau


Yolanda Lau

Yolanda Lau

Consultant | Entrepreneur | Advisor | Educator | Non-profit fundraiser | Forbes Contributor

Yolanda Lau is a startup founder, experienced entrepreneur, and entrepreneurship consultant. She is a skilled and collaborative project manager and leader, comfortable working with diverse stakeholders to manage expectations and outcomes with limited resources.

Entrepreneur | Future of Work

Since 2010, she has been focused on the future of work — specifically on preparing knowledge workers, educators, and students for the future of work.

In 2010, she began working to “solve” the “problem” of ambitious, educated, talented women and men “opting out” of the traditional workforce for personal reasons. In 2015, she co-founded FlexTeam with two other MIT alumnae. FlexTeam is  a mission-based micro-consulting firm that matches talented mid-career women with meaningful, challenging, temporally flexible, remote project-based work opportunities. FlexTeam‘s clients are businesses of all sizes across all industries and sectors and their most requested projects are competitor / market research, financial models, and investor decks.

In 2019, FlexTeam spun out its proprietary software solution for onboarding, managing, and paying freelancers / service vendors / 1099 workers into a separate company called Liquid. Liquid unlocks the power of the liquid workforce so you can do – and be – more. Yolanda Lau participated in Techstars LA 2019 with Liquid.

Advisor

Through her work with Lau Labs and FlexTeam, she and her team have advised hundreds of startups and venture capital firms.

Additionally, Yolanda is an advisor to VITALIZE VC and is also part of 79 Studios, a Los Angeles based startup studio rethinking venture capital with a women-first, product, and community point-of-view.

Yolanda has also advised and mentored student entrepreneurs since 2002.

Consultant

Yolanda is also a co-founder and partner at Lau Labs. In her own consulting work with Lau Labs, Yolanda specializes in creating and improving processes to maximize efficiency, reduce costs, and increase customers and revenue. She’s exceptionally adept at planning, organizing, implementing and evaluating activities appropriate to an organization’s goals.

Additionally, she advises entrepreneurs, start-ups, and small businesses in a multitude of areas — strategy, operations, branding, marketing, future of work, web development and internet communities, social media, business development, negotiation skills, conflict resolution, risk management, technology licensing, talent acquisition, systems thinking, design thinking, emotional intelligence, mindfulness, business writing, and how to use artificial intelligence.

Educator

At Punahou School, Yolanda teaches creative coding and entrepreneurship classes with Punahou’s Case Accelerator for Student Entrepreneurship (CASE). At CASE, she is developing real-world project-based curricula in entrepreneurship, artificial intelligence, computer science, data science, storytelling, and other future of work competencies.

Since 2002, she has mentored and advised student entrepreneurs at MIT, Harvard University, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Punahou School, and other educational institutions.

Board Member

Yolanda serves on the board of Hawaii Center for AI, Na Wahine Paani O Punahou, Big Brothers Big Sisters Hawaii, and other non-profit and for-profit organizations.

She has been an active board member of the MIT Alumni Association, MIT Club of Hawaii, Alpha Chi Omega Theta Omicron Chapter, MIT Alumni Startup Network, and many other organizations.

Speaker

Yolanda provides interviews to publications worldwide and is available for speaking engagements at institutions nationwide. She speaks about the future of work, artificial intelligence, leadership, and more.

Writer

You can find Yolanda Lau’s writing on Medium, at Lau Labs, on LinkedIn, and on Forbes.com.

Fundraiser 

Yolanda is a skilled and proven fundraiser with deep community connections. In 2018, she was honored by MIT for leading her class to an unprecedented 15th reunion giving record of nearly $1M, more than doubling the previous record. 

In 2022, she led her Punahou Class of 1998 to set two records: Alumni Class Participation on Giving Day, all-time reunion participation record of an astonishing 66% at her 25th reunion. 

In 2019-2023, she led Na Wahine Pā’ani o Punahou to create the Pā’ani Pledge — raising $100K from its members towards the Kosasa Community. 

College Admissions

Yolanda started her career in the MIT Admissions Office, where she focused on recruiting academic stars, under-represented minorities, and women. Her work on an online resource for prospective women received a CASE (Council for Advancement and Support of Education) award. As an Alumni Educational Counselor, Yolanda continues to interview prospective students for MIT’s Admissions Office.

Technology Licensing

After starting her career at MIT’s Admissions Office, Yolanda went on to work in technology licensing at MIT’s world-renowned Technology Licensing Office (TLO). Known for its prolific output, outsized success stories, global reach, innovative approaches, and educational initiatives, MIT’s TLO is where Yolanda developed a passion for entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial education.

Additional Interests

Educated at Punahou School and MIT, Yolanda is a lifelong learner interested in remote work, project-based work, the future of work, the future of education, and opportunities to connect or re-connect.

In addition, Yolanda has also taken graduate-level coursework in artificial intelligence, innovation, data science, leadership, ethics, negotiation, conflict resolution, and peacebuilding.

Yolanda has additional experience in collegiate and preparatory alumni relations, volunteer management, and advancement.