Nicole Rufuku

Starting at Microsoft, Nicole Rufuku has spent her career in strategy and product, helping entrepreneurs and Fortune 500 companies build digital products.

As a Principal at Neo Innovations (acquired by Pivotal Labs), she built digital businesses, from ideation to scale. Nicole has built startup teams from the ground up, both as a founder and as a consultant.

She developed an interest in hiring and diversity from her own experience hiring talent to power agile teams for rapid innovation. Nicole has now applied her product expertise through to hiring, with a New York based consultancy called Bonsai, where she helps growth-stage companies find hiring success by creating compelling interview experiences and treating candidates like customers.  

She is the author of the upcoming book Hiring for the Innovation Economy: Three Steps to Improve Performance and Diversity.