Nicholas Ayala

Portfolio

Work

A decade of building, operating, and scaling — from management consulting to AI robotics. Each role sharpened a different edge.

GrayMatter Robotics

Chief of Staff · Director of Strategy & Operations

2023 – Present

AI-powered autonomous manufacturing · $45M Series B

  • • Led international expansion strategy, investor relations, and go-to-market alignment as right hand to the CEO
  • • Drove buildout of a 100,000 sq ft innovation center in Carson, California
  • • Managed cross-functional initiatives spanning government business, customer engagements, and partnership development

Rithum

Strategy & Operations

2022 – 2023

E-commerce platform serving 40,000+ brands

  • • Operated at the intersection of strategy and execution for a scaled e-commerce infrastructure company
  • • Supported cross-functional alignment across product, sales, and operations teams

Fair Square Medicare

Manager, Business Operations

2021 – 2022

Y Combinator W20 · Healthcare · Backed by Define Ventures, Slow Ventures, YC

  • • Owned People Operations, Compliance Operations, and Growth during critical company formation phase
  • • Achieved 95 NPS score (industry average for insurance brokers: 9)
  • • Helped serve 10,000+ Medicare customers with high-quality, personalized guidance

Clubhouse

Operations · Early Employee

2021

Social audio platform · Backed by Andreessen Horowitz, Tiger Global

  • • Joined as early employee during explosive hypergrowth phase — millions of users onboarding simultaneously
  • • Led strategic initiatives including resource allocation, business planning, and scaling operations
  • • Navigated high-velocity decision-making in one of the fastest-growing consumer apps of its era

Valcon Engineering

Head of Operations · Founding Team

2018 – 2020

Cleanroom services · Founding team

  • • Built entire go-to-market engine from scratch — sales, marketing, and operational processes
  • • Maintained ISO compliance certifications for clients with zero margin for error
  • • First startup leap after Deloitte, driven by financial independence built in prior years

Deloitte Advisory

Senior Consultant

2015 – 2018

Management consulting · Advisory practice · San Jose, CA

  • • Three years of management consulting — breaking down ambiguous challenges and delivering under pressure
  • • Built frameworks for executive communication, complex problem decomposition, and client delivery
  • • Paid off $18K in student debt within 13 months while building the financial foundation for future career risks