Turning Chaos into Opportunity, One Business at a Time

I’m Maria Briskman, i help founders, executives, and leadership teams move from crisis to profit—fast. I don’t come from the traditional startup founder mold. No Ivy League degree, no elite network—just 15 years of hands-on business experience, fixing what’s broken, building what scales, and turning crisis into prof!t.

📌 Graduated high school at 15, college at 20.
📌 At 17, I closed my first international ad sales deals, outperforming an entire team.
📌 At 20, I helped build a multi-state luxury retail empire—then flipped it into wholesale by leaving samples under doors in NYC. Gilt.com called back.
📌 At 23, I was leading 200+ employees, turning around underperforming beauty businesses.
📌 At 30, I was at WeWork through the rise and crash—my team? Zero churn, fully intact.
📌 At HyreCar, I led through 4 CEO changes, underfunding, bankruptcy, and acquisition—and still, we hit profitability.

“At WeWork, I was the only one talking about profitability.”

While all startups chased growth at all costs, I knew profit is the only real success metric. What Do I Bring?

I don’t just advise—I build, fix, and execute. With over 15 years of experience leading business turnarounds, optimizing profitability, and scaling operations, I specialize in turning struggling companies into high-performing, revenue-generating machines. Here’s what I bring to the table:

🚀 Crisis Leadership & Business Turnarounds

  • Led HyreCar’s first-ever profitable streak after 10 years of unprofitability, navigating bankruptcy, CEO turnover, and an acquisition while scaling revenue from $3.7M to $5M/month.

  • Stabilized WeWork’s DC market through a $40B valuation collapse, retaining zero churn in both employees and customers.

  • Spearheaded multiple high-stakes vendor crises, including migrating from Salesforce to Zendesk in 30 days and replacing a 100+ person BPO team in under a month.

📊 P&L Mastery & Profitability Strategy

  • Managed $175M+ P&Ls across marketplaces, mobility, retail, and real estate, optimizing contribution margins by 18-28% and cutting OpEx by $1M+.

  • Created financial forecasting models, annual operating plans, and profitability roadmaps for long-term, scalable success.

  • Developed data-driven marketing strategies—pivoting to high-intent, geotargeted campaigns that maximized ROI.

💡 Operational Excellence & Execution

  • Built international cross-functional teams that drive real results, from startup launches to Fortune 500 transformations.

  • Designed and implemented internal process improvements that recovered $2M+ in bad debt and improved dispute win rates from 36% to 68% in 5 months.

  • Created a structured, high-impact meeting format for leadership teams, improving execution speed and decision clarity.

👥 People-First Leadership & Scaling Teams

  • Led and restructured teams of 500+ employees, coaching leaders to increase team productivity, retention, and engagement.

  • Built in-house claims, risk, and CX teams from scratch, improving efficiency and reducing liability.

  • Spearheaded turnaround efforts across beauty, retail, and mobility sectors, developing playbooks for sustainable success.

💡 Bottom Line: I bring real-world execution, profitability-first thinking, and leadership that thrives under pressure. If your business needs a fixer, a builder, and a strategist who can navigate uncertainty and scale smartly—let’s talk. 🚀