Science. Strategy. Operations.

Turning your ideas into reality. Together.

We're PhD scientists and proven founders who've raised funds, scaled teams, and grown real revenue - and we work alongside the people building what the world needs next.

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FROM IDEA TO REALITY

01 MISSION

02 FUNDING

03 PRODUCT

04 OPERATIONS

Our Story

We've been where you are.

As perpetual learners who've completed our PhDs, we know what it means to have a question and no idea how to answer it. We've fallen flat on our faces, stood back up, and charted a path forward anyway.

As founders ourselves, we've lived the distance between "I want to start something" and "I have a team and real revenue." Together, we built a biomedical SaaS startup from an initial idea into a sustainable, revenue-generating team - writing business plans, securing funding, winning grants, shaping culture, scaling operations, and shepherding a product from concept through MVP to market.

A small detail that stuck: at our last company, colleagues would address us together in emails simply as "GEMS" - Giana, Emma, Murray, Schena. The name followed us here.

We believe the best consultants never stop doing the work themselves. We bring hands-on passion for taking ideas from concept to reality into every engagement.

Giana Schena, PhD

Biomedical strategy & funding

Giana is a PhD-trained biomedical strategist who has helped secure over $15M for her startup: $10M in DoD research funding and over $5M from investors. User-first by instinct, she builds funding and product strategy around the people on the other end, whether that's a patient, a scientist, or a customer.

Emma Murray, PhD

Product & Operations Leader

Emma is a PhD-trained product and operations leader who builds products and the organizations behind them. She helped take an analytics platform from its earliest scripts through three major software releases, while growing the division behind it from 2 to more than 80 people.

Emma sees funding, program management, and operations as part of product delivery. A strong product needs the resources to be built, a plan for coordinating the work those resources fund, and an organization equipped to carry that work through each release. She helps teams connect grant funding to product goals, manage award timelines, budgets, reporting, and dependencies, and establish the operational foundations that keep delivery moving. That can include compliance systems, hiring and onboarding processes, team workflows, and the tools people need to do their work.

At GEMS, Emma brings this product-centered approach to startups and small businesses—helping them build the funding plans, operating systems, and coordinated teams that support a product’s mission and bring it to market.

Why GEMS

You bring the idea. We bring the experience to help it succeed.

Between 'I have an idea' and 'I have real revenue' are a lot of small, well-chosen steps. Discovering which ones matter is half the work. We've closed that gap ourselves, and now we help other founders and organizations close it too: securing the funding to move forward, building the operations to support growth, and shaping the strategy that keeps a team pointed at the right market.

We're not consultants who stepped out of the work to advise on it. We're still in it. That's what we bring to every engagement.

How We Can Help

Build what comes next.

Strategic support for mission-driven teams, from idea to impact.

Clarity creates momentum

Mission & Market Strategy

We interview your customers and every member of your team, then compare what customers feel they're getting with what each person believes they're providing. The gaps show where your positioning, go-to-market plan, and product-market fit need work.

Turn insights into impact

The words Passion Led Us Here on a pale stone sidewalk

A blue typewriter, pens, and papers on a muted slate desk

Funding for bigger impact

Grant Funding & Non-Dilutive Capital

Every idea needs capital. We specialize in non-dilutive funding: SBIR/STTR, federal, and agency grants, so you stay in control of your business while you grow it. From first-draft strategy through submission-ready packages, we've led grant writing consulting engagements from concept to funded award. For companies managing multiple awards, we also provide ongoing grant program management: coordinating funding across your full R&D pipeline and handling the compliance reporting that comes with it.

Turn ideas into funding

Stronger foundations

Product Strategy & Execution

What customers do tells you more than what anyone guesses they'll do. We use customer and team feedback, your sales over time, and trends in comparable products to guide your roadmap, either as outside advisors or as part of your leadership team, from a first MVP through each release after it.

Build what's next

A team stacking hands together over a laptop

Connected golden gears against a deep navy background

Scale with purpose

Operations & Growth

How you get something done is just as important as what you get done. We step in as fractional operational leadership, whether you're setting up your first processes or outgrowing the ones you have. For early-stage teams, we design the SOPs, compliance systems, and infrastructure from the ground up, built to support you now and hold up as you grow. For teams that already have systems in place, we optimize and redesign what's there, from process bottlenecks to the program management office that keeps budgets, teams, and projects on track, so you can move to the next level and beyond.

Make operations a competitive advantage

Who We Work With

From first idea to first revenue - and beyond.

Idea & Early Formation

You have a concept, maybe early research, and you're figuring out funding, market, and structure.

Building & Executing

You're building the product, the team, or the funding pipeline, and need hands-on support to keep momentum.

Scaling & Growing

You have traction and need the operational backbone to grow without breaking.

Biotech

Medical Devices

Wellness & Health Tech

Food & Beverage

Agritourism

How We Work With You

Hands-on, from wherever you're starting.

We don't believe in advising from the sidelines. Whether we're in your inbox for a week or embedded with your team for a year, we work the way a co-founder would - rolling up our sleeves alongside you.

Strategy Sprint

A short, fixed-scope engagement to assess where you are and map where you're headed. Ideal if you're not ready for a full project or retainer but need clarity and a roadmap now.

Project-Based

Defined scope, defined timeline. Covers everything from a single grant application to a focused operations or strategy project - a clear deliverable, start to finish.

Retainer

Ongoing, fractional support as an extension of your team. This covers longer-term operational or strategic leadership, as well as sustained grant strategy and program management across multiple funding cycles.

Not sure which fits? Tell us where you are, and we'll help you figure it out.

There's no perfect moment to start.

You don't need a polished deck or a fully formed plan. Just tell us where you are and where you're hoping to go - we'll help you figure out the rest.