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Dinali S.

Venture Builder | Startup Operator | Strategic Advisor

I am a venture builder, startup operator and strategic advisor with 12+ years of experience building and scaling early-stage companies, investment platforms and innovation ecosystems across the U.S., South Asia and the GCC.

My experience spans founder, operator, fund manager and ecosystem leadership roles. I founded a venture-backed startup in the childcare sector, held leadership positions at high-growth venture-backed companies from seed round through Series B/C, served as CEO of Sri Lanka's largest angel investor network and most recently helped establish a corporate venture studio focused on building new ventures from the ground up.

Today, I advise startups, investors, venture studios on venture building, fundraising, innovation strategy, go-to-market strategy, product-market fit, founder support, ecosystem development and operational scaling. I also work with organizations designing incubators, accelerators and entrepreneurship programs that strengthen innovation ecosystems and private sector growth.

I am available for fractional leadership roles including Fractional COO, Chief of Staff, Head of Strategy, Venture Studio Lead, Innovation Lead, Interim CEO, fundraising advisor and ecosystem development roles.

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Dinali S.

Experience

Jun 2022 — Present

de Silva Consulting

Advisor & Consultant

I help founders navigate early-stage growth and fundraising and corporates, ecosystem stakeholders and government entities design and scale programs that drive innovation and entrepreneurship

Aug 2025 — Mar 2026

Crescent Enterprises - Venture Studio

Senior Venture Builder

- Defined the studio thesis, process and operating model from scratch. - Led 0 to 1 venture building across multiple ideas, taking concepts from hypothesis to MVP through customer discovery, rapid prototyping and design-partner validation - Built and scaled a founder-led studio playbook, including sourcing strategy, evaluation criteria and IC decision framework; sourced and interviewed 100+ founders in 2 weeks and shortlisted top candidates.

Jun 2024 — Jun 2025

Lankan Angel Network

CEO

- Led fund operations and investor relations for an early-stage investment fund with $5M+ deployed, managing 100+ LPs and overseeing the full investment lifecycle and portfolio support - Spearheaded the country’s largest tech conference, convening founders and global investors; curated agenda and speakers and advised government stakeholders on ecosystem policy.

Apr 2024 — Oct 2025

TWC Advisory

Senior Advisor - Startups & Innovation

- Evaluated early-stage investment opportunities end-to-end, from deal sourcing and due diligence to strategic recommendations. - Designed a commercialization framework to convert university R&D into spinouts, enabling IP monetization and pathways to company formation.

Dec 2023 — Oct 2025

Planlogic

Fractional Head of Growth

- Led the GTM strategy for an early-stage fintech company, resulting in a 40% increase in user adoption within three months. - Developed a multi-channel customer acquisition strategy, resulting in a 2x increase in qualified leads.

Sep 2021 — Jan 2022
Atomic

Atomic

Founder-in-Residence

Atomic is a venture studio that funds and founds companies. They prototype new companies and bring together ideas, resources and talent to build the best ideas into great companies.

Aug 2021 — May 2022

Caribou Childcare

Founder

I founded the first marketplace for stay-at-home parents and families who were looking for childcare as a way to bridge the supply shortage and make childcare more accessible across the U.S.

Feb 2021 — Sep 2021

Roo

Head of Growth

Marketplace in the animal healthcare space, reimagining how doctors and hospitals connect.

Apr 2020 — Jan 2021

Nushkas

Founder/CEO

Direct to consumer healthy food business that was started during the pandemic.

Aug 2016 — Feb 2021
Swing Education

Swing Education

Multiple Roles (Last role: Senior GM - New Markets)

Swing education is tackling the substitute teacher shortage problem. They are a marketplace for substitute teachers and K-12 schools in the U.S.

Jun 2013 — Jul 2016

Chicago International Charter School

Special Projects Manager

Charter school network of 13 schools in Chicago that serve K-12 schools with over 7400 students.