About me
Aliyah Desautels is the founder and CEO of Otterwise, a Virginia-based startup tackling one of the most expensive and underestimated risks in early-stage companies: the wrong hire. Bad hires don't just cost money — they cost momentum, culture, and the jobs that would have followed. The problem isn't that founders make careless decisions; it's that the traditional hiring process is designed to impress, not reveal. Otterwise removes the guessing game with a structured pre-hire trial that lets founders see exactly how candidates operate and behave once they're no longer trying to impress anyone — cutting the typical new-hire ramp time in half before the first day even begins.
Featured in Virginia Business Magazine and a voice on hiring and workforce strategy across the Commonwealth, Aliyah works with founders and ESO leaders to protect what early-stage teams can least afford to get wrong. Whether you're building a team, backing one, or supporting the founders who are — she wants to talk.
