Candor Partners

Making AI Work for Organizations. And for Humans.

Strategy, Narrative & Work Design in the Age of AI.


As a founder, I grew a category-leading B2B2C organization. I bring the playbook I used to build my own company—along with the experience of supporting more than 30 early-stage companies and four frontier technologies to reach milestones and scale.

You know how some of the best coaches in sports are former athletes themselves? That's Jory as a consultant. She founded BlogHer in 2005 and grew it into the force that it was. And she takes that experience (and others) and helps others, not with old stories, but with guided coaching that is genuinely impactful. I highly recommend engaging Jory. You won't be disappointed.


Jim Tobin, Founder and CEO, Ignite Social Media (2007). Founder and President, Carusele (2015)


Structured Movements

Movements attract talent, partners, investors, and customers. But movements alone don't get funded, acquired, or go public—not without a strategy and execution plan that evolves as a company grows. Every engagement ladders up to measurable KPIs, growth milestones, and organizational clarity.

Frontier Tech | AI

Designing work for human agency as AI takes on more operational load — the governance, decision rights, and human contribution questions that strategy alone doesn't answer.

Future of Work

Reimagining the models for how we work, where we work, how we define value, and what work means in an evolving economy.

Democratized Access to Services

Strategy for organizations breaking down barriers to essential markets and generating access to opportunity.

Health, Wellness & Human Potential

Unlocking human flourishing through AI-integrated, holistic approaches to well-being and growth.

Jory joined my team as an interim marketing leader and go-to-market strategist for a new venture I launched within my organization. The venture, a digital HRTech platform for Global 1000 Talent leaders, was in beta, and Jory helped to define the core messaging, processes, programs, and partnerships needed to publicly launch the platform and enable our incoming marketing leader to hit the ground running. She served as a manager, member of my leadership team, and thought partner for our business, working across the organization’s leadership and with our external partners.

Jonathan Kestenbaum, Managing Director, AMS


How I Work

Flexible engagement for ambitious teams.

I structure all engagements in ways that make sense for companies, based on their stage of development, existing team, and resources.

Services

  • Go-to-Market Strategy & (later stage) Execution
  • Messaging, Narrative, & Storytelling
  • Ecosystem Design & Development
  • AI Readiness Systems and Workforce Design

Engagement Models

  • Fractional | Interim | Advisory
  • Work with existing teams, new hires, or Candor contract specialists
  • Scaling fee structure: Time x Service x Company Stage (Seed, Series A+, Growth Stage, Enterprise)

I’m a serial founder and was working on AboveBoard, an inclusive platform for executive talent. I needed senior-level help in marketing but not full-time, and I was introduced to Jory. She acted as a member of our exec team and worked on messaging, positioning, and partnerships while operationalizing our small (and mighty) marketing team. She then supported our search for a permanent marketing leader and transitioned to an advisor before we were acquired in 2023.

Lucinda Duncalfe, Former CEO and Founder of AboveBoard, EVP True Technologies

Superpowers

Where I Drive Most Impact.

Digital Movements | Frontier Tech

  • Co-Founded, scaled, and exited BlogHer (B2B2C digital media company) as President and lead evangelist. Achieved 100M+ US unique visitors, 200+ brand customers, 200k creators.
  • Founded AI Operators Exchange, a closed peer group for senior leaders who are directly accountable for how AI gets implemented inside their organizations.
  • Co-Founder of Optionality, a community of practice of experienced professionals embracing new models for individual and enterprise Future of Work.
  • Supported 30+ companies in Frontier Tech, Future of Work, Human Flourishing, and Talent Marketplaces.

Communications

  • A LinkedIn Top Voice, whose viral AI Transformation and Future of Work series can be found on Optionality and her LinkedIn newsletter, This Woman's Work
  • Editorial experience: LinkedIn, The New York Times, Fast Company, Inc, Forbes, PR Weekly, and former editor for Time Inc. and The New York Times Syndicate.
  • Programming & Content: Launched/co-programmed BlogHer (largest creator conference, 2005-2014). Programmed SXSW, UNGA, Davos on topics like AI Transformation, HealthTech, AR/XR, Web3. Created podcasts, white papers, user summits, and CEO op-eds.

Operating Experience

  • 4x CMO/Fractional CMO across AI, AR, SaaS, Blockchain, and Marketplaces.
  • Led Global Marketing for AWS Startups ($3B business unit), driving content, thought leadership, and digital programs for early-stage to pre-exit companies.
  • Led Global Community at Blockchain Unicorn ConsenSys, mainstreaming blockchain tech across 20 global cities and diverse verticals through events and thought leadership.
  • Built and led five marketing and comms teams in the past 10 years, scaling from 3 to 30+ people.

About Jory

As a marketing leader, founder, and ecosystem strategist, I’ve spent more than two decades translating breakthrough technology into human-centered narratives and frameworks that create trust, build markets, and scale impact.

My superpower? Building Narratives + Ecosystems around Big Ideas, Transformative Tech, Impact Imperatives.

I have formally advised or held interim/fractional roles in more than 30 seed, Series A, and PE-backed organizations, supporting GTM, scale, and exit strategy. In addition to my own company exit, I've supported multiple exits in consumer ecommerce and social platforms. Right now, I’m advising startups building Responsible AI-powered platforms in beauty & wellness, healthtech, women's health, edtech, HRtech and career upskilling.

My founder journey began as Co-Founder and President of BlogHer, a media marketplace representing a community of thousands of digital influencers and creators, where I was the primary evangelist of social influence to agencies and brands and grew strategic partnerships with top advertisers and revenue partners. Later, I scaled the marketing organizations, and the developer, founder, and customer communities for Ethereum venture studio ConsenSys and AWS Startups.

In my early career I was a print writer and editor for Penguin Books, Time Inc., and The New York Times Syndicate, and wrote for Fast Company and Inc Magazine. Today I write for Optionality, a passion project and digital community I co-founded with my BlogHer Co-Founder Elisa Camahort Page, This Woman’s Work, which explores trustworthy AI, tech trends and culture, and PAUSE, personal essays on tech, marketing, fairness, and hormones.

My Work

Founder. Operator. Ecosystem Builder.

Clients

AI Operators Exchange

Closed peer group for senior leaders who are directly accountable for how AI gets implemented inside their organizations.

The Brain Health Accelerator

A Fund, a Venture Portfolio, a Foundation, a Framework with Flourishing at the Core.

AETHEON

AETHEON is a dynamic, AI-powered learning and community platform designed to prepare and empower the workforce for the future of work.

Optionality

A community of practice for experienced professionals who want to rewrite the rules for meaningful careers.

Pet Allies

Pet Allies is an expert-led, AI-enabled service that connects pet parents with behavior experts to help manage your pet’s behavior—effectively and with ongoing support, thereby improving the well-being and happiness of pet families.

Project Magic Mirror

Project Magic Mirror is a movement that aims to give us control of our skincare and encourage us to follow our own path to healthy skin.

Org AI

ORG AI is designed to upskill corporate leadership quickly and effectively in AI, impacting their entire organizations. It focuses on upskilling Global 2000 executive talent with the AI fundamentals.

Scope AR

Scope AR is transforming industrial manufacturing by making mastery accessible to anyone at enterprise scale.

Countable

Enterprise AI that wins at scale: Countable unifies AI calls, SMS, web chat, and no-code action hubs—delivering always-on outreach, support, and fundraising that delight customers, drive sales, and win campaigns.

AboveBoard

AboveBoard is an executive platform and community that provides open access to senior leadership opportunities. We enable our members to expand their career opportunities and companies to diversify their leadership teams.

Atsign

We’re creating the next generation of internet technology with simplicity, security, and privacy—built in.


Articles, White papers, Thought Leadership

LinkedInEditors

AI, Applied Part 5: Disclosure in the AI Era

We’re sitting in the Trough of Accountability regarding AI use. Here’s how we climb out of it.

LinkedInEditors

AI, Applied Part 4: The Unbossing of the AI Era Workforce

If “Everybody is a Builder,” Who is Managing AI Transformation? This piece is reprinted from The Architecture of Work, where the frameworks and conversations driving workforce AI transformation go deeper. I once joined a frontier tech organization in a management role, but we didn’t call it that.

LinkedInEditors

AI, Applied Part 3: The Productivity Alibi, and the Bad Taste It’s Leaving the Workforce

There’s a lot of productivity theater happening, and not a lot of results. Here’s what our current KPIs aren’t telling us — and what really counts.

LinkedInEditors

AI, Applied (Part 2): The Human Side of AI Transformation — And How to Get It Right

AI, Applied is a series designed to offer an adaptable framework for organizations and individuals to flourish in the AI Era. Expanded versions of these pieces, with full frameworks, can be found at my Substack, The Architecture of Work.

LinkedInEditors

AI, Applied: We Don't Have an AI Problem. We Have a Human Adoption Problem.

First in a series on AI Transformation — this one is the origin story. In 2005, I and two other women inadvertently disrupted digital media.

LinkedInEditors

Future-Proofing Your Career in the AI Era

A mini-course + resources designed to un-freak driven, thoughtful people who want to do their best work — with or without AI. When LinkedIn asked me to collaborate on a new course format around AI adoption, the first question I asked them: Why? Not to be flip about it.

LinkedInEditors

How can AI companies ride the wave of interest without wiping out?

Tech companies have shed 151k jobs in 2023. What can AI startups learn from them? It’s been a year of career assessment, to say the least, if you work in tech.

LinkedInEditors

The Early-Stage Founder's Downturn Survival Guide: Marketing

This is Part 1 of a Series I'm writing to help founders stay focused during this time of uncertainty.

LinkedInEditors

In your future work life your resume won’t save you. Collectives will.

What Wu Tang Clan teaches us about Collective business models.

adweek

How Brands Can Support a Woman’s Right to Choose

Brands are making bold moves in the wake of the Roe v. Wade decision. Will these moves actually have an impact?

Street Fight | StreetFight follows the dynamic disruption taking place in multi-location (MULO) marketing.

Trust in the Post-Cookie Era | Street Fight

The digital ad industry needs to stop thinking of how to re-engineer, or clone, trust and simply re-earn it. And to do that, we have to reconceptualize trust.

SalesTech Star

If You Love Your Customers, Set Them Free Chat App

the surveillance-free chat app, Signal, seeing a 4,868% jump in monthly users earlier this year, when WhatsApp announced a shift in its

AdExchanger

SMBs Lose Their Digital Identities By Over-Relying On Big Tech’s Scale | AdExchanger

“Data-Driven Thinking” is written by members of the media community and contains fresh ideas on the digital revolution in media. Today’s column is written by Jory Des Jardins, CMO of The @ Company and co-founder of BlogHer. Nearly 10 years ago I heard about programmatic ad fraud for the first time. I had co-founded a media […]

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