We help growing businesses install the systems they need to scale, reduce founder dependency, and exit

Schedule Your Boardroom Session

You’ll gain clarity on your next best step using
The Valuation Shift™ Framework to Position Your Business to Scale, Attract Corporate Partnerships with 7-Figure Companies, Reduce Founder Dependency, and Exit (Even If You're a Local Business, Your Team Isn’t Ready, or You're Looking to Retire) by the time you finish your session.

Step Into the Boardroom

Funding

When you have access to funding, you can scale faster, smarter, and larger. Don’t want debt? There’s over 20 ways to get funding for your business. We help connect you with the right partner so you can have funding for your business.

Two women sitting by a window, one is looking at her phone and the other is looking at her. The woman on the right is holding a coffee mug. The scene appears to be inside a cafe or a shared workspace with chairs and plants visible in the background.

Growth Marketing, Brand Authority, & PR Systems

We install brand authority, PR, and growth marketing systems to run ads, attract more customers, and always have a database full of customers interested in working with you.

People & Operations Systems

You need a team you can depend on as you scale. We install the support systems you need to grow and lead your team so that hiring, firing, and creating a team culture are easy.

A man and a woman shaking hands in a modern office with large windows showing cityscape buildings.

Financial Revenue & Growth Systems

Your cash flow and financial systems make or break your business. We help you with the financial systems and strategy you need to make sure you’re operating at a sustainable level and cash flow is predictable.

Man giving a presentation with a microphone, woman smiling in the background, conference setting with audience, and a banner that reads 'BBB Breakthrough Accelerator'.

Corporate Partnership Systems

Whether you want a corporate partnership or a sponsorship, we’ve done it. And we can help you do it too. We help you land corporate partnerships to increase your business value before you sell and exit.

You Don’t Need More Advice.

You need the Right People In Your Boardroom Executing With You.

Now is the last day you guess your way through an important decision. You can have a team with integrity in your corner helping execute on your business goals (so that you’re never deciding alone or with ChatGPT).

Step Into The Boardroom

Meet the Executive Team

A woman with curly brown hair wearing a black blazer and a red blouse, smiling with arms crossed against a white background.

Amber Tarrac

CEO,

Pitch Judge, Funding, Partnerships, Systems, and PR

Amber Tarrac, CEcD, ACE, MPA is a bilingual (Spanish/English) economic development strategist who works at the intersection of funding, corporate partnerships, and long-term enterprise value. With over 20 years of executive experience across business, government, and nonprofits, she has connected clients and communities to more than $37 million in funding, contracts, and grants, and unlocked over $450 million in corporate partnerships and investments.

She is an award-winning, state- and internationally credentialed economic developer known for helping organizations navigate and align with institutions, capital sources, and decision-makers. Her work goes beyond access, she builds the positioning, strategy, and credibility required to secure it.

As CEO of FounderFuego®, Amber works with a select group of founders and organizations to become fundable, get partnership-ready with our Corporate Partnership Toolkit and Pipeline Tracker System, and positioned for scale. Through her Firestarter Intensive™ program and her Fundable Fast-Track™ System, clients have applied for over $350,000 in funding within their first week and secured more than $100,000. She also serves as a pitch judge, awarding over $300,000 in funding, and advises leaders on how to structure systems and opportunities that attract funding, partnerships, PR, and exit opportunities.

A woman with medium skin, dark curly hair, and a bright smile, wearing a sleeveless red top, against a plain white background.

Amber Wallace

Chief Growth Marketing Officer, Paid Ads, and Full-Funnel Marketing

Amber Wallace, MBA is a bilingual (American Sign Language/English) U.S. Air Force Veteran and growth marketing strategist who specializes in scaling revenue, optimizing conversion, and positioning businesses for long-term growth and acquisition. With over 16 years of experience across public and private sectors, she has managed more than $122 million in advertising and led multi-million-dollar campaigns designed to drive measurable, scalable results.

She scaled e-commerce brands to over $800,000 in monthly revenue and played a key role in positioning a company for a $1.1 million acquisition through strategic growth marketing and paid ad execution. Her work is built around one outcome: turning visibility into revenue, and revenue into enterprise value.

Amber designs conversion-driven ecosystems, from high-performing paid media strategies to websites engineered to convert at scale. She also led the strategy and creative for Shop Safe Shop Local, supporting the largest COVID-19 relief grant initiative in the nation.

Her work has been featured in Fortune and the National Governors Association, and she partners with founders and organizations ready to invest in serious growth systems, long-term positioning, and exit-ready infrastructure.

Richard Lopez

Chief Learning Officer,
People Operations, Branding, and LinkedIn

Richard Lopez, MBA is a bilingual (Spanish/English) brand strategist, learning executive, and partnership architect who helps organizations build people-centered systems that drive revenue, alignment, and long-term growth to exit. He holds an MBA with a concentration in marketing and is recognized for translating strategy into execution at scale.

He led high-impact initiatives for global brands including PepsiCo, the Food Network South Beach Wine & Food Festival, and Norwegian Cruise Line, where he designed sales training systems, built learning infrastructure, and trained over 30,000 sales representatives, contributing to a 16% increase in sales and earning Travel Weekly’s Best Travel Rewards Program.

Richard secures multi-million-dollar partnerships and builds large-scale workforce and community systems, including recruiting, hiring, onboarding, and managing teams of over 3,000 people in high-stakes, high-visibility environments. His work sits at the intersection of brand, people, and performance, ensuring organizations are not only positioned for growth, but equipped to sustain and scale it.

With a foundation in digital design, he creates environments, experiences, and people operations systems to drive engagement, strengthen teams, and position businesses for the highest valuation to exit.

WORK FEATURED IN

A collage of logos from various organizations and institutions including California Department of Public Health, California Connected, MIAMIBEACH, USC, William Bill Chiat Institute, BBB, 4Good, Univision, Telemundo, La Prensa, La Revista Binacional, NCL, Pepsi, VSP, San Diego Business Journal, Culture Amp, Times of San Diego, SDSU, FIU, Food Network, SOBEWFF, Aspen Challenge, Chase for Business, Coaching for Impact, and TQ.

Collection of seven official city and county seals and emblems from California, including the California Governor's Office, California Employmen Enterpise Training, Miami Beach, City of Escondido, County of Los Angeles, the Mohave County of Arizona, and the County of San Diego.

A graphic featuring the words 'California Gov' with a bear silhouette replacing the letter 'l' in 'California', and a red star above the 'a' in 'California' against a black background.

Two women standing together smiling, one holding an award, in front of a backdrop with SDsU Alumni written repeatedly.

Two news anchors, a woman in a blue dress and a man in a suit, sit at a news desk with laptops, discussing news stories with a city skyline backdrop during sunset.

A woman and a man sitting on director's chairs in front of a blue NBC Palm Springs backdrop with Desert Brew logos. The woman is wearing a red sleeveless dress and gold shoes, and the man is in a suit with a striped tie. Both are smiling.

Smiling man in black suit standing at a black podium, holding an award, with San Diego Business Journal banners in the background.

WE SUPPORT THESE INDUSTRIES

Finance and Banking Institutions
Government Agencies
Economic Development
Universities
Growth Stage Businesses
and more

Promotional graphic for 'In the Hot Seat' series featuring four speakers: Brian Kennedy Jr., Claudio Burgin, Oralia Alvarez, and Miriam Torres Baltys, with descriptions of their affiliations, and details about a Q&A series for entrepreneurs, with logos of community partners including US Bank, Mission Driven Finance, AMC Business Capital, CDC Small Business Finance, Village Up, and Y&N.

World-Class Impact by the Numbers

Food Network

Our CLO’s partnerships strategy secured a $15M investment to a Florida university with high-profile global brands and celebrity personalities
Securing corporate partnerships and a $15M investment over 5 years for a higher education institution, Florida International University (FIU), which improved educational facilities, student programming, and provided scholarships to 10,000+ students.
With over 3,000 students per year, our CLO created and executed recruiting, hiring, training, and onsite management strategies.
His efforts attracted investors from global brands in the hospitality industry, including Wine Spectator, Bacardi, Badia, and Carnival Cruise Line. This directly impacted FIU’s visibility, securing a “Top 5 Schools” in the U.S. News and World Reports national rankings for Hospitality Management since the program’s inception.
Centro de Amigos

Our CEO’s media and PR strategy got LGBTQ+, Black, and Latina women co-founders featured on New York’s ABC News
This Spanish-language senior social day center needed to break through crowded channels to advocate to key decision-makers and secure meetings with legislators and state agencies.
Our CEO developed and implemented a customized media and PR strategy, including messaging, designed to generate high-visibility coverage aligned with their policy and partnership goals.
The strategy secured a feature on ABC News, creating national visibility and directly leading to meetings with legislators and a state department.
EVRYMAN

Our Chief Growth Marketing Officers’ strategies helped a business owner sell his company for $1.1M
When positioning a company for exit, the revenue growth strategy is a key component to drive a higher valuation to achieve a big pay day.
This business centered around a men’s community, workshops, and retreats and had the goal to exit through an acquisition. In order to get a higher valuation, the business needed to grow revenue strategically.
Our Chief Growth Marketing Officer designed the full funnel advertising and sales conversion strategy that drove 977 leads in two weeks at an average rate of $0.75 per lead that contributed to a successful strategy execution and acquisition.
Norwegian Cruise Line

Our CLO’s sales and branding strategy activated a 30,000 person global sales team, won Travel Weekly’s Best Total Rewards program, and achieved a 16% increase in sales
Our CLO created unique learning and sales resources, pitch decks, one-pagers, and courses, revamped the online university, and created ROI to restore customer loyalty to recover from the pandemic.
In addition to the 16% increase in sales this period in the cruise industry was considered one of the largest in history often referred to as the “Great Cruise Comeback”.
Penny Maus

A woman-owned business landed a $50K+ government contract 4 months after starting her business with our CEO’s funding strategies
Our CEO worked with Penny on funding and growth strategy opportunities as she launched her business. Through our CEO’s extensive network and connection to contracting opportunities, she connected Penny with a government contracting opportunity in Central Valley, California that she may not have otherwise been aware of and worked with her on the positioning for the RFP response.
She won that RFP and has since won over 6 government contracts using principles from FounderFuego’s Fundable Fast-Track™ system.
AUTÉNTICA Conference

Our CLO’s brand strategy increased conference registrants for a San Diego nonprofit by 100 people and landed elite corporate partnerships
Mana de San Diego North County, a nonprofit, worked with our CLO on the brand concept for their signature annual Latina conference. Their vision was “retro 70s” inspired theme.
Our CLO designed and executed on a full conference branding kit, including logos, speaker tiles, event tiles, and more.
His efforts attracted corporate sponsors and in-kind partnerships exceeded $65K with significant visibility to community partners, vendors, and champions supporting Latina youth programs.
Covered California

Our Chief Growth Marketing Officers’ "Life Can Change in an Instant" campaign drove enrollment for underserved communities to the state’s insurance marketplace
Covered California, the state’s health insurance marketplace, needed to reach multicultural and underserved African American, Hispanic, Asian, and LGBTQ+ audiences through culturally relevant and in-language campaigns in Spanish, Chinese, and Vietnamese.
Our Chief Growth Marketing Officer led a multi-channel advertising strategy, managed ads, and deployed $34M in brand and DRTV spend, driving a 32% lift in brand awareness, $1.2M in PPC, and LGBTQ+ outreach across radio, billboards, social, email, and direct mail, delivering both scale and measurable impact
City of Escondido

Our CEO landed a $1M investment for the city, retained 250 jobs, ensured a 100% survival rate for 100 businesses, and preserved a $20M annual economic impact
Our CEO’s comprehensive strategy paired funding with resilience tools, business coaching, and partnerships, including landing a $1M federal investment to design and administer a grant program.
This effort involved the arts community and gained national attention, winning the prestigious Helen Putnam Award for Economic Development through the Arts.

Upcoming Events

The Fuego Leverage Lab™

6/2 at 9:30 AM PST / 12:30 PM EST
Structured partnership and exit readiness session for serious founders. Each Lab includes leverage and growth metrics, a focused readiness hot seat, partnership and positioning strategy, and a clear execution assignment.
We help founders install systems to scale, attract partnerships, and exit in our Firestarter Intensive™.

Join Community to RSVP
Sesión Informativa de la Comunidad

6/9 at 8 AM PST / 11 AM EST
Te invitamos a una sesión diseñada para emprendedores listos para escalar. Conoce cómo FounderFuego® apoya a un grupo selecto de líderes a construir negocios posicionados para alianzas estratégicas, crecimiento de ingresos y expansión.
Cupos limitados. Solicita tu lugar.

Regístrate Aquí
Community Info Session

6/30 at 8 AM PST / 11 AM EST
Build a business positioned for corporate partnerships, revenue growth, and long-term exit - we’ll show you how. Learn how FounderFuego® equips a select group of founders with the strategy, systems, and community required to operate at that level.
Limited seating. Request your spot.

RSVP Here
Q3 Fuego Boardroom Session

7/23 from 4-6 PM PST / 7-9 PM EST
This working session moves members from partnership ideas into clear direction, shaping a revenue-aligned partnership offer, identifying what makes partners say “Yes”, mapping next steps for outreach, and pressure-testing in real time to get moving.
Deeper execution and conversion support happens in our Revenue Activation Sessions.

Join Community to RSVP