Nicole Hedley is the founder and CEO of Headstart, an AI-native company dedicated to helping organizations leverage the power of AI to rapidly build transformative products. With deep expertise as a software engineer and tech leader from her experience at Pinterest, AppNexus, Ribbon, and as CTO at Dibs Technology, Nicole founded Headstart to enable businesses to move from concept to production-ready software in weeks, not months.

Under Nicole’s leadership, Headstart uses advanced AI technologies—particularly large language models like Anthropic's Claude—to automate up to 97% of coding tasks. This revolutionary approach allows her team to deliver projects at unprecedented speeds, significantly reducing risk and cost, while enabling rapid innovation and iteration. Notable successes include accelerating product timelines from several months to mere weeks for clients in sectors ranging from luxury fashion sourcing to fintech and data platforms.

Nicole is committed to demystifying AI for business leaders, fostering AI literacy, and empowering non-technical stakeholders to confidently integrate AI solutions into their strategic operations. Her pragmatic approach and focus on tangible business outcomes have positioned Headstart as a leading force in the AI-native software development space.