Michelle Reeves
Entreprenueur. Advisor. Future Builder
Michelle Reeves is an international business leader who has spent more than 20 years building companies and helping organisations figure out what’s next.
Long before ecommerce became the default, she built one of the first online-only wine brands in the US. Since then, her career has taken her across technology, fashion, commerce and consumer brands, founding companies, raising capital, entering new markets and helping businesses unlock new growth opportunies.
Today, Michelle is the Founder & CEO of Xillions AI, an AI-powered co-creation and consumer intelligence company, and a Partner at One03, a commercial growth advisory working alongside founders and leadership teams on revenue, expansion and market share. She is also an Industry Fellow with the QUT Leadership Institute, where she works with current and emerging leaders navigating a rapidly changing business landscape.
Named to Marie Claire USA’s Power List and one of Forbes’ “Queens of Crypto,” Michelle’s work and perspective have been featured in Vogue, Forbes, CNBC, NBC, LA Times and others. She has spoken at SXSW, Cannes Lions, the New York Stock Exchange and New York Fashion Week, and developed programs and experiences for organisations including Netflix, COTY and Yale University.
Building What’s Next
A consistent thread through Michelle’s career has been making the unknown and complicated feel possible. She has educated more than 20,000 women on emerging technology across Australia and North America and is the co-founder of Women Who Innovate, a global community built to bring more women into the conversations shaping the future.
She is also the creator and host of the WHAT NOW podcast, where she has interviewed innovators and leaders from organisations including the NFL, TIME, Alo and MoonPay.
Fun fact: Michelle created the world’s first touch trademark.
Michelle’s Bio & Headshots
Endless curiosity and a passion to innovate
In 2007 Michelle was one of the earliest advocates and strategists for brands and talent to incorporate technology advancements at the time, now known as social media. As an executive at IMG, Michelle introduced and onboarded global sports and fashion talent to Facebook. Faced with much of the same uncertainty and scrutiny back then as Web3 is facing today, Michelle understood how powerful the shift could be for businesses to learn and harness its new capabilities to connect people and create engaged communities.
While building new opportunities for brands and talent in social media Michelle simultaneously launched her first business, an online wine company, David Family Wines. One of the early web-only wine brands, she also created the world’s first “touch trademark” for a leather label on wine bottles. Innovating wine, one of the most traditional industries where the “rules” were rarely broken, Michelle made the unusual move to ignore the industry’s reliance on wine scores and work with lifestyle partners and brands. “How can one man sipping wine at his desk dictate entire trends and the popularity of wine for everyone?” Michelle shared. “The heavy reliance on scores eliminates diversity, stifles creativity and enjoyment when everyone is trying to get the same perfect score.”
Michelle took a different approach with David Family Wines using emerging marketing tools like email lists (which were relatively new and unheard of in the wine industry in 2008) and was featured on innovative channels like Wine Library TV with emerging super entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk.
“I am grateful to have worked alongside, collaborated with and met so many brilliant minds in business. I get to speak with the coolest people in business every single day!” For this reason, Michelle started her podcast, “WHAT NOW” to capture and share the insights and knowledge from the world’s most innovative brands, CEOs and founders.
This is the beginning of a new era. Through MAVION, Michelle is leading the vision to connect consumers and brands into the future.
“MAVION is a gateway for brands to innovate their products through community building and aligned connection.” MAVION has worked with brands including Rebecca Minkoff, DressX, Upland, and more to be announced this year.
Instead of wine tastings in wine country, Michelle brought the wine to brands with private tastings at the offices of CNBC, YouTube, Facebook, Forbes, and created wine education for Women’s network groups in Texas, California, New York and Florida.
These lessons form her early career and entrepreneurial journey are the key drives in her approach to business today, remain curious always.
Michelle has spoken at hundreds of events supporting and inspiring women at companies including American Express, Gap Inc, and Netflix. She also been invited to speak at numerous conferences and events, where she has shared her insights on the future of the business and the impact of Web3.
As Michelle’s influence continues to grow, she remains committed to using her knowledge and expertise to promote the development of a more decentralized and democratic digital world. She is passionate about empowering individuals and communities to take control of their digital lives, and she believes that the potential of blockchain technology to transform the world is only just beginning to be realized.
Michelle has been recognized for her innovative approach to business and these emerging technologies. Her expertise has been featured Forbes, VOGUE, Marie Claire, STYLE Magazine, the LA Times, and more. Today she is widely regarded as one of the leading women in blockchain and crypto.
