Alexandra O Leary

Alexandra "Zan" O'Leary is a Boulder, Colorado–based entrepreneur, designer, and angel investor with more than three decades of experience in design, product development, brand building, and startup operations, dating back to the late 1990s. She is best known as a co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of GeoPalz, LLC, and was part of the team behind Jibbitz — the interchangeable snap-in charms for Crocs shoes. Jibbitz, created by Rich and Sheri Schmelzer (with O'Leary credited among the "Jibbitz creators"), was acquired by Crocs, Inc. (NASDAQ: CROX) in December 2006 for $10 million in cash, with an additional earn-out of up to $10 million.

In 2010, O'Leary, together with Jibbitz founders Rich and Sheri Schmelzer, launched GeoPalz, a Boulder-based family business making activity trackers and an online game for children under the theme "Walk to Win," converting kids' physical activity into redeemable points and rewards. The product line grew from the quarter-sized GeoPalz classic pedometers (launched 2012) to the wirelessly-syncing ibitz™ activity tracker for kids and families (2013–2014). As COO, O'Leary handled operations and scaling; in one launch she noted, "We've built our infrastructure to handle the type of extreme growth we experienced at Jibbitz." GeoPalz went through the Techstars accelerator ecosystem, raising roughly $120K, and its ibitz product was associated with the 2013 Nike+ Accelerator powered by Techstars.

Since 2015, O'Leary has served as President of Zan Design, Inc., a Boulder consultancy offering website design, brand development, business consulting, and personal coaching to individuals and startups across the U.S. She has also worked as a fractional marketing manager for Brock USA, where her bio emphasizes "over 30 years of creative and strategic experience in marketing, design, and brand development." Across her career she has taken roles spanning licensing, product and packaging design, mobile app design, project management, global operations, and international sales. Her education (per aggregator profiles) includes the University of Colorado, and coursework/affiliations listed with CUNY, MIT, and SUNY.

• Stage: Seed / angel-stage investing, consistent with an operator-turned-angel profile.
• Operator-led lens: Her value-add centers on hands-on operating experience — scaling a consumer brand from startup to acquisition (Jibbitz→Crocs) and building operational infrastructure for "extreme growth."
• Category affinity (inferred from her track record): Consumer products, children's and family products, health/wellness and "get active" technology, and design/brand-driven companies. A publicly stated, written investment thesis was not found.
• What likely earns a "yes": Strong brand and design sensibility, a clear consumer/family use-case, and founders who can execute operationally — mirroring the DNA of the products she has built.