Maggie Spicer is a guest experience designer, trend forecaster, brand strategist, and philanthropic venture investor living and working between San Francisco and France.

Currently leading the hospitality design team at WHISK, product for PLUME, and philanthropic venture placement at 86Fund and Pét Nat Ventures.

About

Maggie has spent her career founding and building innovative companies, typically as a hybrid CEO/COO/CCO. She’s known for being a connector, empathic leader, and a fixer.

Projects

Founder and Chief Creative Director of WHISK, the brand strategy & experiential design agency trusted by Airbnb, Twitch, IDEO, Levi Strauss & Co., Block, Restaurant noma, Herman Miller, First Round Capital, Salesforce, Big Idea Ventures, Fritz Hansen, Zendesk, and many others.

She contributes regularly as an Expert Advisor at Simple on the topic of impact & philanthropic venture investing, and serves as a mentor to startups for Big Idea Ventures, in Paris, and TUM Venture Labs Food/Agro/Biotech in Munich. She also enjoys opining on bathrooms being on-brand.

In tandem to WHISK, Maggie has previously launched 5 businesses in the last decade including:

  • BAANA (a retail concept + brand experimentation lab)

  • 86Fund (a 12M fund aiding independent food producers, regenerative agriculture farmers, and stewards of bio-available seeds and ocean health)

  • DAF Capital (a Donor Advised Fund advisory service for philanthropic venture and catalytic capital investment in social and environmental entrepreneurship)

  • Douglas (a modern corner store/épicerie)

  • Benne (a restaurant meal distribution service spun up as an immediate response to the pandemic)

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Experiments

Currently developing:

  • an adaptogenic RTD beverage

  • a stealth hospitality project in Europe

  • a Japanese soaking tub atelier

Reach out if you’d like to collaborate!

Bio

Maggie is in the business of feelings. Inspired by connection, the elements of surprise and delight are paramount. She especially geeks out on experience-driven packaging and consumer brand experiences being ‘on-brand’.

She’s a contributor to hospitality + culture publications, such as Drift and Ambrosia. In the archives: EdibleSF, The Bold Italic, and Women 2.0. Her work has been published in Workplace Wellness that Works: 10 Steps to Infuse Well-Being & Vitality into Any Organization and Great Mondays: How to Design a Company Culture Employees Love. She was also a recent guest on Superb’s ‘The Recipe’ Podcast: Why restaurant bathrooms should never be bog-standard and La Marzocco France’s ‘Out of the Box: Paris’ panel on the topic of hospitality design.

Maggie holds a BS in Cultural Anthropology and Business with honors from Santa Clara University where she was a Jean Donovan Fellow. Maggie is a Goldman Sachs 10KSB Fellow, and most recently served for 5 years on the Board of 18Reasons, a member of the Bi-Rite Market family.

You may find her at a farmers market procuring produce or extending an invitation to share an early morning cold plunge in the ocean, followed by a warm thermos of ceremonial matcha.

Photograph courtesy Evan Sung

Write an email or message her on Instagram or LinkedIn. She also enjoys speaking—feel free to reach out if you have an upcoming panel or event.

Contact