I have worked with Leslie McKinney for the last two years. I chose to be mentored and guided by Leslie for a few reasons. First, she has decades of experience working with manufacturing, machining quality control, and product development – a professional status and allotment of experience most of us aspire to have. Second, she is extremely detailed oriented. As a new, small, and growing business, it is essential to have experts, like Leslie, to advise about specific technicalities that could easily go unseen.

Her ability to focus on the minute is an extraordinary asset to our team. Lastly, she brings a rare and insightful perspective. As a black female engineer, her viewpoint is naturally unique. This specific perspective adds to creative problem solving as well as more complete solutions. This applies to any startup, however, knowing that her unique voice has seen and developed the products alongside my team, brings confidence and comfort well beyond endorsement by the majority status quo.

Beyond exceeding the hopes mentioned above, Leslie has volunteered many hours of her time and attention to LEE LONDON. I will never forget her redlining my first product’s engineering drawings. Within a year of her spending many hours inspecting every detail of the drawings, the products were being sold internationally through Big Box Retailers; a testament to her thorough guidance on our successful first order.

Leslie has continued to advise my team on mass production, manufacturing logistics, and quality control. Typical to many startup founders – we are generalists, who regularly need potent direction within these specific realms. Leslie is truly an expert who we rely on for this in-depth, qualified, advice. As a witness to Leslie’s expertise, collaboration, and encouragement, I recommend Leslie for mentorship to other startup teams. She certainly has added value to LEE LONDON’s manufacturing process and will continue to be an advisory resource for our team.

— Valerie Trent, Founder and CEO of JTrent LLC