The body
Performance, wellness, longevity and sport
Muay Thai, boxing, bodybuilding, climbing, mountaineering and adventure sports. Your product in the training and the recovery
Carina Cunha
Scientist, strategist, alien, entrepreneur, author, athlete, model
Brand strategy & brand partnerships
For brands and companies that want to reframe the category
Some of the places my work has appeared Television, print and online, on every continent except Antarctica
You think you are looking at a model
I was one. I left Elite at 20 to become an investment banker
I run experiments on human behavior for a living
on organizations, audiences, individuals and myself
At 24, I was accepted into a PhD in Differential Psychology. I chose the real world as my laboratory instead.
Founder, strategist and scientist of the human experience at Y42
(Also author, founder, CMO and board advisor)
Submit a project: long-term engagements where you would like my participation
Book a strategy session: one-to-one, immediately actionable advice
Photo: Guest Titan, Go Fund Yourself!
Why do we say yes?
Persuasion follows the same laws that govern everything else in the universe.
Energy is conserved, transferred and dissipated. Life developed inside these physical limits. Natural selection favored organisms capable of acquiring and allocating finite resources well enough to survive. We inherited the results.
I have spent years observing the structures beneath human behavior and synthesizing them into a unified theory of energy allocation. Unsurprisingly, it follows the same principles as the universe.
My own M-theory of human behavior: thermodynamics govern our choices.
I start with time, below energy. But for practical purposes, since we are three-dimensional beings living in four-dimensional spacetime, energy is the variable we can track and manipulate.
Resolutions of reality
- Time
- Physics
- Evolutionary biology
- Neuroscience
- Psychology
- Behavior
First Principles of Persuasion
Coming in 2027
Persuasion is physics expressed through behavior. Natural selection is bound by the laws of physics. Physics defines the boundary, biology enforces it, psychology expresses it. My original framework, from twenty years of research, is the foundational layer beneath sales, marketing and persuasion.
Inside First Principles of PersuasionEvery decision is an allocation
Action =perceived value−perceived cost
First Principles the newsletter
See life at a different resolution. Experiments in time, energy & mastery. The objective is fidelity to reality.
6,000+ subscribers in under 12 hours of launch on LinkedIn, and a growing community on Substack
#3Energy
Physics, not psychology, directs human behavior. Why persuasion is energy allocation, and how to translate your objective into someone else’s value hierarchy.
#2Settling
I left the school two days in because of the data. What the experiment revealed about reality, energy allocation, and the intrinsic cost of settling.
#1Shaolin
Six hours a day of Shaolin training in rural China while building an investment bank. An experiment in constraint, energy allocation and mastery.
On stage: for media, podcasts and keynotes
Bring me in as a keynote speaker, a guest or a commentator. As a persuasion architect, I build from the fundamentals of physics, philosophy and psychology and apply them to sales, marketing, capital raising and M&A. I also speak from my own journey: personal development and life as a founder.
“Carina was one of the most confident and prepared pitchers we've seen—she knew her numbers, her market, and her mission.”
“Carina's ability to anticipate where industries are heading before they become mainstream is what makes her such a powerful strategist.”
“Carina's expertise in behavioral economics and psychology allows her to see market shifts before they happen. She combines data, intuition, and strategy to position brands for long-term success.”
With Terry Rice at The Lighthouse, New YorkGo Fund Yourself!, Guest TitanIn conversation with Andy Walsh
I work at the point of highest leverage: capital & communication
Capital fuels companies. Communication changes perception and every decision that follows.
Previously
Over 17 years, I have worked in investment banking at Credit Suisse, corporate strategy at J.P. Morgan, strategy consulting at Accenture and innovation consulting at Founders Intelligence. I launched Crimson Education across Scotland and Ireland, then ran it as Managing Director for the UK and Europe as it scaled toward unicorn status. I founded my own consultancies, Meta Strategy and Y42, and my own startups, Nosy and Satori, and I have advised more than 100 companies, from FTSE 100 and Fortune 500 companies to bootstrapped startups.
- Columbia University
- B.A. double major, Economics & Political Science. Graduated at 20, in five semesters, by overloading my coursework
- University of Edinburgh
- Pg.D. in Differential Psychology, completed at 24. Behavioral Psychology and Evolutionary Biology applied to individuals
Now
Through Y42, my consultancy, I work with brands, companies and founders on strategy, partnerships and thought leadership: brand creation, go-to-market, capital strategy and sales conversion.
The real world is my laboratory. My body of work, First Principles, reads human behavior through the lens of thermodynamics: my newsletter publishes it now, and my book, First Principles of Persuasion, arrives in 2027.
I’m also CMO of Messaging Studio. Attention is calorically expensive, so the medium carries as much weight as the message. The studio lets brands build entire worlds inside a single text: images, carousels and buttons. RCS, rich communication services, is for companies and creators what YouTube was in 2005.
Some of my results
- 10B+Views generated through my work
- 1B+Views I generated for my first startup in a year
- $1B+In sales and capital raised
- 100+Organizations advised
- Top 3Global Sales creator on LinkedIn, within one year of posting
- Top 5U.S. Venture Capital creator on LinkedIn as of September 2026
- Top 10Global Venture Capital creator on LinkedIn as of September 2026
- 17+Years of commercial experience
Engineered virality
1B+ Views on under $5K of marketing
Nosy was the first product I invented and patented: a wearable air filter for the nose. Sunglasses protect your eyes and headphones protect your ears, so why not a filter for your nose? I developed it with former Dyson engineers and launched it as a high-fashion accessory, worn by models. The cognitive dissonance stopped people mid-scroll, and within a week my images had traveled around the world.
It was also the first time I did my own PR. Three months after the Kickstarter launch, Dragons’ Den contacted me, and two Dragons competed for a product that didn’t even work yet. Within six months, TV Tokyo had sent a camera crew to my home to film a documentary, and hundreds of publications had covered the story.
Images carry thoughts farther
I art-direct what I publish. The photograph stops the scroll. The idea shifts the category.
Open any post to read it in full
More of my daily thoughtsOn your campaign, the strategist, spokesperson, model and athlete can be the same person
You think you are buying reach
- 5M+impressions in 12 months
- 1M+people reached on LinkedIn in 12 months
- 29×more people reached than I have followers
- 66%of my impressions were from members outside my network
Reach is the part a media budget already buys, but I exponentiate its effect
A reaction costs a tap
A comment costs a thought
I think you’ve just reframed Star Wars as a 40‑year institutional failure to implement Jungian shadow work
6.3×In the last month, my LinkedIn posts drew 12.3 comments for every 1,000 impressions, and a median of 103 comments each. Accounts my size draw 1.96 per 1,000
You think you are looking at a can of water
You are looking at a rebellion you can hold in one hand
The Liquid Death post
197,198impressions and 619 reactions on one post
227comments and 10 reposts
As ads, the reach of this one post would cost at least $26,700
Capital follows trust
I announced EcoFishCircle’s project in Saudi Arabia and opened the $8M and $155.8M raise I was leading. Within hours, I had investors contacting me, and an investor who commented on my post committed a significant sum to the company
An ad asks for attention. My post carries my name and my track record, and investors read it as a judgment call from someone they already know
The EcoFishCircle post
20,723impressions and 317 reactions
4.6×the engagement rate of LinkedIn sponsored content: 2.3% against 0.5%
For the audience that matters, one post like this is worth at least $15,400
Testimonials: what people are saying
“What can I say about Carina that does not make me sound like a starstruck fan… Carina totally understands the nature of what founders go through while navigating the fundraising experience and has key insight to look at your project with financial and operational know-how. She understands what is missing, what is exciting, what is possible, what is needed, and what it really takes to be a community-led brand that is profitable and sustainable. She has become one of my treasured advisors.”
“Carina is one of the most professional and insightful people I've ever met in the startup world. She helped us secure our first $100K check... If you get a chance to work with her, my advice is simple: listen to what she says. It will save you time and get you real results.”
“Carina was by far the best meeting I've had. Her advice was not generic or surface level. She took the time to deeply understand my company and provided thoughtful, customized insights based on my specific situation. She was incredibly honest, practical, and offered business advice that was both relevant and immediately actionable.”
“My call with Carina was nothing short of exceptional... Carina has the unique ability to provide highly personalized tactical, operational, and strategic advice at a world class level.”
“Carina quickly understood that the value proposition for my product was hiding in a function I was treating as a secondary feature... she immediately recognized that it was the moat. She further helped clarify product positioning and investor narrative.”
“Within just a few minutes she understood the essence of what I'm building and helped me reframe the problem in a much clearer way... The conversation was focused, thoughtful, and efficient — no wasted time or energy.”
“A call with Carina is a must if you want to take your fundraising process to the next level... she doesn't just provide access to capital — she connects you with strategic investors who can also become partners and, in some cases, bring new clients and revenue opportunities into the business.”
“My questions on investment round strategies had the potential to be answered in a super fluffy way, but Carina really knew her stuff and was able to identify the right strategy for me... It was clear she grasped the nature of what we do, which is quite complicated, very quickly.”
“Carina has an exceptional ability to turn complex ideas into clear, compelling stories. Her crystallisation method moves mountains, transforming how you see and communicate your vision. She combines sharp strategic insight with genuine empathy.”
“Within 20 minutes she'd identified the biggest liability in my business and reframed it in a way I'd been avoiding emotionally... She delivered it clean, no sugar-coating, but with enough care that it landed instead of bouncing off. That's rare... she doesn't just diagnose, she gives you the reframe. If you're a founder who wants clarity over comfort, book her.”
Position your product inside my work
Three worlds a brand can enter
A company should enter my content because its product proves something worth understanding
The mind
AI, B2B software, fintech, marketing, sales and go‑to‑market
First Principles, my newsletter, and my book, First Principles of Persuasion, in 2027
The image
Luxury, fashion, beauty, premium lifestyle and travel
My face, my frame, my aesthetics. Campaign modeling and art direction
Where we begin,
and where it leads
Companies allocate capital. Readers give attention and trust. What I bring is time, and each step up delivers more of it to your brand
How we would work together-
Proof
One idea
One original piece on my page, or one session in your room. Live in two to four weeks
-
Familiarity
A season
Six pieces over three months. What my readers ask in the first half shapes the second
-
Desire
The frame
I am the face and the art director of your campaign. Stills and film for your channels
-
Belonging
A body of work
A place in my world: six months inside one of the storylines my readers are following
-
Direction
The strategy
A seat at your table: positioning and go-to-market with your team, carried in public
Reframe your
category
Own a new category; expand into new verticals; reach entirely new audiences; build a deeper connection with the ones you have.