A small team with a full-stack view.

Ben Bajarin is CEO and Principal Analyst at Creative Strategies, where he has worked since 2000. His research connects semiconductors, personal and enterprise computing, and AI infrastructure with the business decisions they shape. Across more than two decades of technology transitions, he has studied both the architectures behind new products and the human behavior that determines whether those products succeed.

Before joining Creative Strategies, Ben worked at Cypress Semiconductor and founded two startups in the late 1990s. That combination of operating experience and industry research informs his approach to strategy: understand what a company can build, why customers will value it, and how long its competitive advantage can last.

Ben writes for The Diligence Stack, bringing technical and business analysis to investors and decision makers. His work examines how decisions about silicon, software, infrastructure, and product design affect scalability, differentiation, and market opportunity. He follows the connections between these layers to test the assumptions behind a company's growth story.

He has guest lectured at Stanford, Berkeley Haas, and Harvard Business School, and contributed to publications including TIME, TechCrunch, Fast Company, and MIT Technology Review. His analysis has also been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, and Bloomberg.

Carolina Milanesi is President and Principal Analyst at Creative Strategies, which she joined in 2016. Her current research focuses on AI and the future of work, including how AI is reshaping the way workers are valued and how organizations build for collaboration. She also examines how the cultural and environmental costs of technology are borne by the people who use it.

In 2019 she founded The Heart of Tech, a research and advisory practice focused on the human side of technology, including diversity and inclusion, sustainability, and the social responsibilities of the companies building the tools we depend on. She hosts two podcasts, TEQ and Bit by Bit Leadership Conversations, and writes regularly on Substack and LinkedIn.

Before Creative Strategies, Carolina was Chief of Research at Kantar Worldpanel ComTech from 2013 to 2016, where she led thought leadership research drawing on Kantar's longitudinal studies of smartphone and tablet users. She delivered strategic insights to C-level executives across product planning, marketing, go-to-market strategy, and customer retention.

Prior to Kantar, Carolina spent 14 years at Gartner, most recently as Research Vice President and Agenda Manager for Consumer Devices, where she ran the forecast and market share teams covering smartphones, tablets, and PCs, and advised clients ranging from investment firms to enterprise buyers.

Carolina is a regular contributor to the Italian daily La Stampa and is frequently quoted in the Financial Times, Bloomberg, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal. She appears regularly on BBC, Bloomberg TV, and NBC News.

Austin Lyons is a Senior Analyst at Creative Strategies and the author of Chipstrat, where he examines semiconductors, AI, and business strategy. He brings the perspective of an engineer, startup founder, and product leader to questions about what emerging technologies can do and what it takes to turn them into successful products.

His technical foundation began in semiconductor physics and computer architecture. At the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, he earned a master's degree in electrical engineering and published research in nanoelectronics, including hands-on work fabricating and measuring graphene-based transistors. He later joined Intel as a hardware engineer working on an Atom system-on-chip for smartphones.

Austin's experience extends from the lab to the realities of building a business. He co-founded a hardware startup, developed web and mobile software at early-stage companies, and moved into product management. Before joining Creative Strategies, he worked on product management for John Deere's autonomous tractors, connecting AI and robotics with demanding real-world applications.

He also holds an MBA from the University of Iowa. Today, his research spans semiconductors, optics, networking, and physical AI. That combination of engineering and commercial experience helps him connect architectural choices with product execution, customer needs, and business economics.

Max Weinbach is an Analyst at Creative Strategies, covering the intersection of devices, platforms, artificial intelligence, and technology culture. His research connects the engineering behind a product with the experience it delivers, examining how changes in hardware and software shape adoption, competitive positioning, and the way people use technology.

Max brings a background in technology journalism, product reviews, and video production, with work for XDA Developers, Android Police, and 9to5Google. His reporting and long-form reviews span smartphones, foldables, computers, and the software ecosystems around them. That experience grounds his analysis in close attention to products: how they perform, where they fall short, and which improvements make a meaningful difference.

At Creative Strategies, his work extends from mobile platforms and gaming hardware to AI PCs, local models, and the practical use of AI agents. His research includes evaluating agent systems through the Diligence Stack Agent Bench, exploring how model capability, tools, data infrastructure, and cost combine to determine whether AI can produce useful work.

Across these areas, Max brings technical curiosity and a direct editorial voice to the firm's research. He follows developments from the underlying technology through to the finished product, translating detailed observations into a clearer view of what matters for users and the businesses serving them.

Maze Milanesi-Walls is Creator in Residence at Creative Strategies, bringing a Gen Z perspective to the intersection of technology, media, and culture. Maze focuses on how younger audiences discover new products and how media habits shape their engagement with technology.

That perspective adds a cultural dimension to the firm's understanding of adoption. By connecting emerging products with the expectations of the next generation of users, Maze helps the team consider how technology fits into people's lives.

Chana Ott is Director of Finance at Creative Strategies, leading the financial and operational work that supports the firm. She has supported Creative Strategies and its clients since 2012.

Her contribution brings continuity and financial discipline to a business built on independent thinking and close client partnerships. Chana's work provides the operational foundation that allows the team to concentrate on research and advisory work.