About the Thinkers
About the Founder Erika
Erika Palmer Mandel is a seasoned entrepreneur and business leader with more than 25 years of experience driving growth at the intersection of sales, strategic expansion, marketing, branding, and human capital. She began her career in high-performance sales environments with global names like News Corporation, Quorum Business Solutions, and KPMG—earning a reputation as a relentless hunter and trusted advisor who could unlock new markets, close transformative deals, and lead teams with grit and vision. Along the way, she co-founded the restaurant review startup 2DineFor, was recruited to launch new ventures, and consulted for both lifestyle and healthcare companies. Her work included propelling a startup to $10 million in sales in just ten months, building and training powerhouse teams, and closing transformative deals that reshaped company trajectories.
In 2017, Erika founded Leap Intuit, LLC, a consulting firm built on her “Get the Deal Done” (GTDD) method. She quickly became known for scaling businesses from concept to multi-million-dollar revenues in record time. With a BA from Washington University in St. Louis and fluency in Spanish, Erika blended formal expertise with entrepreneurial instinct to consistently deliver breakthrough results across industries.
Six years ago, Erika took on her family’s 44-year-old company, Creative Blinds, as a consulting client. What began as a project turned into a calling: she fell in love with the business her parents had built and recognized the chance to elevate it with her full breadth of skills. Under her leadership, Creative Blinds more than doubled in size, becoming a design destination that marries beauty, function, innovation, client experience, and family legacy. Milestones include being named Houston Business Journal’s Top Family-Owned Business of 2024 and receiving the HR Impact Award for Leadership and Innovation in 2025.
Now, Erika is channeling everything she has learned into the next chapter: HeartPrint Media®. For the first time, she is building a business driven by the heart, using her decades of experience in growth, culture, and innovation to power a movement around storytelling and human connection. HeartPrint® is more than a platform—it’s a call to capture, feel, and share the stories that shape us, transforming lived experience into a new measure of contribution and legacy.
From blinds to boardrooms, from startups to storytelling, Erika’s career has been defined by her ability to see potential where others see limits—and to turn that vision into lasting results. Today, her focus is not only on building successful businesses, but also on shaping meaningful movements that redefine what it means to lead, connect, and leave a legacy.
About the Thinkers
From Teenage Think Tank to Global Collective
It started as a spark — a Teenage Think Tank made up of students ages 14–21 who believed there had to be something more than the black-and-white noise of social media. They wanted to create a tool that stored real memories, real breakthroughs, and the messy, beautiful truth of life. HeartPrints weren’t designed to be broadcast for likes; they were meant to be shared 1:1, when trust is earned.
At its core, this is Gen Z building what Gen Z actually needs: connection without performance, media with meaning, and a collective that refuses to let our names — or our stories — be forgotten. Together, the Think Tank and the movement it powers are proof that this isn’t just a project. It’s a co-created future.