We built Routed for the brands that are doing everything right,
except the part the guest actually feels.
Why We Started
There is a version of enterprise strategy that never makes it to the front door.
Inside large consulting firms, the work is rigorous, the thinking is sharp, and the resources are real. But the brands that needed it most - the boutique hotels, the wellness spas, the founder-led spaces with a genuine identity and a community that believed in them - weren't in the room. They were getting a fraction of the access, if any at all.
I kept watching that gap. Brands investing in what they could afford, building what they could reach, and assembling guest experiences that were never actually designed. Not because the vision wasn't there. Because nobody who understood both the strategy and the community had ever sat across the table from them.
And on the other side of it, I knew personally what it felt like to be in a room where your value was present but not fully seen. I knew what it felt like to walk into a space and immediately register whether it was built for you or adjusted to include you. That's a different feeling. And it's not something you can fake your way into designing.
Routed exists because those two things: the access gap and the felt experience gap are actually the same problem. We close both.
About The Founder
Marinda Fruge, Founder & Principal
I spent over a decade at Deloitte and Booz Allen Hamilton working with Fortune 500 companies and government clients on organizational strategy, customer experience, and operational transformation. I was good at the rigor of it. What I carried out with me was something most firms don't teach and can't train for.
I see patterns early. Not just in data or in frameworks, but in the felt experience of a space: what's landing, what's missing, what a guest is registering before they have words for it. I can walk into a brand touchpoint and feel what's emotionally absent before I can fully explain why. That's not something I learned in a conference room. It's how I'm wired, and it's what I build from.
I'm also a Certified Health Coach and Personal Trainer, which means when I work with a wellness brand or a hospitality concept, I understand the promises being made from the inside. Not as an observer. As someone who lives at the intersection of strategy, embodied experience, and the communities these brands serve.
The guests my clients are designing for - predominantly Black and brown, culturally fluent, aesthetically sophisticated - they know the difference between a brand built for them and one adjusted to include them. So do I. That combination of enterprise rigor, wellness expertise, and cultural fluency is what no one else in this space is bringing to the table simultaneously. It's why Routed exists, and it's why the work lands the way it does.
I lead with curiosity before conclusions, with precision in the places that matter most, and with a working style that makes complex problems feel navigable rather than overwhelming. My clients don't just receive a deliverable. They receive a clear direction and the confidence to move in it.
Credentials: PMP | SAFe Scrum Master | Certified Health Coach | Group & Personal Trainer
How We’re Built
Routed operates as a founder-led boutique practice. That means when you engage us, you work directly with me, not a junior analyst who briefs a partner you meet twice. Senior-level thinking on every engagement, from the first discovery call through the final handoff.
For engagements that call for specialized execution (brand photography, interior design, facilitation, or production), I bring in a trusted network of collaborators whose standards match mine. Staffed for what the work actually needs. Not for what looks impressive on a capabilities deck.
Boutique is not a constraint. For brands at your stage, it's the model that gets you the most focused, experienced attention on your work. That's by design.
What It’s Like To Work With Us
We don't lead with recommendations before we understand the full picture. The first thing we do is listen, not just to what you describe as the problem, but to the things underneath it that you haven't named yet. That's usually where the real gap lives.
We move with precision, not with speed. Every engagement is scoped specifically for your brand, your guests, and your next move. We don't drop a template on top of your work and call it strategy. We build the thing that fits.
Our clients describe working with Routed as the first time someone understood both what they were trying to build and who they were building it for, without needing a lengthy briefing or a cultural orientation. That recognition matters. It's part of the work.
And when we're done, you have something your team can actually execute. Not a mood board. Not a vision deck. A clear roadmap, a practical framework, and the confidence to move forward in it.