Just me for now.....

We've been there

We have built companies from scratch. We have built products, teams, systems, deals and revenues. We have helped to build successful ventures, including public companies and others that were successfully sold. Perhaps as important, we have thrived through changes and solved problems when ventures don't go as planned. Our careers reflect a cross-section of Silicon Valley experiences - ups and downs - and rarely the flat life of a slow-changing big company.

Who we are

We are experienced managers with varied backgrounds who have worked together in the past. We don't usually involve somebody that we haven't worked with before. We have backgrounds in a mix of startups, larger growing companies and established public enterpris es.

We have substantial experience in technology businesses, including software, internet, SaaS, online advertising, mobile apps, media, e-commerce and others. We have also worked in other industries as diverse as professional services, retail, construction, banking and non-profits. Most of us have credentials such as advanced degrees and/or CPA certificates. However, we are all different and we will try to match your project to the person with the most relevant experience.

We also have management skills beyond finance. Real world experience enables financial professionals to quickly understand different businesses and to contribute to strategy and operations in many ways. Beyond finance and operations, we are connected also to experts in other fields such as IT and social marketing.

Here are some technology companies where I have worked as a consultant or employee:

• Appanite (technical services and app distribution)

• City Cares (software)

• Cozeva (SaaS)

• Enjoy (consumer tech retail)

• Freshr (SaaS and B2B marketplace)

• Griddig (SaaS and B2B marketplace)

• Make Systems (software & consulting - acquired by Opnet)

• MediaZ Software (various tech projects)

• Metaphor Computer Systems (equipment, software & consulting - acquired by IBM)

• Mighty Local (local online advertising)

• Mobihand (mobile apps aggregation and distribution)

• OpenMobile (app distribution tech)

• Oracle (enterprise software and services)

• Peninsula Power Systems (energy tech)

• SolutionCentral (SaaS for online advertisers)

• Zamurai (SaaS - acquired by LogMeIn)

• Built accounting, legal, HR and administration processes and teams from scratch

• Helped secure more than $120M venture capital and debt financing

• Bootstrapped (i.e. without financing) a startup from pre-revenue stage to profitability

• Cleaned up some very impressive accounting messes

• Created policies, controls and contracts that are effective without being burdensome

• Wrote several business plans and investor slide presentations

• Negotiated dozens of complex licensing, distribution and strategic partnership agreements

• Solved contentious deal-threatening standoff to complete a company-making partnership agreement

• Overhauled and rationalized complicated pricing strategy for a software and services company

• Created an elegant monetization strategy to solve a difficult "chicken and egg" marketplace problem

• Identified a risky labor law problem and created an innovative employment model to solve it

• Built and optimized e-commerce systems; and minimized processing costs

• Navigated legal and tax requirements for multi-state business expansion

• Helped structure deals to optimize revenue recognition and cashflow within business constraints

• Managed customer service, IT and tech support functions in addition to traditional finance areas

• Helped establish and manage international distribution and subsidiaries

• Modified processes and systems for business pivots - hardware to software and B2C to B2B

• Assisted three M&A exits (pricing, agreement, due diligence and/or post-deal integration)

Why we do it

Beyond the fact that everybody needs to put food on the table, we genuinely enjoy building things - especially great companies.

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