Welcome to my Blog, Behind the Growth Curve. This blog is written for early-stage founders about growth, strategy and capital efficiency.
By way of background, I spent most of my career as a Wall Street equity research analyst, covering and investing in small-cap growth companies. I have always been fascinated by early-stage companies and their use of technology to solve complex problems and disrupt major industries. Several years ago, I began using the skills I developed during my career in equity analysis to mentor founders and make angel investments in their companies.
I quickly noticed a recurring theme. Though there were many talented founders who had capitalized on deep domain expertise to create great products that solved important problems, they generally lacked professional financial guidance to help them build strong businesses and overcapitalized. This often led to unfocused growth, unnecessarily high burn rates, and needless dilution at the expense of the founders’ own wealth. When I saw this happen time and time again, I resolved that it would be my mission to help entrepreneurs do better.
To help address this gap, I started a consulting practice that provided strategic-level CFO advisory services to early-stage founders. Leveraging my financial background, I instilled strategic and financial discipline into my client companies’ DNA, with an emphasis on capital efficiency.
The results were impressive; using the financial models and dashboards we developed (like a roadmap), my clients made informed strategic and financial decisions, raised the optimal amounts of capital for their business needs, and preserved their equity ownership. These founders were laser focused on profitability, which allowed them to self-fund future capital needs, focus on the opportunities they found most compelling, and operate their businesses in a much more sustainable manner.
Through this blog I will be sharing a number of insights I gleaned over the years as a mentor, consultant, angel investor and outsourced CFO.
