Company Experience
Selected engagements across venture capital, private equity, M&A, operating finance, and company exits.
First CFO from $2M to $100M in revenue.
General Assembly grew from a startup into a global education company. John provided financial leadership through the company's rapid scaling phase, building the financial infrastructure and operating metrics that supported the growth story through to exit.
Experience spanning the company's public offering.
From taking the company public to navigating the complexities of operating as a public company — a full lifecycle of financial leadership.
Helped grow revenue eightfold, drove to profitability, stabilized virtual economy.
Linden Lab's virtual world platform was a pioneering technology company with a complex economic model. John built the financial systems that connected user economics, virtual currency flows, and operating metrics into a clear management view — driving an 8× revenue increase and the transition to sustained profitability.
Designed underwriting system that helped raise over $100 million.
Assembled Brands provides working capital to consumer brands. As Co-Founder, Investor and CFO, John's system revealed the underwriting criteria that has enabled Assembled Brands to make hundreds of profitable investments over ten years.
Acquired for $45 million and later resold for $220 million.
A real estate technology platform where John was founding board member, investor and Fractional CFO. John helped position for its initial acquisition to Serent Capital, then rejoined the board to support through the second, significantly larger exit — which John predicted 18 months in advance.
Drove positive gross margins, enabling a $50 million Series B.
As Investor & Fractional CFO, John implemented Monday Morning Metrics to drive the business to positive gross margins enabling the company to raise over $50 million in its Series B. Helped to hire a full time CFO.
Founded & Co-Founded
Companies John started and continues to build.
The system behind the system — built and refined across dozens of companies over twenty years.
Co-founded with Jeff Abrams. Weekly Accounting created the Integrated Financial Model, the Fourth Statement (Statement of Economic Quality), the Contribution Engine, Monday Morning Metrics, and the Weekly Accounting Performance Matrix. These tools form the operating backbone of SDCFO Group.
Strategic financial advisory built on the Weekly Accounting System.
Co-founded with David Metzler and Ethan Lu. Phoenix Strategy Group uses the Weekly Accounting System as the basis for how it works with all of its clients — providing fractional CFO services, financial modeling, and strategic advisory to growth-stage companies.
The Creative Intelligence Platform.
Education
Master of Business Administration.
Harvard Business School provided the foundation for John's approach to business engineering — the intersection of strategy, finance, data, and execution that defines how SDCFO Group works with founders today.
Masters in Electrical Engineering and Digital Signal Processing.
Completed degree while working full time at General Electric.
Bachelor of Science in Electrical and Computer Engineering.
Graduated in 3 years with distinction while being a resident advisor, resident director and a founding member of Sigma Chi Fraternity.
Engineering and Management Training Program.
Where it started — an electrical engineering degree applied through GE's rotational program. The discipline of engineering and systems thinking that John learned at GE runs through everything SDCFO Group builds today.