John Zdanowski is an electrical engineer turned startup CFO and 📝Philosofathergizer. John is attracted to companies with 📝Big Visions and positive 📝Unit Economics. To find the combination, he gives the gift of an 📝Integrated Financial Model — the methodology and toolset to understand all the systems and processes of a business simply, and to orient the team around what's relevant.
John is presently:
- Board Member of ShipCalm, an omnichannel operations and technology company;
- Co-Founder and Chairman of 📝Weekly Accounting and Co-Founder of 📝BrightZen Systems, where he builds the financial operating systems founders run their companies on;
- Founder, board member and investment committee member of 📝Assembled Brands.
Over the past decade John has been a founding investor and 📝Fractional CFO to 📝Robin Healthcare, 📝Amino and 📝Kachinga, and CFO advisor to 📝Trust & Will, 📝Crowdbotics, 📝Topia and others.
Previously, John was a founding board member of 📝Commission Inc ($240m sale to Fidelity National Financial), 📝RentJuice ($50m sale to Zillow), and Movoto ($25m sale to Recruit.jp).
John was CFO of:
- 📝General Assembly, a for-profit education organization sold for $412.5m in April 2018;
- 📝Second Life as it grew from $10m to $80m, where he managed one of the earliest and largest 📝Virtual Economies as the virtual fed chair;
- 📝HouseValues as it grew from $20m to $100m in revenue, where he led their $94m IPO in 2004;
- 📝Affinity Internet, a dot-com era roll up in the web hosting space which John also co-founded.
John lives on a family farm in San Diego with his wife of 25 years and three of his four children. The oldest has flown to Northern California to attend Stanford University. On the farm there are chickens, miniature cows, ponies, goats, dogs, solar panels, and flowers. Lots of flowers. We call it the Garden of zEden.
Education
- Master of Business Administration, Harvard Business School
- Master of Science in Electrical and Computer Engineering, specializing in Digital Signal Processing, 📝Syracuse University, while working in 📝General Electric's Edison Engineering Program
- Bachelor of Science in Electrical and Computer Engineering, 📝Clarkson University — graduated in 3 years with distinction
References
- John Zdanowski (website), zdanowski.com
- John Zdanowski, linkedin.com
- John Zdanowski, instagram.com