Operating Partner to Founder-Led Companies

I brought John to Velarium our sales motion and build out our operations. John developed and executed a list of prioritized tasks exactly as I'd imagined. He advanced our controls and compliance, brought greater discipline to our vendor and contract practices, and tightened up financial and legal management.

Prior to John joining Synervoz, I was responsible for too many things that kept me from being able to grow the business (and sleep at night). Having someone who can wear multiple operational hats -- from HR and sales to project management and finance -- has been super helpful.

John has allowed me to spend more time on partnerships, sales, and product strategy, as well as reduced the anxiety that comes with being the only person looking after a really long list of critical tasks. John has been great at absorbing a big chunk of that list.

John’s clarity of vision, his drive to test out his assumptions, his creativity, and his openness to others drew me in and brought out some of my best thinking.

After working with John, I have learned to be a more efficient leader. Staying organized is essential to be successful, and the ideas and tools that were shared with me have proven to be invaluable.

It has been invaluable to the Board knowing that John is helping.

I can honestly say that John is a match made in heaven for our startup. Our CEO couldn’t have found a better partner. They complement each other perfectly, from their skills and experience to their personalities.

I feel his commitment to what we're building, and it carried us through a critical partner transition. John shaped our strategy and guided us onto a new path with long-term growth potential the company did not have before.

All in all [John’s contributions] led to more customers, a better product, and much better systems and processes to continue growing from.

John helped us to get through this uncertain yet pivotal period [in the life of the company].

John validated that we have the potential to succeed but also got us thinking and reevaluating our strategies.

John was instrumental in setting up much of the startup's organizational infrastructure.

John has been instrumental in navigating the organization through numerous transitions. His creation and implementation of strategies, practices and policies has ensured the smooth functioning of the team and financial office.

John effectively implemented previously non-existent structures for team communication/alignment, project management, legal obligations, finance, amongst other areas that streamlined not only how we do work but our thought process behind why we're doing it.

John participated in and provided invaluable insight to the product team around user research, innovation and marketing.

After our team brought John on board, I was hoping to help organize the many pieces of our organization. We are a smaller team with many people wearing many hats, which caused important tasks to fall between the cracks. John was able to pick up our office dynamics quickly and make the suggestions necessary to run more efficiently.

While we were doing okay before, we're far better armed to truly serve our customers in a way we didn't know to try before. It's made us more effective and efficient. We're spending time and money where it matters most and not where it wasn't serving a deeper purpose.

What's made the biggest difference for the business is how John does his work: sharing the weight of running the company as if it were his own.

John is one of the most self-motivated and yet collaborative people I have had the pleasure to work with. I enjoyed collaborating with John and continue to follow his career with interest.

John has a passion for helping people to surpass themselves.

John is always insightful and inspiring to talk to.

John’s thorough and inquisitive style makes sure that all angles are considered and therefore the best outcome achieved.

John is smart, hard-working, and a great team player. He is extremely well-organized and detail-oriented but also possesses a good grasp of the big picture and the broader issues at hand.

John is truly an exceptional coach.

John is a highly empathetic and emotionally-intelligent manager with a powerful arsenal of strategy and operational skills.

John has become an invaluable asset as our COO. His most outstanding gifts are his quick grasp of complicated issues … and his calm mannerism when things get chaotic. He is kind and a great team player who is always willing to help even if it is outside his work description.