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2,400+ Clients since 2001 • $4.3+ Billion Raised

Meet Our Business Plan Consulting Team

Cayenne Consulting’s business plan experts are second to none. We are experienced entrepreneurs and understand what you are going through. We have deep and broad experience in creating and executing upon business models of all kinds. We have a keen sense of what works in the marketplace and what doesn’t. Many of our consultants have MBAs or PhDs from schools like Harvard, Stanford, Berkeley, Wharton, Cornell, Columbia, and Chicago. We also have experts in market research, business model design, business valuations, SBA certifications, financial modeling, business turnarounds, and other fields.

Akira Hirai, CEO & Founder of Cayenne Consulting
Roger Anderson, Business Plan Consultant in Orange County and LA
John Beeby, Business Plan Consultant in Phoenix & Scottsdale
Brian Bohr, Business Plan Consultant in Los Angeles
DeForrest Borders, Business Plan Consultant in New York City
Nancy Clauss, Business Plan Consultant in Orange County and LA
Tom Dykstra, Business Plan Consultant in Tampa Florida
Paul Fiorello, Business Plan Consultant in Oakland
Jenifer Grant, Business Plan Consultant in New York City
Dan Hall, Business Plan Consultant
Richard Hasenpflug, Business Plan Consultant in Scottsdale Arizona
Shyam Jha, Business Plan Consultant in Tucson AZ
David Kaplan, Business Plan Consultant in Boston MA
Charlie Kickham, Business Plan Consultant in New York City
Jimmy Lewin, Business Plan Consultant in Phoenix & Scottsdale
Lee Muhl, Business Plan Consultant in Portland and Los Angeles
George Papaioannou
Julia Perederiy, PhD - Business Plan Consultant
Eric Pickens, business plan consultant in New York.
Michael Robbins - Business Plan Consultant in Seattle
Stephanie Tolosa - Business Plan Consultant in San Francisco
Wayne Trattles, business plan consultant in Sydney, Australia

Full Team Profiles

Akira Hirai, Business Plan Consultant

Akira Hirai - Founder & CEO
Orange County, CA

With over 30 years of experience in entrepreneurship, management, business planning, financial analysis, software engineering, operations, and decision analysis, Akira has the breadth and depth of experience needed to quickly understand entrepreneurs' businesses and craft the most suitable solutions.

Before founding Cayenne Consulting in early 2001, Akira started two Internet companies in Silicon Valley. Previously, Akira held various management positions in New York at Salomon Brothers, most recently as Vice President in Fixed Income Derivatives Trading, focusing on new business development and risk management. He has also worked as a senior financial risk management consultant to the financial services industry; software engineer; advertising sales manager for the popular Let's Go travel guide series; general manager of an advertising and graphic design agency; and engineering intern at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center.

Akira was a regular guest speaker on the topics of business planning, financial forecasting, and capital formation at the Phoenix chapter of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation's FastTrac entrepreneur training program and at various programs affiliated with Arizona State University (ASU). He mentored companies preparing to present before the Arizona Angels and the Arizona Venture Capital Conference (AVCC). Akira has also served on the Board of Directors for ITASA (Information Technology Association of Southern Arizona). He was named Entrepreneur of the Week in October 2000 by vCapital.com.

Akira earned his BA in Engineering Sciences from Harvard University.

View Akira's articles and client testimonials.

Please note that as Cayenne's CEO, Akira is no longer able to personally take on any new clients.


Roger Anderson, Ph.D., Business Plan Consultant

Roger Anderson, Ph.D. - Principal Consultant
Orange County

Roger offers over 35 years of experience in research, sales, marketing, product development, programming, and management to his consultant role. His training as a scientist (Caltech PhD, 1996 in Molecular Biology) increased his analytical skills and ability to break a problem down to the fundamental elements for analysis and presentation. His industry expertise includes Internet/e-commerce, database development, logistics, supply chain, immunology, vaccine development & distribution, medical device, In Vitro Diagnostics, pharmaceuticals, and detection systems. He has been an executive and fund-raiser for several startup companies. Roger has worked with over 60 established and startup businesses to develop business and revenue models, prepare business plans and investment memorandums, conduct valuations, discover new products, create strategic alliances, carry out due diligence, and raise private equity financing.

Roger has conducted negotiations and business deals across the US as well as in Europe, Japan, and China. He has dealt with the largest pharmaceutical companies, high-valued pre-IPO technology companies, and the smallest of startups. His pioneering work to create the first online purchasing system for lab supplies created connections he continues to use to discover new products and business opportunities. He has received standing ovations and awards for his presentations on entrepreneurship and is the author of "Maps for Modern Magellans: Charts for Captains of Commerce," aimed at technical entrepreneurs from the sciences and engineering.

Roger earned his BA in Biochemistry and Cell Biology from UC San Diego and his Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from the California Institute of Technology. He is fluent in SQL and Italian.

View Roger's client testimonials.


John Beeby, Business Plan Consultant

John Beeby - Principal Consultant
Phoenix, AZ

John has over 30 years of experience developing and executing strategies for new and growing businesses. With an engineering degree and early experience in manufacturing operations, he has a sound grounding in the production side of business. Later assignments in strategic marketing with Clorox and DHL supplied insights into how businesses need to focus on customer needs. General management positions with Clorox and Sealy demanded attention across all aspects of business. Since early in his career, John has focused on developing and executing business strategies that create sustainable, profitable growth. He had key roles in building the Kingsford Charcoal business for Clorox, the US air express business for DHL and the international mattress business for Sealy. He established and ran Clorox’s Canadian Business.

John’s senior management positions included President of Clorox Canada, Vice President of Marketing and Sales for DHL Worldwide Express, Vice President Marketing for Emery Worldwide and Vice President of Marketing for American Network.

He has worked with companies in such diverse fields as laundry products, air express, telecommunications, oral health, agricultural nutrients, pediatric urgent care, aircraft maintenance, drinking water treatment, rare earth minerals, air freight, voice messaging, mattresses, pet products, digital music, furniture, detergents, plastic bottles, nutraceuticals, oven cleaners and pool chemicals, among others.

John has a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering degree from Cornell University.

View John's blog posts and client testimonials.


Devin Berger, MBA, Business Plan Consultant

Devin Berger, MBA - Principal Consultant
Boston, MA

Devin has over 25 years of experience in marketing and senior management of emerging growth companies, startups, and global consumer products companies. She has advised companies in numerous industries, including cannabis and CBD; e-commerce and social media; fashion apparel, footwear, and accessories; music and entertainment; and various consumer products and services.

Earlier, she was the President of Apollo Eye Gear (performance sunglasses endorsed by Ken Griffey Jr.), CEO of Le Coq Sportif in Paris, France (athletic footwear and apparel), and President of an apparel startup. She was also the VP of Marketing and Sales for a telecommunications company that provided wireless phone services for low-income families in Tanzania, Africa.

Previously, she was the Director of International Marketing for Converse, where she managed the $200 million basketball category and doubled the sales and profits of the worldwide business. Earlier, Devin was the Director of Marketing and Communications for a billion-dollar commercial real estate development project and a Senior Tax Policy Consultant for Price Waterhouse.

Devin earned her MBA from Harvard University and her BA in Economics from George Washington University.

View Devin's articles and client testimonials.


Brian Bohr, MBA, Business Plan Consultant

Brian Bohr, MBA - Principal Consultant
Los Angeles, CA

Brian possesses over twenty years of experience in investment banking, corporate development, corporate finance, merger and acquisition advisory, financial planning and analysis, and venture investing. Brian has evaluated and written numerous business plans and financial models for clients and internal stakeholders, with an emphasis on media companies. He is passionate about working with business owners and entrepreneurs to assist them in achieving their goals, growing their businesses, and pursuing liquidity events.

Brian also consults with Genoa Partners, a boutique investment bank, specializing in sell-side advisory and capital raising for small and mid-sized companies. Brian was previously a Managing Director with the investment bank of William & Henry Associates and a Vice President of Transpac Media, a boutique financial advisory firm with an international client base of middle-market media and entertainment companies. During his career in investment banking, Mr. Bohr has advised clients in numerous industries, including consumer products, business services, technology, media, and manufacturing on mergers and acquisitions, capital raising, and optimal capital structuring.

Earlier in his career, Mr. Bohr worked in News Corporation’s corporate finance and development group, where he participated in numerous corporate financings, acquisitions, and divestitures, including the initial public offering of the Fox Entertainment Group, the acquisition of DIRECTV, and the sale of TV Guide. Mr. Bohr also worked for News Digital Ventures, a News Corporation subsidiary that made strategic venture investments in new media companies.

Brian began his career with Public Financial Management, the country's leading consulting firm to municipal debt issuers, where he structured over $3 billion of new bond issues and refinancing for clients such as the New Jersey Turnpike Authority, the Piedmont Municipal Power Agency, and the Turlock Irrigation District.

Brian holds a B.A. in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania and an M.B.A. from the UCLA Anderson School of Management. Brian is a passionate supporter of Philadelphia sports teams and the study of fine wines and has passed the Introductory Sommelier Course administered by the Guild of Master Sommeliers.

View Brian's client testimonials.


DeForrest Borders III, Business Plan Consultant

DeForrest Borders III - Principal Consultant
New York, NY

DeForrest has over 20 years of experience building businesses and driving strategic innovation in the consumer products, financial services, healthcare, higher education, media, and software industries. He focuses on strategic innovation, business and operating model improvement, investor management and governance, strategic partnerships to drive scale, ERP, and financial forecasts/modeling.

Growing businesses and improving operational efficiency have been hallmarks throughout DeForrest’s career. First, during 12 years at JPMorgan Chase, he founded Global Markets VentureLab, a $3 billion division incubating disruptive ideas. After VentureLab, DeForrest led the commercialization efforts of LabMorgan, the firm-wide new venture incubation and technology accelerator.

Since then, DeForrest has been a C-level executive at start-ups and turn-around situations. He understands the challenges of creating competitive advantages and driving new value streams within a broader environment of rapidly changing technologies and greater customer sophistication. DeForrest believes that advice and services for clients should not be “off-the-shelf” because value creation is unique to each company – based upon its culture, ecosystem of constituents, and capacity.

DeForrest has also provided his strategic thinking to the non-profit sector. He was a four-year board member of Teach for America New York, an organization widely recognized for its innovation in creating a national teaching corps of recent college graduates. In addition, DeForrest currently serves as Board Chair for Harvard Alumni Entrepreneurs New York.

DeForrest earned his A.B. in Government at Harvard University.


Nancy Clauss, Business Plan Consultant

Nancy Clauss - Principal Consultant
Orange County, CA

With more than 25 years of management, marketing, sales, and operational experience, Nancy Clauss has developed a sharp eye for how businesses can become bloated with inefficiencies, lack of direction, and miscommunication – and how they can be retooled to a sleeker, smoother, more strategically focused organization. As an entrepreneur who quickly built her own successful consulting business, Nancy also empathetically helps other business owners develop winning business models, create business and marketing plans, and attract the funding they need for growth.

Before joining Cayenne Consulting, Nancy had extensive experience working with dozens of entrepreneurs and as a serial business owner. She has consulted with and written business plans for distributor organizations, construction, service businesses,  and retail, as well as manufacturers. Nancy loves startups and entrepreneurial ventures, helping owners generate revenue, profitability, and sustain job and employee satisfaction. She has seen and experienced firsthand what works and what doesn’t. This unique perspective has given her the insight needed to assist owners and their teams to create business and financial models that drive growth and revenue.

In today’s marketplace, a company’s growth depends on working smarter, faster, and more competitively. This happens consistently when the four main pillars of business success are working together: Leadership based on a solid business plan, robust financial modeling, operations and systems for a smooth infrastructure, and sales and marketing generating and converting quality leads. Nancy believes it’s all about the proper application of tools, the effective use of resources, and nurturing the critical human element.

Nancy also leads Cayenne's SBA Certification consulting practice.

Nancy earned a BS in Liberal Studies from the University of California at Santa Barbara and holds a California Real Estate license.

View Nancy's articles and client testimonials.


Tom Dykstra, MBA, CFPIM, Business Plan Consultant

Tom Dykstra, MBA, CFPIM - Principal Consultant
Tampa, FL

Tom has over thirty years of experience in business planning, finance, strategy development, software design, engineering management, sales, marketing, channel creation, consulting, business modeling, decision analysis, capital acquisition, and new venture creation.

He is the co-founder of two ERP software companies: Effective Management Systems (ERP for discrete manufacturers) and EMS Solutions (ERP for automatic merchandising companies). Effective Management Systems appeared on the Inc 500 twice (28 and 37), acquired venture funding, and was taken public.

Before founding Effective Management Systems, he was with the Data Systems Division of AO Smith Corporation, a Fortune 500 diversified manufacturer. He was responsible for all financial and HR systems used by the corporation and the service bureau customers. He also founded the firm's small business computer line of business and the IT consulting practice.

He served on the board of directors of Synergex International, a software firm.

As an adjunct faculty member at Grand Canyon University and Arizona State University, he has taught graduate and undergraduate courses in strategy, supply chain/operations management, project management, information systems, statistics, business modeling, and decision analysis.

Tom has an MBA from the University of Chicago and a BA in Mathematics from Hope College. He is also a Certified Fellow of the American Production and Inventory Control Society.

View Tom's articles and client testimonials.


Paul Fiorello, Business Plan Consultant

Paul Fiorello - Principal Consultant
San Francisco, CA

Paul is a serial entrepreneur with 30 years experience in new venture creation. He was Founder or Co-Founder of three companies that successfully raised a cumulative $33 million in venture financing. He knows what it takes, from the entrepreneur’s perspective, to get from the idea stage to a funded and operating endeavor. His proven ability to form and execute business ideas makes him uniquely qualified to advise others in start-up strategy and approach.

Paul was Co-Founder and served as EVP of Hotelevision (The Hotel Networks). There, as part of a two-person team, he raised $32 million in venture and private equity financing for a national free-to-guest advertising media network. Hotelevision marketed and sold advertising time to advertisers of premium products and services across its ten ad-supported cable networks. Using its private satellite distribution system, Hotelevision integrated commercials targeted at hotel guests in over 300,000 four- and five-star hotel rooms across the country. The company was sold to Liberty Media Corporation.

Paul Co-Founded and served as President of Pinpoint Golf Advertising. This innovative place-based advertising business built a national network of golf facilities that offered premium advertisers access to the highly desirable golfer demographic. Over $350K of angel investment was raised to successfully launch the business.

Currently, Paul is Founder and President of Paul Fiorello, LLC where he has raised nearly $1 million in private and SBA financing for the purchase of electronickits.com.  This on-line e-commerce business retails electronic and robotic products to the educational and hobby markets. He manages all aspects of the business and has generated over $10 million in online product sales.

Paul’s past consulting projects include a cell phone spectrum licensing strategy, a document image processing software start-up, the technical roll-out of an image-enabled healthcare claims processing system, a business-case assessment for Galaxy Latin America (DirecTV), and an advertising sales strategy for an online classifieds business.

Paul earned a B.S. in Management from Babson College where he majored in Entrepreneurial Studies & Finance with a minor in Communications.

Read Paul's blog posts.


Jenifer Grant, MBA, Business Plan Consultant

Jenifer Grant, MBA - Principal Consultant
New York, NY

Jenifer has worked in finance, strategy, and marketing in various industries for over 15 years. In addition to third-party clients, she developed plans and implemented strategies for internal new businesses within IT and investment banking during the corporate phase of her career. Jenifer's clients range from startups through high middle market companies in fields including IT, software, green tech/renewable energy, telecom services, wireless, financial services, Internet/e-commerce, media/entertainment, healthcare products and wellness, consumer and industrial products, retail, mining, commodities, energy, and tourism.

Before working as an independent consultant, Jenifer structured and managed transactions in global merchant banking and derivatives, and held strategic planning and management positions within investment banking and IT functions at Bankers Trust Company. Earlier, she worked in credit corporate finance at Manufacturers Hanover and portfolio strategy, equity, and fixed income research at Kidder Peabody.

Jenifer has an MBA in Finance from Wharton and a BA in Economics from Columbia.

View Jen's client testimonials.


Daniel Hall, MBA, MSE, Business Plan Consultant

Daniel Hall, MBA, MSE - Principal Consultant
San Francisco, CA

Dan is a technology industry executive with over 25 years of organizational leadership, emerging growth, turnaround, sales, and marketing experience in both Fortune 100 and start-up environments. In addition to his role at Cayenne Consulting, he was recently the acting head of marketing and sales for Scepter, Inc., an atmospheric intelligence company focused on providing real-time global air pollution monitoring and value-added services.  Dan also leads Newton McCrae, a strategy consultancy focused on business transformation.

Earlier in his career, Dan was President and a co-founder of Teleos Media, a broadcast-quality live and on-demand Internet video streaming platform. Previously, Dan served as Senior Vice President of product strategy and business development at Comcast. Before that, he was Vice President of business development and strategy at AT&T, where he led the development of emerging services including mobile apps, TV everywhere, managed home networking, MVNO, and others.

As an organizational and general management leader, Dan built and ran a $140 million enterprise business at Vodafone/AirTouch, where he implemented a service excellence strategy and captured two-thirds of competitive customer bids at a price premium.

Throughout his career, he has led transformations in retail & enterprise distribution, operational excellence, customer experience, and pricing that created over $1.6B in shareholder value.

He received his MBA from Stanford and MSE and BSE degrees in Operations Research from The University of Michigan.


Richard Hasenpflug, MBA/MIM, Business Plan Consultant

Richard Hasenpflug, MBA/MIM - Principal Consultant
Phoenix, AZ

Richard has been bringing Fortune 100 expertise to startups and small to mid-sized businesses since 1985. He is both a consultant and serial entrepreneur and has participated in several startup teams either as CEO or CFO. After an extensive career in Silicon Valley, he relocated to Arizona in 2008.

Richard has worked with clients spanning a variety of industries, both domestically and overseas, including healthcare, high-tech market research, international trade, multinational operations & marketing, offshoring, publishing, semiconductor equipment, supply-chain management, and telecommunications.

Richard's focus internationally has been on building strong multi-national teams and bringing the lessons learned in Silicon Valley to other industries and countries. He was active in Russia during the 1990s, working with privatized state-owned companies and supporting local startups and multinational joint ventures. He also led the creation of a worldwide trading network focused primarily in Europe.

Prior to 1985, Richard held a variety of management, development, finance and marketing positions in international and high-tech companies. Based in Singapore, he was Director of Finance and Corporate Credit for Monsanto Corporation's Asian operations for several years, establishing corporate risk levels throughout the region and actively working with and supporting customers. Richard has served as an officer and/or director of several industry associations and non-profit organizations. He was named Los Altan of the Year in 2002 for his many years of work in support of local education, worldwide AIDS education, and international understanding.

Richard earned an MBA in International Management from the Thunderbird School of Global Management, a BA in History from The Ohio State University, and graduated from the Marketing Management Executive Program at Columbia University's Graduate School of Business.

View Richard's articles and client testimonials.


Shyam Jha, MBA, Business Plan Consultant

Shyam Jha, MBA - Principal Consultant
Tucson, AZ

As a consultant and mentor to entrepreneurs, Shyam has created business plans, financial models, and pitch decks for startups in robotics and drone transport, medical devices, consumer apps for iOS and Android, healthcare apps, hospitals, renewable energy projects, cloud services, and professional sports.

Shyam is certified as a Business Model Design Coach by Alex Osterwalder’s Strategyzer Institute. He leverages three decades of international corporate, entrepreneurial, and executive education experience to help entrepreneurs and enterprise clients develop compelling business models and plans, as well as to conduct business turnarounds.

Shyam gained international business experience at Fortune 100 companies such as Schlumberger, Hewlett-Packard, and Nortel. Later, he was the first Vice President of Marketing at Corvis, an optical networking startup funded by Kleiner-Perkins, New Enterprise Associates, and Cisco, where he played a key role in its $1.1 billion IPO. He has worked as a Venture Partner at Mercator Capital, an early stage fund based in Virginia. He is also a limited partner in a technology-focused venture fund in Silicon Valley.

Shyam has taught executive MBA courses on innovation and corporate strategy, as well as undergraduate courses in operations and engineering management at the University of Arizona's Eller College of Management and College of Engineering. He has won three "Professor of the Year" awards for teaching excellence. He was an Entrepreneurship Scholar at the McGuire Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Arizona, where he mentored student entrepreneurs. Shyam leverages his teaching experience to lead Cayenne's Executive Education practice.

Shyam is passionate about aviation. He is a commercial pilot, aircraft owner, and a flight instructor (airplane, instrument). He is a member of the Board of Directors of Cirrus Owners and Pilots Association.

Shyam earned his MBA from Oregon State University and holds a Bachelor of Technology degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi.

View Shyam's articles and client testimonials.


David Kaplan, JD, Business Plan Consultant

David Kaplan, JD - Principal Consultant
Boston, MA

David has written investment-grade business plans, consulted in strategic planning, and facilitated crucial strategy decisions for operating companies since 1994. He has advised scores of scientists, doctors, researchers, inventors, and business innovators in turning nascent ideas into concrete, executable business plans. Client engagements have included medical devices, biotechnology and early-stage drug development, elder care, healthcare, consumer products and services, software, Internet, high tech, fish farming, automotive products and services, publishing, and others.

Earlier, David founded several successful startups. At DSK Cars in Marblehead, Mass, his team manufactured custom sports/racing cars of David's design by hand from raw materials. He later founded PoleStar LLC, a consultancy to entrepreneurs; Your Auto Expert, an alternative Internet-based car retailer; and Purgatory Cove Press, publishing fishing guidebooks he wrote about Middlesex County, Massachusetts. David served seven years as an affiliate of Boston University's Healthcare Entrepreneurship Program and taught Entrepreneurial Management at BU's School of Management.

Before that, David consulted to the worldwide auto industry at Temple, Barker & Sloan; served as General Counsel and Director of Marketing at Callaway Engineering; and litigated on behalf of Native Americans in state and federal courts.

David earned a Phi Beta Kappa and BA Magna cum Laude at Amherst College and a JD with honors from Harvard Law School.

View David's articles and client testimonials.


Charlie Kickham, MBA, Business Plan Consultant

Charlie Kickham, MBA - Principal Consultant
New York, NY

Charlie offers over 20 years of experience in finance, strategic partnership development, organizational restructuring, real estate development, and business development to Cayenne Consulting. Charlie's experience extends from Wall Street to startups, delivering large-company fiscal and operational discipline to emerging companies whose structures are most fragile in their early years. Operating both in the trenches as an entrepreneur and on the outside as an investor/advisor, Charlie understands the needs and demands of each. His experience lends itself well to startups' quest for capital and the need for sound judgment in getting their business off the ground. This includes organizational management, operational strategies, process and technology roadmaps, revenue and cash flow projections, financial models and forecasts, legal and capital structures, advisory board and ramp-up strategies, technology development, and team building.

Charlie's core financial strength blends operational efficiency with a mandate to improve existing structures and best practices continuously. Such strengths were evident at TD Waterhouse, where Charlie helped develop the firm's global treasury operations and then rose to the leadership of one of its most profitable and critical business units, directing strategic/operational planning, financial forecasting, budgeting, securities lending, firm funding, cash management, and risk management initiatives, with ultimate responsibility over the firm's cash maximization. Charlie employs such tactics in the startup environment where the early years of launching are some of the most critical.

Charlie has been, and continues to be, a founding member of multiple Internet startups in many fields. He is also the Managing Partner at Avos Holdings, focusing on opportunistic investments in real estate and corporate finance.

His business planning experience spans Internet & mobile, social media, SaaS, sports, restaurants, bars, hospitality, retail, real estate & construction, gyms, spas, manufacturing, education, financial services, media & entertainment, apparel & accessories, consumer products, and more.

Charlie holds MBA degrees from New York University's Stern School of Business and the London School of Economics. He mentors at NYU's Berkley School of Entrepreneurial Studies and at entrepreneurial programs involving inner-city New York City high school students.

View Charlie's articles and client testimonials.


Jimmy Lewin, Business Plan Consultant

Jimmy Lewin - Principal Consultant
Phoenix, AZ

Jimmy's experience includes over 40 years in international, commercial, and investment banking. He also spent nearly a decade as the principal shareholder and CEO of a rapidly growing manufacturing and distribution business in California. Before joining Cayenne Consulting, he served in an advisory role to the National Science Foundation, providing recommendations on funding SBIR/STTR grant proposals. Today, Jimmy spends his time advising and consulting with entrepreneurs on matters related to business planning, capital markets, and funding strategies.

He works with clients in real estate, construction, senior care, retail, spas, salons, financial services, franchises, consumer products, hospitality, entertainment, education, recreation, manufacturing, healthcare, B2B services, software, import/export, transportation, and logistics. In addition, Jimmy has worked with clients worldwide as the leader of Cayenne's Immigration & Investor Visa business planning practice. He is proud to have extended Cayenne’s reach to entrepreneurial clients in Africa and the Middle East.

Jimmy has served on several Advisory Boards for emerging companies that have raised capital or embarked on other strategic initiatives. In his work, he strongly believes in the importance of customer acquisition, customer retention, and understanding the financial consequences of every business activity.

During his 20 years at Security Pacific Bank, Jimmy served in several senior management positions in the U.S. and internationally. Applicable assignments included funding the institution's subsidiaries and affiliates domiciled outside of the U.S., general management of two overseas affiliates, and general management of the bank's California staff departments.

He served as President, Director, and CEO of Guardian Bancorporation, Los Angeles, California, for two years. Jimmy has extensive senior management and Board of Director experience. He graduated from the University of Cincinnati and earned a B.A. in Political Science.

View Jimmy's articles and client testimonials.


Randy Lewis, CFA, CVA, Business Plan Consultant

Randy Lewis, CFA, CVA - Principal Consultant
Los Angeles, CA

Randy has been a private consultant for over 15 years – with deep experience in business valuations and appraisals, business plan development, and capital markets consulting, as well as strategic planning, CFO services, and corporate finance.

As a generalist, Randy has extensive experience working with Internet and tech companies, including SaaS and mobile app businesses, and professional service companies including health care practices, physicians, and attorneys. He has also worked with magazine publishers, light manufacturing, beverage distributors, medical device distributors, retail, and restaurants.

Valuation and business plan clients have ranged in size from startups to public companies with sales in excess of $100 million. Randy has been a Certified Valuation Analyst since 2010 and a Chartered Financial Analyst since 1999. He has prepared valuations for estate planning, tax matters, mergers, and business and marital dissolutions.

He received his Bachelor’s Degree in Finance with honors from California State University, Fullerton, an MBA from the Anderson School of Management at UCLA, and earned the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation in 1999 and the Certified Valuation Analyst (CVA) designation in 2010.  Randy has had several articles published, most recently, “DLOM for Fractional Interests in Real Estate Partnerships: A Common Sense Approach”, published in the May/June 2014 issue of The Value Examiner.  He has also served as interim and acting CFO of several companies, both public and private.  

 


Lee Muhl, JD, Business Plan Consultant

Lee Muhl, JD - Principal Consultant
Portland, OR

Lee Muhl’s consulting practice spans a number of industries and sectors.  Lee works constantly in real estate, cannabis/agribusiness, and Internet content platforms, but his practice over the past decade has included a wide variety of advanced technologies, AI, mobile solutions, blockchain, energy/resource opportunities, and related funds and investment plans.

Lee is an experienced attorney, a former partner in two prominent Los Angeles transactional law firms, a former NASD securities licensee (Series 7 and 63), a former California Real Estate Broker, a three-time CEO and a two-time COO.   

Lee is often consulted on Internet technology concepts and has worked on digital solutions, fintech, SaaS/PaaS, digital currency, encryption, mobile solutions, digital entertainment (e.g., a $1 billion project in tandem with top US theater chains, JP Morgan and Blackstone Equity), digital content delivery (e.g., film/TV/video delivered over OTT platforms), VFX, AR, VR, production management, virtual performance, and digital entertainment venues.  He has recently advised on several large-scale themed real estate/entertainment/amenity concepts with overall funding of nearly $1 billion.

Lee works in these fields as a Principal Consultant with Cayenne Consulting, LLC – focusing on early-stage innovations and companies in growth mode -- creating investment plans, market opportunity and feasibility studies, financial forecasts and “safe harbor” investment documentation for C-suite executives, entrepreneurs, vendors, distributors, and funders.  

Lee holds a B.A. in History from the University of California at Los Angeles and a J.D. from the UCLA School of Law, where he served as a member and Senior Editor of the UCLA Law Review.

View Lee's articles and client testimonials.


Werner Nennecker, Business Plan Consultant

Werner Nennecker - Principal Consultant
Germany

Werner works with new management teams to develop a clear path to achieving their personal objectives for starting the business. By creating an accurate understanding of their market and designing a business model to serve it, management can improve their odds, reduce the investment needed to launch, shorten the timeline, and avoid burnout.

"Successful businesses, growth initiatives, and turnarounds start with a clear understanding of the market, competition, current strengths and weaknesses, and a business model that connects each of these with business objectives. Collectively they form the foundation of your business plan. All that's left is execution - sounds simple, but it's not."

In his experience, management teams often suffer from Confirmation Bias, false confidence based on limited knowledge beyond their specific expertise, and a lack of consensus on how to move forward.  Early decisions, or the lack of them, can send a company down the wrong road.  Some recover, but many run out of cash before developing a story relevant to customers and investors.

For over 35 years, Werner has founded and managed private and international public companies in various industries, including manufacturing, natural resources, and the tech sectors.  During that time, he and his teams have secured over $700 million to execute international growth and diversification programs in Europe, North and South America, The Middle East, and Australia.

Werner often works with Startup Accelerators and Investment Funds filling interim management roles or working with portfolio companies to develop and execute go-to-market strategies. Recent examples include Fintech, Industrial Robotics, Carbon Sequestration, Medical Cannabis, Hospitality, Clean Energy, and Social Networking Platforms.  

View Werner's client testimonials and articles.


Tim O'Connor, MBA, Business Plan Consultant

Tim O'Connor, MBA - Principal Consultant
St Augustine, FL

Tim O'Connor is a tremendous asset to our Consumer Products practice area and brings the innovation and passion of a proven entrepreneur plus the enormous volume of results from his classic brand marketing experiences on some of the world's best-known brands including Betty Crocker, Tropicana Juice, Coors, Star Wars, and many more.

With more than twenty years of experience in traditional consumer marketing, Tim is a hands-on leader in product development, strategic planning, sales management and operations issues. As an executive leader, Tim has built a reputation as a marketing & sales driven executive in corporate turnarounds and brings a level of analysis and urgency to strategic decisions facing large and small organizations. Tim has developed countless strategic plans and presentations in such areas as marketing strategy, business model innovation, consumer research, channel management, new product development, brand renewal and product launches to name a few.

Tim is also the Founder of Brightspot Brands, the company he created to focus on the emerging functional candy segment. His company created the world's first healthy candy brand known as gimme. The brand featured great tasting, premium chocolate candy packed with nutrition like real dairy calcium, Omega3 from flaxseed and probiotics. The business was sold to a strategic investor in 2010.

Tim earned his undergraduate degree in Economics at the University of Minnesota and earned his MBA from the JL Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University with an emphasis in Finance and Marketing.

View Tim's client testimonials.


George Papaioannou, CFA, MBA, Business Plan Consultant

George Papaioannou, CFA, MBA - Principal Consultant
Los Angeles, CA

George has three decades of experience developing, analyzing, evaluating, and executing business models from investment and operational perspectives. He leads Cayenne's startup and business valuation practice.

George spent most of his career on Wall Street, valuing equity securities and positioning investment opportunities with institutional investors. As a research analyst for Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, he covered the media & entertainment sector. George was central in executing public offerings and M&A transactions at DLJ. As product manager for Thomas Weisel Partners, George oversaw all aspects of the equity research department's daily output. He collaborated with the firm's research analysts to develop thematic investment ideas and position them with appropriate investors. George was a member of TWP's Research Review Committee, which reviewed and approved stock rating changes. As a management consultant for IBM Global Services, George specialized in the development and execution of Internet strategies for Global 2000 media & entertainment companies. At online music retailer CDNOW, he formulated a strategy and business model for selling digital downloads.

George holds a BA in History from Cornell University and an MBA in Finance and Media Management from Columbia Business School. He holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation. George is a member of the New York Society of Securities Analysts (NYSSA) and the CFA Institute.

George is an Adjunct Professor in the MBA program at Rider University. George is an Advisor for Tigerlabs Ventures, a Princeton, NJ-based venture capital fund and accelerator program. He is a member of the Entrepreneurial Sounding Board of the Eugene Lang Entrepreneurship Center at Columbia University.

View George's client testimonials.


Julia Perederiy, PhD, Business Plan Consultant

Julia Perederiy, PhD - Principal Consultant
Los Angeles

Dr. Julia Perederiy is a Neuroscientist, Business Strategist, and Entrepreneur, with a decade of experience as a healthcare management consultant, life science company founder, senior executive, and board member. Julia has built her career on the premise of effective, multi-dimensional storytelling: helping clients communicate/illustrate ideas, understand target market(s), and competitively position products/portfolios/R&D. She has worked with academic faculty, early-career founders, seed-funded biotech companies, global pharma, and private investment funds. Client engagements have included drug development, medical devices, rare diseases, psychedelic medicine, AI-driven drug discovery & repurposing, medical foods, botanicals, cosmetics, and nutraceuticals.

Leveraging her diverse background and breadth of knowledge, Dr. Perederiy applies unique insights to evaluate company fundamentals and strengthen market positioning at both macro- and microeconomic levels. Specializing in biotechnology, Julia is acutely aware of current trends and key indicator variables, which inform her bottom-up financial models and profit/loss forecasts, useful for founders and investment funds alike. Her business plans and pitch materials have raised a cumulative sum of $20 million. Her in-depth market analyses have informed high-level strategic decisions in global pharma companies. Her scientific ideas have received grant funding from private and government organizations, including Michael J Fox Foundation and the National Institutes of Health. She served as an Industry Expert at NIH's I-Corps program for SBIR grant recipients. Recently, she secured Orphan Drug status in US and EU for psilocybin in fragile X syndrome. 

On a personal note, Julia is a musician, painter, and aerial artist with a passion for helping the body heal itself. One output of her creative energy is Om Biome, Inc. – a Los Angeles-based healthcare company that makes microalgae botanicals for regenerative personal care. As a female entrepreneur, Julia is familiar with the founders journey and has access to the local network of incubators, advisory programs, and investment groups. 


Eric Pickens, MBA, Business Plan Consultant

Eric Pickens, MBA - Principal Consultant
New York, NY

With over 20 years of experience as a COO, CFO, and board member, Eric has implemented, strengthened and led the financial and operational functions for companies engaged in investment management, real estate, business services, consumer products, food production, and hospitality. He possesses a comprehensive knowledge across all corporate finance, accounting, audit, tax, and financial reporting functions. He also has extensive experience in structuring and closing equity, debt, merger, acquisition, and lease transactions.

In the role of entrepreneur, Eric has successfully launched several startups including TechSpace, The Core Club, and Workhouse NYC. He is very experienced at developing business plans and financial models, raising capital from both angels and institutions, recruiting and managing teams as large as 240, and implementing robust financial & accounting systems.

As a consultant, Eric has worked with companies operating in a wide range of industries. He is extremely adept at identifying the key drivers behind a venture’s success as well as the potential issues that management must prepare to tackle in order to accomplish its goals. Eric is a member of Cayenne's business turnaround practice.

Eric received an MBA in finance from the Columbia University Graduate School of Business and a Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration from The College of William & Mary.


Michael Robbins, Business Plan Consultant

Michael Robbins - Principal Consultant
Seattle, WA

Michael Robbins has over 25 years of experience in financial services and he has contributed to the capitalization of 500 companies that raised hundreds of millions of dollars. As an investor relations account executive on Wall Street, Michael introduced dozens of public company CEOs to hundreds of brokers, analysts, and fund managers. He helped his clients refine their presentations while gaining insights into the scrutiny applied by some of the nation's leading financial analysts.

Michael launched and managed a hedge fund before departing New York for Sydney, Australia, where he traded the fund and started a new investor relations agency. He has worked in an array of verticals with a specialty in technology, real estate, and socially responsible investing. While Down Under, he initiated analyst earnings call webcasts for some of Australia's largest companies, supported by his colleagues in the States who started the industry that ultimately led to Regulation FD.

He programmed some of the world's first investor relations websites in 1995 and taught Wall Street's budding Internet analysts about some of the finer points of cookies and encryption. Thus it was inevitable that Michael would start his own Internet business, ZeroKlix, which eventually would stream about half the online radio in Australia. Returning to his strengths in critical analysis, he began writing strategic business plans, valuation reports, and PPMs full time in 2002. He has since added management consulting, cinematic investor presentations, and SEC filings to his repertoire.

Michael holds a BS in Economics from the University of Colorado, with substantial coursework in Journalism, complemented with accounting from New York University.

View Michael's client testimonials.


Stephanie Tolosa, MBA, Business Plan Consultant

Stephanie Tolosa, MBA - Principal Consultant
San Francisco, CA

Stephanie Tolosa is the Chief Operations Officer at Skylight Studios, an innovative real estate consulting firm known for hosting New York Fashion Week (2015-2017) and revitalizing Bleecker Street in Manhattan. In this role, she is responsible for developing company strategy and launching new business lines. In addition, she is responsible for various corporate functions including Analytics, Tools & Reports, Business Development, Strategy, Finance, Human Resources, IT, and Office Operations. In her tenure at Skylight, she launched the strategy and research function, successfully advised an equity buy-back, and closed negotiations on several key contracts including the company’s most profitable venue for 2018.

Prior to Skylight, Stephanie worked in Merchandise Analytics at One Kings Lane, the online furniture retailer, where she worked on assortment planning, product exposure strategies, and pricing and inventory management. She led defining retail metrics and implementing processes across the organization.

Prior to joining OKL, Stephanie was a management consultant for Bain & Co. She also completed a 2-year finance rotational program at General Mills and worked in Corporate Strategy for Iron Mountain.

She earned an MBA from the Amos Tuck School at Dartmouth College and a Bachelor of Arts with distinction in Economics from Yale University. At Yale, she captained the Women’s Varsity Tennis team and was a 4-year starter in both singles and doubles.

She competes in national tennis tournaments with her father. The duo has won 9 national championships. She loves cooking good food and traveling. She has lived in Hyderabad, India and Mexico City.

View Stephanie's articles.


Wayne Trattles, BCom CA, Business Plan Consultant

Wayne Trattles, BCom CA - Principal Consultant
Sydney, Australia

Wayne joined Deloitte Consulting in Sydney after graduating from Bond University. His specialties include business development, sales pitch development, business case modelling, capital raising, M&A transaction support, and business planning throughout the Asia-Pacific region.

His early career focus was revenue assurance for telecom service providers, in the then newly deregulated Australian market. As part of the Deloitte Telecommunications & Media Team, he spent many long nights with service providers mapping out internal revenue assurance processes. During his time with Deloitte he completed his CA accreditation and earned a diploma in Mandarin at Beijing University.

Wayne's experience with startups began in the corporate arena at SingTel Optus. Most of his time was invested in business case development for over 10 corporate New Technology Introduction (NTI) projects, the largest of which was the introduction of Virgin Mobile to the Australian market. Following SingTel Optus, Wayne joined his first non-corporate startup project, ReelTime. ReelTime's seed funding was via an IPO, so he had to learn the hard way how to deal with public relations, investment community, and operational deliverables in "real-time." As COO, Wayne built the organisation from ground up, and delivered the world's first download-to-burn IPTV service. After successfully completing the startup, ReelTime was sold to competitor, EzyDVD. His experience spans CFO/COO roles in a variety of publicly listed microcaps where he has completed 4 capital raisings, 3 M&A acquisitions and 1 M&A divestment. His experience extends outside the commercial function. Wayne has hands-on sales business development, working as a Strategic Account Manager for Cisco Systems where he is one of the few qualified accountants to earn Cisco Sales Champion (top 10% of global sales people).

Wayne is an active angel investor, focusing on early stage in the IT&T and renewable energy sectors. He is a foundation investor in Sunfunder, AESquared, and Graficly.


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