dream. understand. grow.
Simple Startup was founded BY entrepreneurs FOR entrepreneurs.
about us
At one time or another, we’d all been entrepreneurs ourselves and had also spent years working with hundreds of entrepreneurs at a variety of accelerators including The Unreasonable Institute, Singularity University and the Nike sponsored Girl Effect Accelerator.
Time and again we saw incredible startups with mind-blowing vision and drive fail miserably or not scale as fast as they could because they lacked a good handle on their finances. They were making most of their decisions based on gut feel rather than hard data, and weren’t able to raise enough money because they hadn’t been able to translate their vision into numbers.
This made us sad and we don’t like being sad.
You’re kind of a big deal.
These amazing, world-changing ventures weren’t getting to change the world because no one was giving them the proper support they needed.
So we created Simple Startup where we help entrepreneurs simplify their finances, truly understand their numbers and make smart, informed business decisions.
In short, we take care of the boring sh&t so you can focus on what you do best – growing your business!
best team
Finance Experts
Lorne
Head Honcho
Verity
Fun Manager
Bert
Account Manager
Sarah
Head of Operations & Finance
Nick
Senior Accountant
Ariel
Staff Accountant
Dominique
Staff Accountant & Project Manager
Teri
Account Manager
Kosy
Operations Coordinator
Rachael
Ops & Marketing Whiz
Taylor
Fractional PR & Marketing Whiz
Justin
Growth Guru
Benjamin
Fractional Sales VIP
Cody
Fractional Sales VIP
Justin
Fractional Sales VIP
Viswa
Captain of Cash
Santosh
Captain of Cash
Rattan
Staff Accountant
Lorne
Head Honcho
Lorne loves finance so you don’t have to (seriously, he plays with Excel sheets on vacation!) He spent 12 years in corporate London as an investment analyst then made the jump to Boulder, Colorado to act as finance mentor to high impact companies at The Unreasonable Institute, Girl Effect Accelerator and Singularity University. He has an MBA from IE business school in Madrid, Spain (ranked 8th in the world) and is a Quickbooks Pro Adviser with a certificate in Advanced Financial Modelling from London School of Business and Finance. He used to be a professional ski racer, hates mushrooms and adores his two little girls, Amber and Lyla.
Verity
Fun Manager
Verity makes finance fun. From jargon buzzers to funny ice-breaker games, she's on a one-woman mission to make sure you're never bored. She also started a company in London that won the Yahoo! Finds of the Year 2009 and subsequently she was named one of the top 100 in the Courvoisier Future 500, ‘an elite network of the rising stars in the UK’ so is intimately familiar with the struggles of being an entrepreneur. She then spent 3 years at the Unreasonable Institute as their VP of Operations supporting incredible entrepreneurs, before joining Simple Startup where we also support incredible entrepreneurs! She has an MBA from IE business school in Madrid, Spain (ranked 8th in the world), loves to ski, kitesurf, bike, hike, dance..... (I know, we're exhausted just reading it) and most of all, adores going on mini-adventures with her kids.
Bert
Account Manager
Bert is a serial entrepreneur. He started multiple successful businesses ventures ranging from control room and furniture sales to real estate investments to movie theater operation. Due to the accounting complexity of dealing with such diverse ventures, he went back to school, earned his Master’s degree in accounting, and then passed the CPA exam, becoming a licensed Certified Public Accountant who could deal with it all himself. Bert is passionate about using his incredible experience to help other entrepreneurs succeed. He is both a morning person AND a night owl, loves every kind of outdoor sport imaginable, is still happily married to his high school sweetheart (awwww) and has 5 incredible kids, many of whom are entrepreneurs themselves.
Sarah
Head of Operations & Finance
Sarah joins the Simple Startup team after a long tenure at Boulder based Skirt Sports, Inc., where as President, she led the operations and finance, and grew the company from startup phase through its sale in 2020. More recently, she ran the operations and finance for the Colorado High School Activities Association. Vernon-Brunner has her MBA from the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Nick
Senior Accountant
Nick recently graduated from CU Boulder with a duel degree in finance and accounting. While studying at school, Nick got involved in the local startup scene and began helping entrepreneurs grow their businesses. Passionate about finance and accounting, Nick one day hopes to become a venture capitalist. He recently received his Quickbooks Online certification and is currently studying for the CFA. At the age of 14, Nick placed 8th in the United States games of America for the 100m butterfly. In addition to being a competitive athlete, Nick also practices classical guitar. He has performed on stage with many professional guitarists including William Kanengiser, Audra Vigil and Peter Li. In his spare time, he enjoys snowboarding with his friends and making independent films with his dad.
Ariel
Staff Accountant
Dominique
Staff Accountant & Project Manager
Dominique is a Colorado native who was raised in the metropolitan city of Taipei, Taiwan. She has traveled to over twenty countries including Israel, France, Scotland, Ireland, England, Thailand, Bali, Singapore, Australia, China and Japan. Alongside her jetsetter lifestyle, she enjoys binge watching Chopped, Cupcake Wars, and Forensic Files and is always up for a good dare. One time she ate a whole stick of deep fried scorpions at the Forbidden City in Beijing, and jumped off a thirty-foot cliff at Paradise Cove. She’s an accounting major at Leeds School of Business. If accounting wasn’t difficult enough, she also has a minor in Chinese and is proficient in not only speaking, but also reading and writing Chinese characters! What a rock star!
Teri
Account Manager
Teri was born and raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She received her BS in Business Administration with emphasis in Finance at Oklahoma State University (Go Pokes!). Teri landed her first accounting role after a short stint in the banking industry. She spent over a decade with that same company gaining knowledge and experience to work her way up through the ranks to become the Director of Accounting & Finance and working closely with the CFO. She earned her CPA in 2018, recently earned her QuickBooks Online certification, and has 15 years of experience in all levels of accounting including consolidation and multi-currency transactions. Outside the office, Teri still lives in Oklahoma with her husband, 3 kids, and 2 dogs.
Kosy
Operations Coordinator
Kosy was born in Nigeria, but was raised between Nigeria, France, and the U.S., and currently resides in Houston, TX. She graduated with a BBA in Finance/Personal Financial Planning from the University of Houston in 2019, and is currently pursuing a Master’s of Science in Finance at UH. Kosy has a passion for helping people, getting the job done right, improving processes for maximum efficiency, and making sure the client is always satisfied. In her (currently minimal) spare time she loves to read, hike, cook, dance, sleep, collect houseplants, and foster shelter animals. She looks forward to moving to Colorado after completing her Master’s degree in Houston.
Rachael
Ops & Marketing Whiz
Originally from Cleveland, Ohio, Rachael joined the ranks of the many “non-natives” in Colorado looking for adventure and an exciting career path. Following a deep passion for small business, she’s had the opportunity to work with companies in architecture, property management, managed services, business brokerage, and now financial services. With Simple Startup, Rachael helps maintain smooth sailing for the firm by providing support across a variety of functional areas and being game for all projects thrown her way. Rachael is a big fan of the three C’s (chocolate, coffee & cats) and most enjoys time spent reading, in the kitchen, or exploring the neighborhoods of Colorado with her husband. Rachael has a Master's Degree in Global Interactions and a Bachelor's Degree in Humanities from Cleveland State University and John Carroll University respectively.
Taylor
Fractional PR & Marketing Whiz
It took Taylor's family five years to understand that her career but boils down to telling journalists about the wonderful things businesses are doing so they'll be inspired to talk about it! Taylor has worked in media relations and marketing for over ten years in varied spaces including not-for-profits, professional services, restaurants, nightclubs, luxury resorts, gaming, and spas like Gordon Ramsay, Bobby Flay, Michael Mina, Jimmy Buffett, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Floyd's Barbershop, Wynn Las Vegas and Caesars Entertainment. For her clients, she has secured multiple placements in USA Today, San Francisco Chronicle, LA Times, Forbes, Travel + Leisure, Esquire, Robb Report, The Chew, The Talk, Entertainment Tonight, and ESPN among others. Taylor earned her Bachelor of Arts and Sciences from Washington University in St. Louis with a double major in Psychology & Brain Sciences, and American Culture Studies. To further boost her business acumen -- and better understand when Lorne starts to dig deep -- she earned her Certificate in Business Fundamentals from Harvard Business School. A Colorado native, Taylor enjoys hiking, exploring mountain towns, playing tennis, dining out, and prides herself on being able to pack for a two-week trip in a carry-on.
Justin
Growth Guru
Justin is a Midwest native who arrived in Colorado from Nicaragua, where he was living for the better part of a decade. He found himself in Nicaragua after completing his International MBA from IE Business School. While in Nicaragua, he built a community center network for the United States Embassy, evaluated the social and economic impact of footbridges for flood prone villages, and guided university groups on sustainability treks through the lakes and volcanoes which epitomize the Nicaraguan countryside. Justin is passionate about numbers, sustainability, and innovation. When he's not working on poverty solutions or summiting a volcano, he enjoys using his accounting super powers to turbo charge our client's businesses and impact on the world.
Benjamin
Fractional Sales VIP
Benjamin grew up in the Denver area and is currently based in Austin, TX where he attended the University of Texas. He has an extensive marketing background that began in his role as a business integrity analyst for Facebook’s incubation projects. As Instagram marketing moved into the international spotlight, he moved into the role of senior process executive and switched over to Instagram’s backend services team to assist businesses of all sizes. From there he joined the global customer experience team at Dropbox as a corporate trainer and built better onboarding practices for their customer service team in Athens, Greece. He also has an entrepreneurial side having run several small businesses including a wakeboard coaching business and a margarita machine rental company. This coincides with his passion for sharing the tools that Simple Startup provides to small businesses across the US as he truly believes these services could have been a game-changer for his previous entrepreneurial ventures. Beyond his career, he has a passion for snowboarding and wakeboarding and was fortunate enough to become a nationally recognized athlete when his college wakeboard team won a national championship in 2012. He has two basset hounds, Eeyore and Waffles, who love to help him explore the outdoors.
Cody
Fractional Sales VIP
Cody was born and raised alongside his five sisters in Houston, Texas, where he played every sport under the sun (not very well, but it counts!). He attended the Naval Academy in Annapolis for two years, before returning to Texas to finish school at Texas State. He stayed in the central Texas Hill Country after school (because who leaves the Austin area after they visit, right?), and now lives just outside of Austin with his wife and young son. He spent a few years in the Enterprise Rent a Car leadership program before moving into sales and leadership roles at various software companies and small businesses within their SEO programs. A love for helping small businesses thrive brought him to Simple Startup where he enjoys being part of the team and experiencing the enthusiasm that entrepreneurs bring to the table. Outside of work, Cody loves being a dad/learning how to dad, playing softball and tennis, dancing poorly yet enthusiastically, and hanging out with his two rescue pups Backpack and MoneyPenny.
Justin
Fractional Sales VIP
Justin is a Texas native born and raised in Austin. He has a sales background in the retail, admissions, and banking industries which has grown his passion for connecting businesses with each other to fulfill mutual needs and initiate growth. Because of this passion, Justin was thrilled to join the Simple Startup team in 2021 and help them grow and reach businesses in need of their accounting services across the US. Outside office hours, Justin has a plethora of activities that keep him and his fiancé, Amaree, busy including camping, working out, rooting for their favorite sport’s teams (Go Longhorns! Go Cowboys!), watching movies, and, of course, listening to music! Austin is the live music capital of the world after all.
Viswa
Captain of Cash
Viswa is a CPA who has been working with Startups and SMEs for the last 5+ years. He is a wizard at setting up books from scratch and has an unbelievable knack for cleaning up books, however messy they are (And trust us, sometimes they can be super messy)! He strongly believes in a client-first approach and is one of the most patient people I've ever met. He's happy to explain things in multiple different ways until even a child could understand Accounts Receivable! In his spare time, Viswa loves nothing more than to hang out with his two kids and take them swimming.
Santosh
Captain of Cash
Rattan
Staff Accountant
Rattan is a results-driven professional accountant with 4 years of extensive Big Four experience and an overall 6+ years of accounting, audit, taxation, and management experience with various clients. He has a proven track record of developing and implementing financial and operational initiatives, controls, and processes that improve business profitability, competitive position and legal compliance. Inspired by the concept of kaizen, and driven with the knack of making his present better than yesterday, he cleared uniform CPA exams in October 2020 and is pursuing CFA Level 2. During his free time, he likes to pen his thoughts on various aspects touching human life and can write poetry in four languages. He also serves as a volunteer for community and social services.
