Hi, I'm Adam.

I grew up middle class with a duct-tape-fixes-everything mentality—the kind of upbringing that makes you resourceful whether you like it or not. Worked my way through college at the University of Minnesota's Carlson School, graduated magna cum laude in Finance and Economics.

After college, I landed in investment banking—specifically FIG, the most quant-heavy group, where 80-100 hour weeks were expected. Brutal, but formative. I got to build sophisticated models, work directly with CEOs and boards on IPOs and M&A, and found myself in the absolute epicenter of the 2008 financial crisis advising banks trying to survive (and some that didn't).

One client changed everything. I helped them raise a Series B from Silver Lake, and the CEO brought me on to lead corporate development and strategic finance. Over the next four years, we grew the business to over $100M EBITDA and filed our S-1. We were two weeks from an IPO when we got an acquisition offer with a 30-day diligence window. Those were intense days. We sold for nearly $2 billion.

That experience—building the plane while flying it, straight through to a unicorn exit—became the foundation for everything I do now. I spent the next six years helping startups raise capital and hit their next milestone.

Then I took a detour. I co-founded Village, a social network for families, trying to offer an alternative to what I saw Facebook and Instagram doing to teen mental health. Going up against trillion-dollar companies with massive network effects turned out to be exactly as hard as it sounds. Lessons learned. Many of them.

I got back to what I know: startup finance. But by that point, early-stage companies couldn't keep me fully engaged. That's when I founded StartupEdge—a fractional finance department where founders get a full team, not just a bookkeeper.

Four years in, I've built our systems and processes as close to perfect as the current tools allow. But I'm still not satisfied. Even with 15+ years of experience and custom-built models, founders still need more insight than their budget can deliver. That's why I'm building Whyzr—the tool I wish I had, and the one every founder needs to get instant answers instead of hearing "let me get back to you."

The answers to your financial questions already exist in your system. The problem isn't analysis—it's visibility. By the time a number reaches you, the context that would inform your decision has been stripped away.

I call this glass box finance—where any number traces to the transaction that created it. Instantly. Without asking anyone. Where "why?" is never followed by "let me get back to you."

I don't believe in gatekeeping. If I've learned something useful, I share it. That's why I write weekly and why I'm building tools that make this kind of visibility possible for founders who can't afford a full finance team.