Kelly Sickles

Boulder, CO, United States

Member since August 22, 2016

After an eighteen year financial career working with and advising some of NYC's most well-respected startups (Boxed, S'well) and on Wall Street (Lazard), Kelly moved to Boulder, CO and relaunched her consulting practice. She enjoys freelancing because it provides her the opportunity to meet so many fascinating entrepreneurs, investors, and lenders and allows her to leverage her experiences to help them maximize value from the mountains.

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Career Highlights

VP, Head of Finance
Boxed
SVP, Head of Finance
ThinkEco
VP, Investment Banking
Lazard

Academic Highlights

Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA)
CFA Institute
Bachelor's degree
Geneseo State College

Portfolio

Capital Structure and Financing Presentation
- Benchmarking
- Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A)
- Financial Modeling
- Valuation
Fundraising Presentation
- Financial Modeling
- Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A)
- Fundraising
- Investor Communications
Management and Board Reporting
- Financial Reporting
- Investor Communications
- Budgeting

Industry Expertise

Consumer Products
Energy
Technology
Venture Capital

Software Expertise

Bloomberg
Capital IQ
Microsoft Excel
Microsoft PowerPoint

Employment

Business and Financial Consultant
Common Hours, LLC
2011 - PRESENT
- Provided business and financial advice for many clients through the consulting practice Common Hours.
- Interim CFO for utility-focused SaaS company.
- Interim CFO for online retailer of fashion and mobile accessories.
- Interim CFO for S'well Bottle, which was named the fastest growing woman-owned business in 2015 by Forbes.
- Provided energy efficiency finance expertise a national engineering firm in their proposals to the NY Green Bank.
Focus areas: Interim CFO, Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A), Fundraising & Investor Communications, Investor & Board Presentation Development
VP, Head of Finance
Boxed
2015 - 2016
- Grew the company over 500% during my tenure as the head of finance. (Boxed is an eCommerce company that delivers the products consumers use every day to their door step in bulk sizes. Founded in 2013, it is backed by well-known VC investors such as DST (Yuri Milner), GGV Capital, Greycroft, Signia, and First Round Capital).
- Raised $100 million in Series C funding and successfully led the company through an intense strategic investment due diligence process performed by a Fortune 100 corporate development team.
- Secured over $40 million of commitments for an asset-backed credit facility and a sale/leaseback arrangement from new lending partners to finance growing working capital needs and cap-ex projects.
- Established KPIs and budgets for the core business, which included a sizable online and offline marketing budget, as well as diverse initiatives such as a private-label product launch, a multi-million warehouse expansion and automation project and a co-marketing effort with American Express.
Focus areas: Operations, Investor & Board Presentation Development, Financial Modeling & Valuation, Pricing Analysis, Fundraising & Investor Communications, Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A)
SVP, Head of Finance
ThinkEco
2011 - 2015
- Worked for ThinkEco, a leading provider of cloud-based energy efficiency and demand response solutions for residential, commercial, and utility applications. Founded in 2009, it is backed by prominent angel investors.
- Provided financial and operational support to scale a $4 million, award-winning program created in partnership with Con Edison that allows the utility to reduce stress on the grid and engage with its residential customers.
- Improved communication and transparency with investors, which facilitated $5 million in additional capital contributions, by providing financial reports outlining key accomplishments, risks, and opportunities.
- Charted a path to profitability and long-term success by ascertaining the true costs of existing/proposed products and ongoing service costs, evaluating new channels, developing effective pricing strategies, and renegotiating vendor contracts.
Focus areas: Operations, Financial Modeling & Valuation, Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A), Profitability Analysis, Cost Reduction & Optimization, Investor & Board Presentation Development
CFO and VP of Corporate Development
Noveda Technologies
2009 - 2011
- Worked for Noveda, a company founded in 2007 that develops and provides cloud-based data-analysis and monitoring solutions for renewable and conventional energy and water systems. I was hired by the angel investor to fundraise and position the company for growth.
- Authored a business plan and articulated a vision and value to the investment community. Pitched and won $4 million in milestone-based funding from the NJ Clean Energy Manufacturing Fund.
- Coordinated competency centers to identify potential alliances with the objective of developing OEM/licensing relationships, enhancing technology road map, opening new geographic channels, and improving internal processes.
- Managed business, financial, and technical due diligence for domestic and international alliances, negotiated valuations, prepared and executed legal documents, and led integration of teams.
Focus areas: Fundraising & Investor Communications, Mergers & Acquisitions, Financial Modeling & Valuation, Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A), Comparable Company Analysis
VP, Investment Banking
Lazard
2003 - 2007
- Structured investments across the capital structure of a boutique investment bank as its top-ranked associate and subsequent VP and provided acquisition financing, balance sheet restructuring, and capital structure advice to the firm’s clients.
- Performed financial and business due diligence, developed detailed financial models, evaluated strategic plans, and created investment memoranda and presentations.
- Originated, structured, and marketed over $1.5 billion of investments including bank loans, bridge loans, convertibles, private equity, PIPEs, public equity, and IPOs for clients across several industries.
- Worked with notable clients including: Minnesota Steel (dual-track project financing/M&A process resulting in $1.7 billion sale to Essar Steel), the ATSB (an office of the US Treasury on the sale of $750 million of airline debt), the SNPE (French, state-owned organization on the sale of $180 million shares of Dynamic Material), SUPERVALU (on $17 billion acquisition of Albertson’s with an investment group led by Cerberus), Golfsmith ($70 million IPO), Combinatorx ($40 million IPO), and Iconix Brand Group ($260 million equity raise).
Focus areas: Fundraising & Investor Communications, Fundraising Presentation Development, Financial Modeling & Valuation, Mergers & Acquisitions

Education

Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) in Financial Analysis
CFA Institute - New York, NY, USA
2003 - 2005
Bachelor's degree in Economics
Geneseo State College - Geneseo, NY, USA
1995 - 1998

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