Stan Zabolotsky
Verified Expert in Finance
Finance Expert
Singapore, Singapore
Toptal member since July 27, 2021
Stan worked on nine-to-ten figure M&A and IPO deals in New York and Toronto as an investment banker, turned around a public company as the CFO and COO, and invested venture capital funds into startups, helping them enter new markets in Southeast Asia. He has a bachelor of commerce, an MBA from the University of Toronto, and an accounting designation. Stan is currently investing in and building startups mainly in the fintech sector and joined Toptal to work on interesting projects worldwide.
Career Highlights
Education Highlights
Certification Highlights
Case Studies
Expertise
- Early-stage Venture Capital
- Financial Modeling
- Fundraising
- Market Research
- New Product Business Cases
- Pitch Presentations
- Strategic Planning
- Strategy
Work Experience
Fundraising Expert for eCommerce Company
Jamjar
- Created an operation and financial model for historical performance since business inception from scratch by instructing the founder on what data required and gathering it piecemeal, and building the model from the ground up.
- Created a highly granular forecast model to the level of product categories and traffic sources and structured it according to the eCommerce funnel, starting from search volume and impressions to revenue and profit.
- Built a functionality into the forecast model for the internal team to track its operational and financial KPIs at a very granular level and in a simple yet effective manner for managerial oversight.
Commercial Head of YTL Ventures
YTL
- Launched venture studio to explore venture building opportunities, leveraging the group's assets, customer bases, and capabilities.
- Conducted detailed discovery together with the head of design, head of product, and head of engineering into pain points internally and in the market to identify venture building opportunities.
- Focused on the transformation of the Edutech brand and the development of a new B2B marketplace.
Director, Head of Ventures
kipleX
- Launched a fintech product within two months and doubled monthly active users month-over-month.
- Performed two seed investments for mobility and fintech startups and spearheaded market entry initiatives for portfolio companies by liaising with authorities, partners, and sister companies.
- Devised the strategy and operation of a newly set up venture capital fund and commenced deployment into early-stage startups.
- Amalgamated several existing brands under one for a stronger value proposition and go-to-market approach, landing large urban-tech contracts with major real estate developers.
- Formulated a new value proposition, ROI model, and go-to-market strategy for kipleCity, a proptech venture, resulting in revenue quadrupling to RM8 million in 2021.
Finance Expert
Helicap Pte Ltd
- Provided feedback on an existing series B pitch deck and guided the top management on storytelling to help them position effectively in front of investors.
- Created the outline for a new series B fundraising pitch deck, painting a more accurate and compelling picture of the problem addressed by the company's solution, the size of the opportunity, unique value proposition, traction, and product features.
- Defined the content and copywriting of each slide, conveying the key messages to potential investors in an articulate and concise way to attract their interest and compel them to invest.
PE Advisor
Phousy Group LTD
- Guided the business development director in creating an investor presentation that was appealing to target investors for a 20.000-acre special economic zone in Laos in a very strategic location owned by a prominent conglomerate in Laos.
- Helped the business development director devise a fundraising strategy to raise money for the project and obtain valuable tenants to join the development.
- Advised the BD director on the sequence of deliverables that need to be accomplished, including finding a key partner (and which type of partner would make sense), strategy for reaching out to investors, and which investors to prioritize.
Financial Modeling Expert (Fintech/ B2B/Seed Round)
Modus Operandi Co. Tld
- Created a pitch deck and financial forecast for the company, working together with the product team, external designer, and CFO.
- Helped the company position itself well to investors by crafting a compelling storyline through the investment presentation. Made introductions to relevant investors. The result was a successful USD$ 1.2m seed round.
- Guided the company through a major pivot in product, strategy, and business model to focus on earned wage access together with payroll. This resulted in ten new corporate customers within one month of launch.
eCommerce Expert
Collate Beauty
- Helped the founder of an Asian startup beauty platform with customer segmentation and targeting.
- Devised an approach to determine go-to-market strategy, hypothesis testing, and validation by creating interview questionnaires and surveys.
- Guided the founder through business model creation and general strategy.
CFO and Venture Founder
Futurelabs Ventures
- Identified dozens of new venture opportunities across multiple sectors for Southeast Asia corporates—like Maxis, Sinarmas, and RHB—based on a detailed assessment matching corporates’ assets and aspirations with market opportunities and pain points.
- Founded FLV Studio, an in-house foundation and validation team that identifies venture opportunities and prepares them for seed fundraising from a targeted group of corporates.
- Was appointed CFO since COVID-19 outbreak to navigate the company safely out of the crisis–cut burn-rate by 20% within two months with no lay-offs, worked with the partners to revise the company growth model making it more sustainable and leaner.
CFO and COO
Ta Win Holdings Berhad
- Spearheaded the corporate turnaround of a publicly listed Malaysian manufacturing company, transforming it into a vertically integrated technology leader in the specialty cable market, targeting a diverse range of industries.
- Developed the group’s strategy and led organic and inorganic growth initiatives by raising over RM150 million equity and over RM100 million debt facilities through private and public sources to deploy into growth Capex and M&A.
- Restructured the company’s corporate, operational, and capital structure and expanded its market to China through a joint venture, increasing sales volume by 80% within one year and doubling the margin of base business by using recycled copper.
- Formed a new subsidiary via a joint venture in a vertical integration move downstream into the specialty cable market to expand margins from low single digits to double digits.
- Arranged two multi-billion-ringgit public-private partnerships with state governments to develop two 500-acre industrial parks on state land, with the aim of creating Malaysia’s largest copper recycling and manufacturing symbiosis.
- Managed the company’s PR and IR programs, including published interviews with national as well as international media, including CEO Magazine, The Edge, New Straits Times, The Star, and China Press.
Vice President of Business Intelligence and Finance
iPrice Group
- Built the business intelligence team and the finance team, ensuring optimal use of financial and operational data to inform key business decisions and support growth, resulting in traffic growth of 120%.
- Supported the CEO in all corporate development initiatives, including Series-B fundraising and M&A opportunities.
- Engaged in strategy formulation as a top management team member that includes five members out of 140 total employees.
Investment Banking Associate
BMO Bank of Montreal
- Led cross-functional and cross-border teams in the execution of live M&As, IPOs, debt and preferred share issuances in the insurance, asset management, banking, alternative lending, and fintech sectors.
- Participated in major transactions, including Economical Insurance IPO ($1.8 billion) and IGM Financial’s acquisition of a minority stake in China Asset Management ($647 million),.
- Worked on other major transactions like Aviva’s acquisition of RBC H&A Insurance ($582 million), bid for Aurigen Capital lost in the second round to PartnerRe ($375 million), and MCAP IPO ($275 million).
- Led recruiting efforts, including organizing and judging the annual BMO Stock Pitch Competition, participating in over five networking events per year, and interviewing over 20 candidates.
Financial Controller
Siemens
- Co-managed the around$40M BU providing energy distribution solutions to mining, oil and gas, and utility companies and co-managed over $1B in successful bids for energy transmission projects in less than a year.
- Raised offer hit-rate by driving effective commercial negotiations and strengthening relationships with strategic customers, which led to a revenue increase of 88% in 2011 and the Medium Voltage Global Top Growth Award.
- Revamped the go-to-market strategy to focus on profitable segments (EBIT > 10%) with growth potential while controlling SG&A and managing vendor relations to reduce COGS; received the MV Global Top Profitability Award.
Education
Master of Business Administration (MBA) in Investment Banking
University of Toronto - Toronto, Canada
Bachelor of Commerce in Commerce
University of Toronto - Toronto, Canada
Certifications
CPA
CPA Canada
Skills
Finance
M&A Modeling, Fundraising, Management Accounting, Accounting, External Financial Reporting, Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A), Debt Raises, Financial Modeling, Valuation Modeling, Forecasting, Revenue Modeling, Startup Funding, P&L Forecasting, Budgeting, Market Research, CFO, Total Addressable Market (TAM), Seed Fundraising, Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A), Controller, Business Intelligence (BI), M&A (Sell-side), Revenue & Expense Projections, Capital Raising, Project Finance, Credit/Debt, Series B
Industry Expertise
Financial Services, Venture Capital, Early-stage Startups, Real Estate, Building & Construction, Construction
Geographic Expertise
Asia, Asia-Pacific (APAC)
Other
Microsoft Office, Board Presentations, Strategy, Business Planning, Financing, Data Analytics, P&L Management, Business Cases, New Product Business Cases, Sensitivity Analysis, Case Studies, Operations Management, Cost Accounting, Strategic Planning, Lean Startups, New Products, Technology Trends, Fintech, Investment Funds, Investment Ideas, Business Development, Metals & Mining, Finance, Joint Ventures, Joint Venture Development, New Business Development, Investment Cases, Pitch Decks, Early-stage Venture Capital, Early-stage Funding, Business Models, Market Sizing, Business Plan Consulting, Market Research & Analysis, Pitch Presentations, Pitch Deck Consultant, SME/SMB Financing, Small & Medium-sized Enterprises (SME), Fintech Consultant, Customer Acquisition, Emerging Markets, Operations, COO, Chief Operations Officer (COO), Startups, Go-to-market Strategy, Product Launch, Government Contracting, Reporting, Financial Controlling, Controlling, eCommerce, Beauty Products, Business Strategy, Investments, Equity Investment, Business Modeling, Private Capital Markets
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