Matt Fondacaro
Verified Expert in Management Consulting
Management Consulting Expert
New York, United States
Toptal member since July 8, 2026
Matt is a finance and investment consultant who began his career in investment banking and now runs a real estate advisory firm. He has underwritten, structured, and modeled over $3 billion across development, acquisitions, and credit, and advises operating businesses on growth and cost. He builds institutional models from scratch and turns complex numbers into clear recommendations clients can act on.
Career Highlights
Case Studies
Self-storage Roll-up Strategy
Branded Residence and Hotel Development (Miami)
Global Food and Beverage Cost and Growth Strategy
Branded Residence and Hotel Development (Houston)
Software Expertise
- Microsoft Excel
- Microsoft PowerPoint
- Microsoft Word
Other Expertise
- Claude Code
- Deal Structuring
- Debt Structuring
- Financial Modeling
- Investments
Work Experience
Co-founder, Principal
SKEF Capital Management
- Co-founded a real estate advisory firm with a pipeline of over $1 billion across development, asset repositioning, and a credit lending platform.
- Built the underwriting model and capital structure for a $500 million ground-up branded residence and hotel development in Miami.
- Modeled a $600 million ground-up branded residence and hotel development in Houston from feasibility through financing strategy, pressure testing the plan across scenarios for lenders and investors.
- Advised a global food and beverage company with 30+ venues across five continents on cost consolidation and growth strategy.
- Led all financial modeling, deal structuring, and execution, including the investment memos and term sheets used to raise capital and close transactions.
- Advised a Phoenix-based family office on a self-storage roll-up, running market screening, acquisition underwriting, and returns before structuring a cash-out refinancing that returned capital and funded further buying.
- Priced the for sale residences on the Miami development with a regression on comparable sales, isolating how floor, view, unit size, and amenities drove price per square foot.
- Extended the same underwriting discipline to operating businesses, evaluating growth and cost decisions, and where each dollar of capital earns its best return.
- Structured programmatic equity and credit partnerships with capital partners and co-investors to fund the firm's pipeline.
- Authored the investment memos and term sheets used to raise capital and close deals.
Portfolio Management Vice President
Rialto Capital
- Owned the portfolio models behind a $1.5 billion debt fund and a $300 million property fund, projecting net LP returns and driving fund reporting.
- Built bottom up SMA models for liquid securities to capitalize on the 2020 bond market dislocation, generating actionable trade ideas.
- Developed stress testing tools for underwriting assumptions across the CMBS portfolio and evaluated horizontal risk retention structures.
- Managed a team of two analysts, reviewing their modeling and reporting and mentoring them on the fund models.
- Presented return enhancement and monetization strategies, including a Core Plus and Value Add cold storage thesis, to executives and LPs.
- Rebuilt fund and SMA model functionality and a faster Excel waterfall template, improving the team's modeling efficiency.
- Evaluated horizontal risk retention structures to enhance returns on the CMBS portfolio.
- Partnered with the asset management team to refresh property-level assumptions, updating forward cash flows, returns, and valuations across the book.
- Supported the fundraising team with detailed fund track records and performance and valuation summaries for prospective LPs.
Investment Banking Analyst, Public Finance
Wells Fargo
- Served as the sole analyst on nearly $1 billion of higher education financings, building cash flow and debt structuring models from scratch.
- Structured new money, refinancing, and restructuring transactions around each client's rate and liquidity goals.
- Developed financial models for P3 higher education infrastructure projects, including ground up student housing developments.
- Analyzed financing scenarios to fund campus real estate construction and renovation, restructure debt portfolios, and meet clients' credit and liquidity needs.
- Ran rent roll sensitivity analysis on a ground up campus development for a major Southeast university, stress testing the revenue assumptions.
- Modeled tailored client financing structures in written responses to requests for proposals, supporting the group's pursuit of new mandates.
- Prepared detailed debt profiles for prospective clients, reconciling internal data against their annual financial reports to support prospecting.
- Trained incoming summer and full-time analysts on the group's models, processes, and client materials.
Education
Bachelor's Degree in Economics
The University of Chicago - Chicago, IL, USA
Skills
Finance
Financial Modeling, Corporate Finance, Debt Structuring, Financial Accounting, Credit Underwriting, Valuation, Feasibility, Investment Memoranda, Capital Raising, Investment Return Scenario Analysis, Private Credit, Commercial Mortgage-backed Securities (CMBS), Cash Flow Modeling, Credit Analysis, Capital Structuring, M&A (Buy-side), Comparable Company Analysis, Project Finance, Debt Restructuring, Due Diligence, Private Equity, Recapitalization, Return Analysis, Pricing Strategy, Data Analysis, Cost Reduction & Optimization (Cost-down), P&L Forecasting, Forecasting
Output Software
Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint
Industry Expertise
Real Estate, Hospitality, Public Finance, Real Estate Development, Commercial Real Estate, Real Estate Investment, Food & Beverage, Capital Markets
Other
Investments, Deal Structuring, Claude Code, Real Estate Advisory, Underwriting, Financial Analysis, Development, Growth Strategy, Cost Reduction, Scenario Analysis, Structured Credit, Portfolio Management, Modeling, Waterfall Modeling, Fixed Income, Stress Testing, Investor Reporting, Investment Banking, Infrastructure, Self-Storage, Leveraged Buyout (LBO), Precedent Transaction Analysis, Adaptive Reuse, Advanced Excel, Debt Funds, Sensitivity Analysis, Return Enhancement, Municipal Finance, P3 Financing, Higher Education Finance, Asset Securitization, Student Housing, Debt Advisory, RFPs, RFQs, ITTs, Responses, Proposals & Quotes, Client Presentations, Acquisition Underwriting, Roll-Up Strategy, Portfolios, Cash-Out Refinancing, Development Modeling, Sources & Uses, Regression, Statistical Modeling, Multivariate Statistical Modeling, Comparable Sales Analysis, Mixed-Use Development, Branded Residences, Condominium Development, Hotel Development, Pitch Decks, Debt Financing, Equity Raising, Acquisitions, Buy-side, Investment Analysis, Hotel Underwriting, Investment Committee Materials, Management Consulting, Operational Analysis, Business Strategy, P&L Analysis, Margin Optimization, Unit Economics, Benchmarking, Capital Allocation, Market Expansion, Feasibility Studies, Multi-Site Operations, Operating Models, Financing Strategy, Downside Analysis
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