My clients range from Fortune 20 companies to small startups, and from the public, private, and government sectors. Typically, they are small teams with big plans. I am often one of the first ten people working on a project that will ultimately take hundreds of millions or billions of dollars to finish. Here are some examples of my work and success to date.
FORTUNE 20
I provide analytic support to a wireless-focused group inside of Google. Much of this work focuses on wireless industry strategy issues and financial analysis on the wireless industry. Specific areas of interest include mobile network economics (including LTE, 5G), fixed wireless economics, addressable market sizes for different products, pricing structure and levels for Google products, and spectrum valuation.
“David is a true expert in his craft. Over the past 3 years, I’ve been consistently amazed with the depth of David’s models and the speed with which he produces them. It’s difficult to know all of the ‘what if’s’ at the start of a modeling exercise, and working with David allows me to explore opportunities from every angle and with surprising levels of fidelity. Beyond the mechanics of a model, David’s decades of experience in the telecommunications space provide useful perspective that I value. Finally, David is a pleasure to work with – curious, engaged, always calm under fire.”
Dave Vadasz, Business Development, Wireless Access, Google
“David brings great rigor to all the analysis we have done together which has been immensely valuable in making go/no-go decisions. He takes lightly defined problems, places a framework around them, and then explores the space using a combination of intuition, analytical tools, and scenario analysis. He is easy to work with, highly responsive to deadlines and communicates clearly. When deadlines are tight, I have absolute trust that David will deliver what I need.”
Mathew Varghese, Product Lead for CBRS,Google
“David has a wealth of knowledge and incredible expertise in the wireless space. Could not be more pleased with the quality and experience of our engagement with David. His approach to deliverables is very objective and on point with the ability to synthesize complex business models along with advanced technology platforms to simplify decision making processes.”
Marwan Fawaz, Executive Advisor, Google & Alphabet, Former CEO, Nest
MULTI-BILLION DOLLAR
I helped the Department of Commerce leverage the $7 billion in initial Congressional funding into AT&T’s $28 billion 4G LTE network for First Responders nationwide. I created coherent financial model scenarios that included such factors as scale, timing, costs, and pricing. I also created financial systems and provided ongoing support for financial reporting and analysis.
“I have worked with David for many years on multiple telecom projects, including multibillion-dollar national network deployments and smaller scale investment opportunities. He has an incomparable understanding of telecom business and network economics and a rare ability to develop financial models that communicate the key decision drivers for management teams and investors. I have always been able to rely on his ability to deliver outstanding results under the most critical time constraints.”
James Canizales, Former Lead Strategy Contractor, FirstNet (Former VP Strategy, Clearwire)
“As I led FirstNet from a true startup with no people and no resources to a budget of $98 million in under 12 months, I relied on David for both creating and selling the larger strategic vision and financial models as well as handling the day-to-day operational details around financial projections, budgeting and reporting. His depth of wireless knowledge and insights enabled our Board to support our plans.”
Craig Farrill, Former Acting GM, Chairman-Technology Committee and Board Member, FirstNet
COMPANIES SEEKING $100M+ FROM PRIVATE EQUITY
This provider of wireless high-speed internet and voice services to rural communities needed a business plan that was both fundable by private equity investors and approved by a federal agency for a loan. It took over 300 iterations of the plan, but eventually Open Range got funded to the tune of $367M including over $100M in equity.
CLICK HERE to read the case study.
“David’s technology, financial insights, diligence, and effort allowed us to satisfy the requirements not only of our own team, but also major private equity investors and the thousands of pages of detailed output demanded by our lenders from the Department of Agriculture.”
Q Saeed, EVP, Business Operations, Technology & Corporate Development, Open Range Communications
INDIUS
Indius had a multi-hundred-million-dollar plan to roll up mid-sized Cable MSOs in India and roll out broadband as a second core product. I was brought in by the CEO after their first plan was rejected by investors. Within seven weeks I had identified key value drivers, built a new model that corrected numerous errors and refined new strategies.
CLICK HERE to read the case study.
“David was a key partner to me as I dug in to understand the economics of this new business and figure out how to turn it around. Every deal-maker needs someone to focus on uncovering the facts and synthesizing it into action — that’s the support David provides to me.”
Bill Beans, Chairman, Tenacity Capital Ventures, Interim CEO, Indius
I was called in to assist with second stage capitalization for this world-class luxury vacation club. The immediate task was to prove sustainability, and then plan the speed at which and the way the company would acquire its extensive real estate holdings. After successfully closing on $310 million in debt, Exclusive Resorts had a clear path to acquiring properties worth over $1.2B.
CLICK HERE to read the case study.
I was the lead finance/strategy investigator on a variety of M&A deals for this subsea cable company. As the buy-side representative, I worked with company management, their private equity investors/board members, and the target company senior executive team to analyze opportunities, make valuation recommendations, and structure term sheet offers.
VENTURE CAPITAL DEALS
$5M-100M
Aledade’s software and systems give participating doctors timely data so they can better manage health care for patients, producing better outcomes at a lower cost. I helped Aledade raise $45 million in a Series B1 round from prominent investors such as Google Ventures, McKesson Ventures, and Biomatics Capital (a fund with ties to Bill Gates).
CLICK HERE to read the case study.
Automox was a fast-growing venture-funded SaaS company that had raised $40M and found they didn’t have the right tools to manage their rapid growth and communicate with their board.
“I worked with David to design and build a new forecasting tool for Automox. We needed a much more granular toolset for our direct and new indirect channels that were coming onboard. David was exceptional in his understanding of the problem set, and did a wonderful job of working with my needs to build a model that was simple enough to use, yet powerful enough to capture the detailed information needed to scale our business.”
Kirk Adams, VP, Finance & Operations
INTENSIVE MODEL BUILDING FOR SMALL PROFITABLE COMPANIES
This home builder takes on projects between dozens and hundreds of units. I was brought in by the CFO to build robust investment-grade deal proformas for conveying financial metrics to the Board. I built a system that consolidated projects and could report at the total company level. I also tuned projections to secure extensive debt financing and provided recommendations on competing debt and debt/equity deals.
“As a real estate CFO, I work on complex deal projections, portfolio management and optimizing asset performance. I rely on David as a thought partner, developer, and in-the-trenches analyst as I’ve developed forecasts for communicating plans and getting approval from boards, lenders, and equity investors. We’ve worked together for over 15 years, and David is always ready to do whatever it takes and deliver elegant solutions to the most challenging situations.”
Brian Greenman, CFO, McStain Neighborhoods
Finance companies live and die by their models and I’ve often enjoyed working with this type of client.
Pearl Street had previously retained an outside group to build a model that support transactions with both the bank funding the deal and the startups borrowing the money for this venture debt play. I was brought in because some of the parties didn’t understand the model results, and the transactions couldn’t close until everyone believed the model was giving accurate answers. In the end, all parties in the transaction were able to get behind the model. The result was two transactions closing for $150 million and $100 million.
CLICK HERE to read the case study.
“David’s work is far superior to any of my in-house modelers–he works faster and produces end-products that are more comprehensive, cleaner, and easier to understand. In fact, on multiple occasions, I hired David to untangle the work of other modelers. Beyond being an unparalleled technician, I value David’s ability to develop concepts and strategies for analysis and presentation. His work allows me to better structure our investment products so I can attract the right investors.”
Gordon Reinert, Founder and Partner, Pearl Street Capital Group
HIGH-GROWTH CONSUMER FOOD CHAINS
Finance companies live and die by their models and I’ve often enjoyed working with this type of client.
Pearl Street had previously retained an outside group to build a model that support transactions with both the bank funding the deal and the startups borrowing the money for this venture debt play. I was brought in because some of the parties didn’t understand the model results, and the transactions couldn’t close until everyone believed the model was giving accurate answers. In the end, all parties in the transaction were able to get behind the model. The result was two transactions closing for $150 million and $100 million.
CLICK HERE to read the case study.
“As a 20-year serial entrepreneur, I rely on David for insightful analysis about new ventures, for help in developing new capital structures, and in explaining the deal to investors. His models are top-notch and make me confident that I can pass any financial screen investors put me through.”
Will Smith, Partner, LOVE Restaurant Group
SMALLER
CLASSIC BRANDS
This small company designs and markets consumer products. I was brought in to help their management team and investment banker get the financial model working properly so they could attract enough debt and equity capital to close a transaction that would more than double the size of the company.
CLICK HERE to read the case study.
“David was a lifesaver. I was in a crisis as my current consultant could not deliver after repeated missed deadlines. David came in and delivered everything in record time. I wish I had gone to them first. I absolutely will next time!”
Bob Donegan, CEO
LILY GREEN & MOX
Other clients that fall into this category are Lily Green and MOX. Lily Green is striving to industrialize the marijuana business in Arizona. MOX makes CBD-based topicals, such as a skin restorer and muscle roller. It’s “potions and lotions,” as a friend of mine in the spa business calls them.
“David Brode is an amazing talent and a pleasure to work with. His financial models have been invaluable to our startup process in terms of P&L and cashflow planning. I’ve worked with many finance professions in my career and David is simply the best.”
Peter Murane, co-founder of MOX
