About Me

My name is Gary Traynor, and for the last 30 years I have accumulated a unique combination of skills and experiences that happen to be perfectly suited to supporting early-stage startup founders, especially when software development is involved.

DEPTH in capital requirements planning, agile capital allocation processes and systems, company-wide coordinated collaboration and the latest best practices in building and maintaining workplace environments for accommodating disabilities while supporting every kind of diversity.

BREADTH in agile management techniques across the five major functions of software companies: 1. Product - product management, project management, development, maintenance & support; 2. Revenue - sales and marketing end-to-end funnel 3. People - human capital regulations and best practices, on-shore / off-shore teams, culture; 4. Operations and finance - data systems, financial forecasting; 5. Capital strategy.

Startups - 2003 to Present

Choosing to leave banking and work with startups was initially an experiment for me and it became a passion. My typical role has been in full-time, interim CEO, COO and CFO positions. In the last 15 years I have worked within over a dozen startups including enterprise software, B2B2C e-commerce, social media, digital advertising, EdTech, encryption and distributed ledger technologies.

Banking - 1997 to 2002

Joined Bear Stearns in 1997 and then transitioned to Morgan Stanley in 2000. My initial specialty was in LBOs, working with the portfolio companies of PE firms like Warburg Pincus and Apollo. This was the first major technology market cycle so my focus was on IPOs, secondary offerings and M&A for tech & telecom companies. At Morgan Stanley, I continued my technology focus covering public companies in telecom equipment (Motorola & Nortel) and business services (Accenture, IBM Global Services, BearingPoint, ADP).

Education

University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill - JD/MBA with concentrations in Finance & Accounting. Internships in Prague (legal research for NATO), Bangkok (GE Capital) and New York (Citibank).
Washington University in St. Louis - Undergraduate BSBA in Finance & Accounting and a minor in Economics.