Scott Orn, CFA Chief Operating Officer

Scott Orn, CFA

Chief Operating Officer

Scott runs Operations at Kruze Consulting, a fast-growing Startup CFO Consulting firm that works with over 750 startup clients. Kruze is based in San Francisco with clients in the Bay Area, Los Angeles, New York and all over the United States. In addition to his Operations responsibilities, Scott runs the Venture Debt Consulting practice at Kruze. In his spare time, Scott publishes the Founders & Friends Podcast, which interviews Startup CEO’s, Investors and Other Service Providers in the Startup Ecosystem. Scott hold the CFA designation (Chartered Financial Analyst). 

Before Kruze Consulting, Scott was a Partner at Lighthouse Capital, a private debt fund that lends to startups. In addition, Scott ran Community Products at Callisto Media.

Scott still manages his portfolio on behalf of Lighthouse. Some of his high-profile deals include Angie’s List, UpWork, J Hilburn, Serena & Lily and Impossible Foods. He’s led 20+ deals and invested over $100M+ with $0 losses and a mid-teen’s % IRR.

In his spare time, Scott co-founded Ben’s Friends, an Internet patient support community for people with rare diseases. Ben’s Friends is a 501C3 non-profit and has become one of the largest rare disease support communities on the Internet with 120,000 uniques last month (a 20% increase month over month).

Prior to joining Lighthouse, Scott spent three years in Technology Mergers & Acquisitions at Hambrecht & Quist which was later acquired by JPMorgan Chase.

Scott has an MBA from Kellogg, and an undergraduate business degree from CAL Berkeley. He also has a CFA and has passed the Series 7.

Scott’s Favorite Quote from Oceans by Pearl Jam:

You don’t have to stray
The oceans away
Waves roll in my thoughts
Hold tight the ring
The sea will rise
Please stand by the shore
I will be there once more

Scott’s Favorite Book:

  • Hawaii by James Michener

Recent Blog posts by Scott Orn

Recent Podcasts by Scott Orn

Kathryn Petralia

06/13/2023

Kathryn Petralia Co-Founder and Chief Keeper
at Keep Financial

Kathryn Petralia explains how Keep Financial helps companies offer effective employee incentive programs, and leverages bonuses and financial compensation to motivate workers and improve hiring.

Read more
Don Muir

05/21/2023

Don Muir CEO
at Arc

Don Muir of Arc discusses how Arc has used technology to provide banking to startups, adding savings, checking, cash management, and brokerage services.

Read more
Jose Ancer

05/09/2023

Jose Ancer Partner & CTO
at Optimal Counsel

Jose Ancer of Optimal Counsel discusses legal services for startups.

Read more
David Pezeshki

04/23/2023

David Pezeshki Co-Founder
at Initio

David Pezeshki talks about 409A valuations and how Initio makes the process easier by offering customized valuations with optimized, defensible outcomes.

Read more
Michael Frankel

04/09/2023

Michael Frankel Founder and Managing Partner
at Trajectory Capital

Michael Frankel of Trajectory Capital discusses private equity, which can be an alternate route to success for many startups that may be viable businesses but lack the growth that venture capital funds need.

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Sara Skowronski

03/26/2023

Sara Skowronski President
at Eos HR

Sara Skowronski, president of Eos HR Consulting, discusses the services that Eos offers to help startups with their HR needs.

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Evan Meagher

03/26/2023

Evan Meagher Chief Financial Officer
at CoreWeave

Evan Meagher, Chief Financial Officer of CoreWeave, as a wide-ranging discussion with Scott Orn about new technology, the current state of the economy, and how these changes are affecting the venture capital market.

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Benjamin Verschuere

03/12/2023

Benjamin Verschuere Co-Founder and CIO
at Treasure FI

Ben Verschuere, Co-Founder and CIO of Treasure FI, talks about how startups can use Treasure FI's cash management platform to reduce risk and increase yields.

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Omri Mor

02/12/2023

Omri Mor Co-founder and CEO
at Routable

Routable focuses on helping businesses scale their payment solutions, and Omri Mor, Co-founder and CEO, explains how the company developed its platform for sending B2B payments worldwide.

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Scott Orn in the news

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