About
I'm Sean Stoffel. I'm a finance leader who also builds the systems finance runs on.
I've spent more than fifteen years in finance leadership across SaaS, semiconductor, and robotics companies, working the full company lifecycle: seed through Series A and B, IPO, M&A on both the buy and sell side, debt raises, and international expansion. That means conversations here start with the actual bottleneck, not a technology looking for a use case.
I build using Claude Code, an AI-assisted development process that produces real, production-grade software: authentication, permissions, tests, and deployment pipelines, in the time most shops spend on a discovery phase. Recent work includes the nonprofit CRM and program management platform featured in the case study on this site, a revenue forecasting and actuals tracker that replaced a monthly spreadsheet cycle, and an invoicing platform with AR aging and automated dunning.
That combination is the point. Most software consultants have not sat on the finance or operations side of a business and felt what a broken process actually costs. Most finance and operations leaders cannot build the fix themselves. I can do both, which is why the conversation starts with your actual problem instead of a technology pitch.
Teaching has been part of the mix even longer than that. I spent nine years tutoring at the high school and collegiate levels, which is part of why the white-glove AI training on this site is not a bolted-on side offer. It is something I have always found genuinely energizing to do.
Background
- Senior Director of Finance, Zefr 2020 to 2025. Ran forecasting and modeling for a profitable marketing software business, partnering directly with the executive team on strategy.
- Director of Finance and Operations, OnScale 2018 to 2020. Owned finance, operations, accounting, sales ops, and HR end to end. Supported a $5M seed round, a $10M Series A led by Intel Capital and Google Gradient Ventures, and a $3.5M debt raise. Ansys acquired the company in 2022 for $130M.
- Senior Finance Manager, Neato Robotics 2017 to 2018. Owned FP&A fully, including P&L, cash flow, and SKU-level revenue and COGS modeling.
- Business Unit Controller / Senior Financial Analyst, Macom Technology Solutions 2015 to 2017. Led financial modeling on the Applied Micro acquisition, then ran post-deal integration and the P&L carve-out.
Education
- MBA, UCLA Anderson School of Management 2021
- B.S. Business Finance, Santa Clara University, Leavey School of Business 2010
How I work
Working software over slide decks
A prototype you can click through beats a proposal every time.
Security and permissions from day one
Authentication, role-based access, and audit logging are not a later phase.
Plain answers over sales pitches
If something is not a good fit, I will tell you directly instead of finding a way to say yes.
Deployed, not just designed
The goal is software your team is using, not a document describing software your team could use someday.