Julian Castelli
About Julian Castelli
I know that no SaaS founder gets there alone. It takes a dedicated team to elevate your business to the next level of success, funding, or growth. As a 5-time Board Director and Operating Partner, I help SaaS and Marketplace tech companies with strategy, team building, growth execution, fundraising, executive coaching, and board management. 𝗚𝗿𝗼𝘄𝘁𝗵 𝗘𝗹𝗲𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗱: 𝗙𝘂𝗹𝗳𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮 𝗡𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗦𝗮𝗮𝗦 𝗙𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀 & 𝗘𝘅𝗲𝗰𝘂𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲𝘀 I recently founded Growth Elevated, a community for tech executives to connect with other leaders to address their challenges in building tech companies. We collaborate through mentoring, the Annual Ski + Tech Summit, and the Growth Elevated Leadership Podcast. 𝗠𝘆 𝗣𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗚𝗿𝗼𝘄𝘁𝗵 𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆: In 2007, I founded VacationRoost.com and acquired LeisureLink to form the then-leading vacation rental SaaS ecommerce platform. Like most start-up journeys, it was a wild ride with exciting peaks and challenging struggles. Over nine years, we built an industry leader, helped develop e-commerce for the thriving vacation rental industry, and exited in 2016. Since 2016, I have been focused on leading growth-stage SaaS and Marketplace tech companies. I’ve seen some of the best in the world and evaluated hundreds at Bessemer Venture Partners and Next Coast Ventures. Working in CFO and COO roles at Voxpopme and Propelus, I built executive teams, drove revenue growth, grew profitability, and led acquisitions and fundraising. Serving as a board director for five growth-stage SaaS companies, I helped them raise new venture and growth equity rounds and drive 3-5X ARR growth acceleration, with two of them finding successful strategic exits. 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝗶𝗰 𝗚𝗹𝗼𝗯𝗮𝗹 𝗖𝗙𝗢 & 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘀𝘂𝗹𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲: Before my leap into SaaS leadership, I was an investment banker at Goldman Sachs, a strategy consultant at McKinsey, and a CFO at PageNet (a $1B public company) and Primedia (a $300M PE-backed company). I’ve helped companies accelerate growth in strong economic climates by leading 25+ M&A transactions, driving revenue growth, building and scaling teams, raising over $2B in capital, and preparing multiple companies for IPOs. In challenging times, I've reduced costs through P&L rationalizations and targeted cost reductions and drove complex corporate restructuring efforts to recapitalize companies for future success. 𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗜 𝗛𝗲𝗹𝗽 𝗧𝗼𝗱𝗮𝘆: I offer services as a board director, advisor, operating partner, and executive coach. Contact me at Julian@GrowthElevated.com.