Gautham Deshpande is a Partner at EisnerAmper LLP in San Francisco. His practice and areas of expertise focus on financial services, including audit, consulting and advising private equity funds, venture capital funds, hedge funds, other investment partnerships, commodity pools, alternate investment vehicles and investment advisors. Gautham has strong skills with regard to investment company accounting, fair value measurements and valuation of complex financial instruments including private non-marketable securities.

Specialties: Securities Industry including venture funds, private equity funds, hedge funds, investment advisors and money managers, onshore funds, offshore funds. Valuation of hard-to-value securities, conventional and non-conventional financial instruments, valuation of consumer and commercial loan portfolios.

Business athlete with good left-brain/right-brain balance and many years of experience growing and monetizing highly successful consumer internet and mobile products in new markets.

For the past decade, I've joined most of the companies I've been involved with right at the A-round, usually before there's a product in market. At that stage, I do whatever it takes to get the company off the ground, which has included setting up hiring and customer support systems, establishing and/or supporting partnerships, leading customer development and user interviews, and spearheading exec discussions about mission and values.

At later stages, I transition into more of a pure marketing role. My marketing experience spans the entire spectrum, from the very qualitative (e.g. brand) to the very quantitative (user acquisition and retention), with a sweet spot in product marketing.

One of my core values is curiosity, which is why the startup world serves me so well. I am constantly trying to strike the balance between not reinventing the wheel and, well, reinventing the wheel. Fortunately, there's a wide world to learn from: I have experience living and working in North America, Europe, Australia, Asia, and Africa.

I like to build cool stuff with awesome people. I care about products that break new ground, and companies with a mission. I'm an English major turned MBA and am happy that both of those degrees now value the power of a good story.

Substance > Style

I also advise and invest in select companies where I believe in the team and the mission and where I believe I could be helpful.

Nashley leads revenue strategy at Marqeta. Marqeta has defined the global standard for modern card issuing, developing an industry-leading issuer processor platform that now powers the world’s most innovative companies.

Nashley comes to Marqeta from McKinsey & Co. At McKinsey, Nashley worked on strategy and corporate finance projects across multiple geographies. Prior to McKinsey, he tinkered on Motorola phones as an engineer. Once Motorola got acquired by Google, he got his MBA from Tuck School of Business.