Jon Buttles

Venture Investor, Sponsor and Supporter

Location: Greater Los Angeles Area
Industry: Venture Capital & Private Equity

As a LinkedIn member, you'll join 225 million other professionals who are sharing connections, ideas, and opportunities.

See who you and Jon Buttles know in common
Get introduced to Jon Buttles
Contact Jon Buttles directly

View Jon's full profile

Jon Buttles's Overview

Current

Managing Partner at Core Equity Group
Independent Investment Banker at Merriman Capital, Inc.
CFO at PodNod Inc.

Past

Managing Director at SBI USA
Associate at Monument Advisors
Portfolio Manager at Bank One

Education

Miami University

Connections

500+ connections

Websites

Company Website

Venture sponsor, supporter and investor seeking to build value through building great ideas and companies alongside passionate entrepreneurs. As a founding member of Core Equity Group, we use everything we have to make our ventures successful, including our vast experience in venture finance, corporate finance, business development, project management, and strategic consulting. We get in, and we get dirty.

We perform investment banking services utilizing the Financial Entrepreneurs Platform provided by Merriman Capital, Inc. We seek to work with high growth and special situation micro and small cap public companies, and select private companies, on investment banking activities including capital raising, buy and sell side advisory and general financial advisory.

My background includes founding Core Equity Group in 2004 and working with a wide range of early stage technology and consumer oriented companies. I have prior lives in investment banking, private equity and corporate banking, which provided a solid foundation for my work.

I'm always looking for ways to collaborate and generally advance the ball for our ventures, and am always open to new ideas.

Managing Partner

Core Equity Group

Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Investment Banking industry

May 2004 – Present (9 years 1 month) Los Angeles, CA

Core Equity Group is a venture banking group pursuing the advancement of early stage venture companies in a variety of industries, with specific expertise in technology and consumer industries. Core Equity Group combines institutional level investment banking advice with rigorous block and tackle style execution capabilities for its venture clients.

My role as Founder is geared towards setting the overall direction for the firm, client and deal selection, investor procurement, investor management and execution of whatever it takes to make our companies, and our firm, successful.

We typically act as principal in our endeavors, and occasionally provide our services on a consulting basis when there is a fit. Selected representative companies include:

Nviro Cleantech (listed on AiM, bought by AIM: SEGR)
Owlstone (private chemical detection company)
Sky Medical (private medical device company)
CompuTool (private enterprise SaaS company)

Independent Investment Banker

Merriman Capital, Inc.

Public Company; 11-50 employees; MERR; Investment Banking industry

July 2012 – Present (11 months) Greater Los Angeles Area

Licensed independent investment banker focused on providing investment banking services to micro and small cap public companies, along with select private companies. Services include capital raising, buy and sell side advisory, and financial advisory. Securities offered through Merriman Capital, Inc., a member of FINRA and SIPC.

Licenses held: Series 79, 63

CFO

PodNod Inc.

Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Internet industry

May 2011 – Present (2 years 1 month)

Assisting PodNod in the development of and roadmap for its platform, coordinating and executing its capital strategy, and doing whatever it takes every day to make it a success.

Managing Director

SBI USA

2000 – 2004 (4 years) Newport Beach, California

SBI USA is an investment bank focused on providing corporate finance and investment banking services to underserved private and public technology companies.

I worked on a small banking team that helped finance early stage technology companies in the public space. We were aggressive and attracted capital to our client companies during a very tough market. Our banking team excelled at repackaging and repositioning the client companies to prepare for both retail and institutional investments.

Associate

Monument Advisors

1998 – 2000 (2 years) Indianapolis, Indiana

Monument Advisors, Inc. is an Indianapolis-based private equity firm that manages a family of funds. Monument focuses on management buyins, management buyouts, leveraged buyouts, and recapitalizations in the microcap market. Monument partners with management teams to acquire and help build companies within niche service, distribution and manufacturing industries with enterprise values between $8 and $20 million.

I was an associate at Monument for two years working directly with partners on deal evaluation, investment execution, portfolio monitoring, and fund management. Being the youngest on a team of aggressive partners, I picked up an education like no other.

Portfolio Manager

Bank One

Public Company; 10,001+ employees; ONE; Banking industry

1996 – 1998 (2 years) Indianapolis, Indiana

Worked as a Portfolio Manager and Credit Underwriter after going through Bank One's credit training programs. We worked primarily with middle market companies located in the Midwest, providing asset based and cash flow loans.