The Founder’s CPA (formerly Startup Accounting Advisors) is a Chicago Small Business Accounting firm operated by Curt Mastio, CPA.

Curt previously served as the Chief Financial Officer of Storage Squad and is an Adjunct Instructor at Northwestern University’s Farley Center for Entrepreneurship teaching ENTRE 395- Accounting for Startups.  In addition, Curt works with startups and small businesses with over $20 million in recurring revenues annually to help them with all of their accounting needs.

Curt is a Certified Public Accountant in the state of Illinois, and has been working alongside hyper-growth startups for 6+ years.

Chris joined Founder’s CPA in the Fall of 2017.  The past five years as an IT consultant he helped large multi-national consumer products and life sciences companies with process improvement, IT system implementation, and software selection.  He worked within the finance, quality, and supply chain departments at his client engagements, reporting to C-suite and Senior VP level management.  Chris also is currently President of his own startup company, hoping to bring a new food product to market.  He graduated from Cornell University with a bachelors in Biology and a minor in Applied Economics and Management.

Abdul Syed is a Certified Public Accountant who joined Founder’s CPA in early 2018. His prior experience is in the retail and consumer goods industries.  He has a passion for taxes and HATES traffic.  Abdul oversees the day-to-day accounting work for clients as well as researching complex tax issues and preparing individual and business tax forms for our clients.

Amy Margrave joined Founder’s CPA in the spring of 2018 with a focus on financial advisory services.  She spent two years in France working for a big four accounting firm in the audit group.  Following that, she spent time in FP&A at a large pharmaceutical company as a Financial Analyst before working internally in various accounting and finance capacities with SaaS startups.  Amy is responsible for our outsourced CFO and advisory service offering and loves a neatly formatted Excel spreadsheet!

Colin joined Founders in July 2018. He recently graduated from Bradley University with a bachelors degree in Accounting and Finance and a minor in Management Information Systems. In the past, Colin has experience as an intern in the accounting department for a small business in the manufacturing industry. He is excited to make a difference for Founder’s and our clients!

Mariam Shibly joined Founder’s CPA in October 2018 with a focus on our core accounting services. She has spent majority of her career working in accounting for the hedge fund industry and some time in the insurance industry. Mariam’s day to day activities involve coordinating marketing efforts and performing accounting services for our clients. Mariam likes to be very organized and enjoys seeing consistency throughout her work!

Maria joined the team in early 2019 to assist with the accounting services side of the business.  Maria recently moved to Chicago from Minneapolis, MN.  She graduated from Metropolitan State University in August of 2018 with a degree in accounting.  She previously worked as an accounts payable specialist in a small law firm for 5 years.  Prior to this she spent two years volunteering during tax season in a non-profit organization that helped file tax returns for low-income individuals and families.

Grant joined the team in mid 2017 with a background working at startups as well as larger financial institutions. He has prior experience in the logistics department at one of the nations fastest growing sandwich chains and also a private contractor for a summer storage company. He brings banking experience from the corporate investment bank of a large multi-national bank as well as their middle market; serving underwriting and banking needs to clients with annual revenues between $20 – $500 million. Grant received his bachelors degree in finance from the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign.