Running a business is a lot of work. The hours are long, the work is challenging, but Entrepreneurship isn’t just about running a business. It’s about solving problems and building towards something better.
At Cultivate, we believe business owners make the best advisors because they have the real-world experience to connect with our community and partner to work through challenging problems in the business. To continue supporting and positively impacting the small business community, we look for skilled experts with unique experiences from all different aspects of small business.
If you’ve ever wanted to know more about the backgrounds of our advisors, here are some of the talented members of our advising team.
Jeff Croy | Business Advisor | Austin, TX
Jeff has spent his career as a bit of a serial entrepreneur. From a fly fishing retail shop in Sante Fe, consulting in the energy & gas sector, and creating a corporate wellness company, Jeff has a myriad of different experiences to pull from over his career. After figuring out that corporate finance was not a good fit, he earned his MBA from Washington University (St. Louis) and went on to travel across the US and invest his talents in several startups and business growth opportunities. Jeff is passionate about helping individuals and organizations reach their full potential and is excited to leverage his experience and Cultivate’s resources to help business owners achieve success.
Agata Chydzinski | Business Advisor | Denver, CO
Agata is originally from Poland, grew up in France, and moved to the US in 2003. She has had a unique history of growing and scaling companies before starting her own consulting firm in 2012. For nine years, Agata focused on helping ambitious, entrepreneurial women make the best decisions to manage their company. She’s excited to continue helping owners recognize opportunities, develop their teams and create sustainable growth.
I am looking to bring a versatile background, strong problem-solving skills, and the ability to adapt to any situation. I would also like to focus on Women-Owned and Minority-Owned businesses as it has become a priority to help business owners who are less likely to grow their business to its full potential.
Chris Caton | Business Advisor | Chicago, IL
Chris started his career as a staff accountant before moving into real estate. Over the past 10+ years, Chris has built Trudo Realty, a real estate brokerage operating at 88 brokers. Chris launched over 350 real estate careers by recruiting and training new hires with zero real estate experience. With his entrepreneurial spirit and expertise in sales and financials, he’s excited to help small business owners create their own success.
Michael Shields | Business Advisor | Chicago, IL
Mike comes to us with a steep career-leading travel and tourism-centric companies across the US. He has been leading teams through the ebbs and turns of tourism for years, building out sales teams, and working intimately with travel vendors across the world to keep clients booking with them repeatedly. Most recently, Mike was a consultant to a smaller based-travel company based in Naperville, IL. With his extensive business experience, he’s eager to support small business owners from a strategic growth perspective.
All of our advisors come from different industries with different experiences, but the one thing they have in common is that they’ve all run small businesses. If you or someone you know is a successful entrepreneur, looking to potentially transition to a new chapter where they can be entrepreneurial, but part of a team full of like-minded entrepreneurs, learn more about joining the team.
