About
Nelis Parts
Founder, Kyro CFO and Kyro Strategies. 20+ years in finance, private equity, and operations. Two sell-side exits. One firm that does both financial leadership and custom analytics platforms, because they're expressions of the same work.
Background
Full career history on LinkedIn →Most recently CFO and then CEO of a 300-person company through two sell-side exits: the 2019 sale to a publicly traded acquirer and the 2022 sale to a Blackstone portfolio company. Revenue grew from $10M to $40M. EBITDA went from -25% to positive. $7–10M in annual P&L impact from five quantified operational levers. Five years of board reporting to a Blackstone-led board of directors.
Before that: Goldman Sachs Investment Banking Division (M&A execution, LBO modeling, PE firms as counterparties), Berkshire Partners (public equity fund, 80+ companies analyzed, fund grew from $30M to $1.4B AUM), and buy-side M&A advisory for Bertelsmann where I led the diligence, closed the acquisition, then joined the target company to run the post-acquisition integration and turnaround.
The CFO role was never just finance. IT and Engineering reported directly for 3+ years. Legal, Real Estate, and operations were all within scope. That cross-functional reach is why the CFO practice and the platform practice are one firm. A CFO who managed an internal engineering team, led SSO integrations, and made all major back-office technology decisions is not a stranger to building software.
Education
Wharton MBA with Honors
LSE B.Sc. Mathematics & Economics
Transactions
2 sell-side exits led (2019, 2022)
1 buy-side acquisition closed
Financial background
Goldman Sachs IBD
Berkshire Partners
Operating experience
10+ years as CFO and CEO
$10M → $60M revenue scale
$7–10M annual P&L impact
Languages
Swedish, Estonian, English
Based in
Brooklyn, NY
Why Kyro exists
Companies in the $5M to $100M range don't lack smart people. They lack someone whose job is to find where money is leaking, build the model that shows the magnitude, and push the organization to fix it. A controller who closes the books every month isn't that person. Neither is an outside advisor who sends a report and moves on.
The companies in the $5M–$100M range face a specific gap. They have real complexity. Investors or boards with expectations. Operational decisions with significant financial consequences. But a $250,000 full-time CFO hire is hard to justify, and a controller who closes the books every month isn't the same thing.
Kyro fills that gap with the same quality of financial leadership that larger companies access full-time, applied precisely where it matters, without the overhead. When an inflection point arrives (a fundraise, a potential exit, an operational crisis, a board that starts asking harder questions), the work is already in place.
The name
Kyro has roots in Greek and Middle Eastern culture. It roughly translates to "victorious one," "master," or "lord." The interpretation that matters here: Kyro succeeds only when the client does. There's no version of this working where we look good and the engagement doesn't produce a result.
How this work operates
The operating principle is honesty before comfort. If the financial model says the plan won't work, the plan won't work. If a vendor contract is structured in a way that's quietly unfavorable, that conversation happens. If a business isn't ready for the exit timeline the board wants, the board needs to hear that.
That's not how every advisor operates. Many will tell you what you want to hear because the relationship is easier that way. A CFO who pushes back when the model is wrong is more valuable than one who doesn't, even if the conversation is harder.
Practical outcomes matter more than theoretical frameworks. A 100-page report that sits in a drawer is not a deliverable. A change to the collections process that recovers $2M annually is.
The platform practice
Kyro Strategies builds custom analytics platforms for mid-market companies. The analytical frameworks in those platforms (bridge analysis, variance decomposition, accountability tagging) come from the same 20 years of finance and PE experience. The CFO practice and the platform practice are one firm because they're one expertise applied in two different directions.
See Kyro Strategies→Let's talk about what you're working on.
30 minutes. Tell us what you're trying to solve and we'll be direct about whether we can help.
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