Sean Kelly

Founder & Investor. Building companies at the intersection of health, media & founder performance.

Hey there, I’m Sean. I play at the intersection of investing, media and human performance.

I’m a three-time INC 500 founder & entrepreneur with businesses in eCommerce, SaaS, media and B2B services that have collectively generated hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue.

Right now, I serve as a General Partner at The Family Fund and am the CEO of Significant Publications, a B2B digital media holding company.

I'm particularly passionate about our brand FounderIV in support of today's founder-athletes. We help today's top entrepreneurs achieve breakout performance in their personal and professional lives.

I co-founded and led multiple other companies, including SnackNation, a health-centric foodservice and brand discovery platform that served 20,000 businesses across the US. 

Under my leadership, SnackNation was honored as one of the country’s Best Workplaces by Inc. Magazine, recognized for Top Company Culture by Entrepreneur Magazine, and certified as a Great Workplace by Great Place to Work®.

Forbes listed me as one of the top 30 leaders under 30 and one of America’s most promising CEOs under 35. Comparably also ranked me among the country’s top 50 small-to-medium sized business CEOs multiple years in a row. 

Outside of the business world, I’m a two-time national medalist in freestyle snowboarding, hold an advisory role at the growth capital firm, Meaningful Partners, have a degree in Biomedical Engineering from Columbia University and am an avid sports fan of all Michigan sports teams (especially the Wolverines).

I currently live in Venice, CA with my wife and college sweetheart, Shannon, and our goldendoodle, Jameson.

Chairman

We built the first Founderland in 10 weeks.

And almost died.

This past year we gave ourselves 6 months and built an external team to do it and it still wasn’t enough time.

So for next year’s event we decided to make the build a year-round affair…

And are focused on making Founderland a brand that lives throughout the year, not just as once-every-October event.

It’s funny to see how random ideas become full-time jobs lol

Took a quick trip to NYC this week to discuss Founderland ‘26 with one of our top partners J.P. Morgan  

The verdict?

It’s going to be big. 

Perhaps not as big as JPM’s new $3B global HQ at 270 Park Ave (most spectacular office I’ve been in w/ a Warhol or Jasper Johns around every corner)…

But still pretty big and lots of fun with a yuge amount of deals commenced (misspelling intentional)

Thanks for the tour Michael Conte you’re a legend and friend.

And glad to see you’re carrying Ancient Crunch Inc. MASA chips in all of your shops!

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Current health travel stack:

Zoomed off to NYC, Philly and Austin this week.

Back to back meetings all day, late dinners and sports games at night, and planes trains and automobiles like we all know.

Seems like 1/2 of the people I’ve met have a cold.

Here’s what I take on the road to feel good while away…

and do my best to arrive home feeling not-dead to the fam. Works most of the time ;)

 - Sinus rinse bottle filled with filtered water, betadine and salt/baking soda (use after every flight, likely illness prevention tactic #1)

- Zinc acetate lozenges if I’m feeling worn down or fatigued

- KetoneIQ every morning when I wake up to get that cognitive boost

- Momentous whey protein, plant protein, and creatine (10g) + Supergut fiber blended 1-2x per day to supplement diet

- Momentous Sleep pack + medical mouth tape + sleep mask every night

- Metal shaker bottle that doesn’t get gross

- Some type of hydration packets 2x/day minimum (right now using Dry Water)

- WIP 100mg energy pouches for a little boost early in the day usually before workout

- Another ~20 or so supplements in my vitamin case that I pre-fill for each day prior to the week

Sure, sleep/nutrition/exercise are essential and the most  important…but it’s near impossible to not sacrifice them a bit while playing the part of road warrior…so at least for me, travel supplementation is key.

Momentous Ketone-IQ DryWater Supergut

Investing for Beginners Podcast

Podcast Host

Wells Fargo

Personal Banker

Domace Vino

Wine Consultant

The Melting Pot Restaurants

Owner/General Manager

I was 45 never invested before, and had no idea where to start.

I had a major lack of confidence, and felt like the investing game was too hard. I didn't make a ton of money and was in debt. 

But one day, talking to the investment advisor at Wells Fargo I worked with inspired me to look into becoming an investment banker. And finding a topic that excited me and filled my thoughts day and night inspired me to make a change. The Investment Advisor at my branch encouraged me with resources and to dig deeper. 

Which started me down the path of creating my own blog to help simplify finance for people. I found customers at my desk overwhelmed and intimidated by the idea of investing. Soon I reached out to Andrew, my future business partner, and friend, who encouraged me to start a podcast with him. 

Today Andrew and I help simplify investing for millions of podcast listeners each year, plus we write on our blog, einvestingforbeginners.com to help in written form.

Dave Ahern

You don’t need Wall Street to value a business. You need a forecast, a discount rate, and discipline.

Think of a DCF like pricing a rental house. You ask: how much rent will I collect each year, and what’s that worth in today’s dollars? A stock is the same, but the “rent” is free cash flow.

Here’s the simple flow, based on the classic 5-step approach:

1. Estimate future cash flows Project free cash flow for the next 5–10 years. Use business drivers you can defend: revenue, margins, reinvestment. Cash flow, not net income.
2. Pick a discount rate (r) This turns future dollars into today’s dollars. It captures risk, opportunity cost, and inflation. Higher risk, higher r, lower value.
3. Discount those cash flows Divide each year’s cash flow by (1 + r) raised to that year. Now you have their present values.
4. Add a terminal value Assume cash flows continue beyond your forecast at a steady growth rate (g). Keep g realistic, usually near long-run inflation and below GDP growth.
5. Sum it up Present value of years 1–N plus the present value of the terminal piece. That’s your estimate of business value.

Pros and cautions:

• Anchored in fundamentals, not market mood.
• Sensitive to assumptions. Tiny tweaks in r or g change a lot.
• Garbage in, garbage out. Be conservative and cross-check.
  
DCF is just “What cash can this business produce, and what is that worth today?” Simple, not easy—but learnable.

What part trips you up most: forecasting cash flows, picking r, or choosing g?

***

P.S. Want to grow as an investor?

Learn how to start analyzing companies based on their fundamentals. Unravel the mystery of Nvidia, Meta, and Google.
 
Get my FREE Fundamental Analysis Visualized ebook here:

https://lnkd.in/eHhuNH5q

Helping Simplifying Finance | 20k+investors read our free Nuggets (see link)

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Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Sean Kelly's LinkedIn Performance

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