Over the past decade, I've built three multimillion-dollar businesses while growing a family and raising four children.

I started with no resources, no connections, and didn’t have access to the playbooks that would have made the journey 10X easier. 

As a kid, I made money garden landscaping for families at church, manufacturing merchandise for private clubs, and then developing websites and running ad campaigns for local companies.

By 21, I was founding companies. In the decade since, I've:

➤ Generated $300M+ in revenue
➤ Built operations in 1,000+ U.S. cities
➤ Served over 3 million customers globally
➤ Helped grow hundreds of small businesses
➤ Raised $30M+ in capital from Angels, VCs, Private Equity, and Family Offices
➤ Successfully navigated both successful and failed multimillion-dollar acquisitions
➤ Been featured in leading publications like Forbes, Bloomberg, Entrepreneur, USA Today and more
➤ Worked with and advised the world's most iconic brands, including Diageo, Mars, Tesco, 7-Eleven, AB-InBev, Molson Coors, and Constellation

BUT, the journey was hard (harder than it needed to be).

I’ve faced many of the things you don't think about when starting a company:

→ Fought off (and won) predatory lawsuits
→ Closed a Seed round days after my wedding
→ Negotiated with demanding government agencies
→ Worked with lobbyists to introduce or change legislation
→ Raised a Series A while in the hospital for my first son's birth
→ Navigated a failed multi-million dollar merger while my daughter was born
→ Survived near-extinction events where we had single-digit weeks or days to save the company

Personal interests: Boxing, strength training, being in the ocean, spending quality time with my wife Danielle and our four little ones.

———

👋 Follow me for daily tips on mindset, systems, lifestyle design, and high-growth habits.

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Chris Vaughn

Fractional CFO for SMBs

If you're here, it's probably because you've recognized a problem with your business finances or you’re looking to scale and grow your operations and seeking solutions.

I hope I can be helpful and have the opportunity to add value to your business.

I believe you don't need to be a big company to benefit from a fractional CFO. Proper guidance is what sets most businesses up for success.

Whether you started from scratch, just acquired a business, have been operating for years, or are still searching, getting expert help for financial consultancy is always the right choice.

It is better to move with certainty than hope when you’re doing business and that's the essence of the fractional finance movement: delivering impact to specific problems business owners face without the long term commitment.

How can I help you? 

I specialize in SMBs, SaaS, and Ecommerce.

Here are my most common services:

-Fractional CFO Advisory
-Bookkeeping
-Accounting & Audit Readiness
-M&A & Valuation
-Human Resources
-Risk Advisory
-Tax Strategy

𝐍𝐞𝐱𝐭 𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐩?

Schedule a Complimentary 15-Minute consultation at www.calendly.com/tom-ihk/intro

Tom Dillon, CFA

You really learn a lot about people by the way their kids treat others.

I was so impressed watching how Alan Peterson and Jenn are raising theirs. 

That kind of thoughtfulness and kindness doesn’t happen by accident, it takes real intention and discipline as parents.

Thank you for carving out time during the week, welcoming our family, and making it such a great experience. 

I loved seeing our daughters spend time together, and watching yours be so open, welcoming, and sweet to mine meant a lot.

Grateful for the time together outside of our direct business dealings.

72 hours. No food. Just water.

I recently completed a 72-hour water fast to start the year.

Not for physical transformation or some biohacking edge. Though those exist.

But for the mental edge.

Pushing through 3 days without food isn’t just about discipline. It’s about delayed gratification. Resisting impulse. Staying sharp under stress.

Exactly the traits required to build and scale a business.

Would five days have pushed me further? Maybe. 

But the marginal benefit likely isn’t worth the cost for me. The 72-hour mark was the sweet spot. Physically manageable, mentally demanding.

It reminded me a lot of climbing a fourteener or pushing through a triathlon. 

It’s not the outcome. It’s the grit it demands.

And that’s the real ROI: a strengthened mindset.

Discipline in one part of life feeds the others.

Business. Finance. Relationships. Decision-making.

This challenge was a way to hardwire that discipline heading into the year.

P.S What mental or physical challenges are you taking on to start strong in 2026?

The Bears lose against the Los Angeles Rams, and suddenly everyone’s pointing fingers.

As a Bears fan, I get it. The emotions are real. It hurts because we care. But once the noise settles, here’s what I see.

This wasn’t a team that gave up.

This was a team that fought, learned the hard way, and got exposed in places that need fixing.

And that’s part of building something real. Whether it’s football or business, setbacks do one of two things: they break teams… or they force them to grow.

Right now, the Bears are in the growing phase.

You don’t build a strong team by winning every game.
You build it by taking losses, owning them, and coming back tighter as a unit.

I’m actually more excited about the future than ever before. Because this loss isn’t the end of the story, but part of it.

If you’ve ever built anything meaningful, you know this phase well.

You don’t quit after a setback.
You regroup.
You learn.

You come back stronger.

Bear down. 

#chicagobears

Most buyers wait too long to involve advisors, and that’s where financing quietly gets harder.

They reach out after the LOI.
They scramble when timelines tighten.
Or they treat lenders like a last-minute checkbox.

Not because lenders don’t want to help, but because the relationship never had time to form.

If you don’t want capital to become the bottleneck after a deal is already in motion, listen to Jonathan Rothstein.

He’s an experienced, trusted commercial banking advisor with real entrepreneurial experience, and he’ll help you build lending relationships early, not when it’s already urgent.

#buyers #finance

Deals don’t fall apart because they’re bad.

They fall apart because there isn’t enough personal liquidity to ride out the tough moments.

That’s why talking to someone like Jonathan Rothstein early matters.

He’s been on the operator side. He understands staying power, not just spreadsheets.

Having that perspective before you need it can be the difference between pushing through a rough patch and watching a solid deal slip away.

taplio

The Battle

Chris Vaughn

Tom Dillon, CFA

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The Battle

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Tom Dillon, CFA

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