About Sonja
My investment banking background, my own entrepreneurial projects,
and my passion for the start-up world have given rise to bizzplan
Who I am
I am an ex investment banker with extensive experience at Goldman Sachs and GCA Altium. Having pursued some entrepreneurial projects of my own, I founded bizzplan to work as a freelance advisor to start-ups – and also to companies at any stage of growth – with regard to their financial planning.
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While I don’t consider myself much of a creative person, I am fascinated by the start-up scene and all the innovative spirit and ideas. What I can bring to the table (and what I deeply enjoy) is the analytical part of it – getting down to the bottom of your business, reflecting it in a sound and comprehensible structure, helping you shape and sharpen your concept.
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My planning models are no crystal balls (who can predict the future...?), nor can they do alchemy (the result can only be as good as the assumptions you take). But I firmly believe that a well-structured, dynamic model will make you reflect on your business in a new, more systematic way and help you take conscious strategic decisions.
Sonja Goeller
MORE FROM AND
ABOUT SONJA
My activities have given me the opportunity to dive into a multitude of business concepts in a variety of industries, ranging from trendy eCommerce and social media ventures all the way to solid brick-and-mortar firms.
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I have had the chance to meet numerous exciting entrepreneurs – it is a privilege to be a vital part of their success stories, helping them to build a solid structure around their ideas, shaping and sharpening their concepts. Intriguingly, their personalities and their approaches to successful growth are as manifold as the ideas behind them. While offering sound advice based on my experience, I am keen to adapt my models to the entrepreneurs’ way of thinking, making them as intuitive as possible for each one of them personally, rather than imposing a one-size-fits-all solution.
My financial modeling skills have their roots in my investment banking times at Goldman Sachs, which I joined in 2003 and where I learned the “craft” of setting up a well-structured Excel plan from scratch. I later moved on to work for GCA Altium in Munich, a leading international corporate finance boutique, where I advised mid-cap and private equity companies in numerous M&A transactions.
I studied business administration at Vienna University of Economics and Business and at ESCP-EAP, from where I hold a Masters’ degree and a Diplôme de Grande Ecole with specialisation in corporate finance.
Throughout my academic career as well as thereafter I have taken every opportunity to experience different countries. I see this as a tremendous opportunity – it opens your mind, leads to new ideas, offers new perspectives – invaluable assets that nobody can ever take away. I have lived in Switzerland, Austria, Germany, England, Spain, France, Japan and the USA and am now based in Munich, Germany.