Eric Zamora

My Story

Shoes, Mixtapes and a Car Wash

Since my childhood, I dreamed of building a great business. In the early days of e-commerce, I learned the basics of supply and demand by selling rare sneakers on eBay. I learned the dynamics of marketing and pricing when running a two-person car wash business. I even broke into the music industry by selling a mixtape of my friend’s music, needless to say, it never went platinum.

Pump it Up: A Gas Station Story

Then in the early 2000s, my father became an owner of a gas station. I was ecstatic – it was a real business, a family business, that I could help manage. While my optimism was high and my mind always thinking about ways to grow the business, it was a grind. When not in school, I spent many hours pumping gas, working registers and taking inventory of stock – summer was not spent on break, but rather a time of booming business since it was peak travel season. Eventually, long hours (open 24/7) and increasing rent made running the business physically unsustainable and unprofitable; my father sold the station. It was my first major encounter of failure in business. Though I did not fully realize it at the time, my decision to pursue a career in business was influenced by a desire to unravel what went wrong with my family’s business, and to use that knowledge in my future business endeavors.

Around the (Finance) World & The Morning Shift

Following college, despite a dual degree in the liberal arts, my heart told me to pursue a career in business and I was selected to a “Finance Leadership Program” at Safeway. I gained exposure to various finance departments including Supply Chain, Investor Relations and Sales Finance. I even worked a few morning shifts at retail which has provided invaluable perspective, even years later, strengthening my consumer and retail-centric analyses. Moreover, I gained the technical skills required to manipulate data and complete financial analysis quickly and efficiently.

Excel Geek to Finance Lead & CPG to Tech to Private Equity

I quickly outstripped my responsibilities at Safeway and looked for a new challenge at Del Monte Foods / JM Smucker. There I matured from Excel geek and Financial Analyst to Finance Manager leading forecasts to Finance Director with full P&L responsibility for a high-growth business unit. Seeking to expand my responsibilities and diversify my experience into a different industry, I transitioned into tech.

At Twitch and Valassis Digital, I helped scale tech platforms with a focus on instilling fiscal discipline and emphasized profitable growth. More recently, I pivoted into the Private Equity space serving as the operational day-to-day Head of Finance responsible for a portfolio of 5 operating companies.

Financial Leadership, Evolved

The common thread across these experiences is my continued evolution and maturation as a leader. From negotiating with retailers, selling ideas internally to secure investment funding, or making high-impact decisions with imperfect information, I learned the mark of a great leader is not only having the skills to get the job done, but the grit to see the job get done right. And, equally important, is the ability to bring together individuals as a team and cultivate an environment for both individuals and the broader team to succeed.

Financial Leadership certainly requires deep understanding of financial statements, but today’s business challenges demand that Finance serve as more than “number crunchers.” Financial Leadership requires cross-functional engagement, developing connections, and a General Manager Mindset to inform business decisions. Ultimately, Financial Leadership requires the ability to communicate the story behind the numbers and connect those figures to the human experience - the consumer, team members, company leadership, investors – and that is what I aspire to in my professional journey.

Passion Projects

Leveraging experience and skills gained at Fortune 500 companies, including marketing and sales, I’ve cultivated my passion projects into side businesses. These projects are rooted in my adolescent days and my desire to build a great business. Upon self-reflection, what I have learned about myself is a desire to deliver value to an audience. I love creating things of immense value and architecting solutions to problems. Whether it’s analyzing how to develop a brand campaign with the highest ROI, helping people discover the coolest birthday candle, or providing financial education in the blockchain/NFT space, opportunities to build something of value is what fires me up every day.