Louis Cowell has a 25-year track record in finance and entrepreneurship. Prior to Burkland, he ran finance for Proton Enterprises, a family office that launches growth businesses in partnership with thought leaders typically in the health and wellness industry. At portfolio company Drink LMNT, maker of an electrolyte replacement drink, he led product development through launch and ran all of finance; the company grew 4.5x year-over-year in 2021. His earlier responsibility for the family was running finance at EquityNet, a funding platform for small and medium-sized businesses where he built a loan lead-generation business line with 36 institutional investors (commercial banks, non-bank, and marketplace lenders, BDCs, hedge funds, venture debt providers, family offices); the family successfully exited the business in 2018.
Louis’s other experience in the startup arena was with Visualize Wealth, where he was chief operating officer of the company, which developed interactive investment performance analysis tools for portfolio managers and individual investors. The company was one of ten startups selected out of over 400 applicants for Startupbootcamp’s first US-based accelerator program. Visualize Wealth ultimately shut down, but not before Louis learned invaluable lessons about the challenges faced by startups.
Before Louis’s career took an entrepreneurial turn, he logged over 17 years in the financial services industry. He worked in both the investment banking (leverage finance) and equity research divisions at Lehman Brothers (retail sector) before joining the distressed debt desk at Merril Lynch, where he covered portfolio managers at large credit hedge funds.
Louis earned his undergraduate degree in Economics from the University of Virginia and an MBA in Finance and Accounting from Cornell University where he was the teaching assistant for both Economics and Business Analysis & Security Valuation. He is a CPA and a CFA charterholder.
Outside of finance at Burkland, Louis is working to improve his tennis game and is an avid reader of just about everything. A few years ago, he somehow wound up lead singer of a garage band that is still looking for its big break.