Michael Fajardo (MBA '20) built Porter, an AI finance platform for startups and small businesses, to replace the high cost of in-house finance teams with automated, subscription-based support. The service handles core financial operations that early-stage companies often treat as a compliance burden, letting founders focus on growth instead of wrestling with accounting software or managing outside providers.
From operations overload to scalable product
After graduating from the University of Virginia Darden School of Business, Fajardo worked in restructuring and startups before becoming head of operations and finance at PropTech company Lev. When market shifts forced him to run the finance and operations functions mostly alone, he built systems and automated processes that had previously required a larger team. That experience surfaced a broader opportunity. "If I could build those systems for one company, I thought, maybe I could do it for many others," he said.
The idea evolved into Porter, first as a set of playbooks productized from his Lev days, then narrowed to focus squarely on finance. Fajardo saw early-stage companies caught between three imperfect options: generic accounting software designed for trained accountants, outsourced providers who lack deep business context, or hiring a finance team before the company can afford one.
Replacing compliance headaches with strategic support
"We're building AI finance teams for startups and SMBs," Fajardo said. "Every company, once it gets to a certain stage, hires a finance team. But for a lot of early-stage startups and small and medium-sized businesses, finance is treated as a compliance headache." Porter's platform offers an alternative that delivers enterprise-grade finance capabilities without the associated headcount cost.
The platform's design reflects a growing use of AI for Finance to automate routine tasks and surface insights that businesses might otherwise miss. Fajardo wants founders to stop viewing finance as intimidating paperwork and start using it as a growth lever. The company already has four paying customers and closed its pre-seed fundraising round.
Lessons from a Darden alum's founder path
Fajardo, the first recipient of the Darden Philippines Scholarship in 2018, had long wanted to start a company. Like many MBA graduates, he first took roles in consulting and banking. "Back then, it was just a dream," he said. "I said in that interview that I wanted to start my own business, but in reality, most people go to business school and they go into consulting and investment banking. And I did that."
The shift to entrepreneurship came gradually. Early prototypes of Porter were built with no-code AI tools. Fajardo later found his co-founder through Y Combinator's co-founder matching platform, and the company's first customer was his former employer, Lev. Fajardo said the hardest part was making the initial commitment. "The hardest part about this journey is actually just making that decision to pursue it," he said. He credits Darden with building the soft skills-communication, networking, recruiting-that now shape how he works with customers and builds his team.
Why this matters for finance professionals
Porter's model signals a shift in how small and medium-sized businesses can access finance expertise. Rather than replacing finance professionals, AI-driven platforms may change where humans add the most value-moving from routine compliance work to strategic advisory and decision support. For professionals in corporate finance, FP&A, or accounting, tools like Porter point toward a future where technical skills are amplified by automation, not displaced by it.
Fajardo's advice for those considering the entrepreneurial route applies to finance professionals inside companies too: "You don't really need a grand plan," he said. "You just need to dream something, aim at something - it could be anything, big or small - but just make sure that you're moving toward it."
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