Michelle Murcia

Founder + CEO

Michelle has more than 25 years of finance, accounting, administration and investment experience, in publicly traded, privately held and not for profit corporations, startups and billion-dollar enterprises, regional investment funds, investment advisory service firms and highly performing national funds. Michelle has served as a C-level consultant to early-stage start-up companies since 2013 providing strategic financial services as their contract Chief Financial Officer, advising on a number of complex financial transactions, and to an investment advisory firm as Venture Partner, supporting the investment process for Series B, C and later stage syndicated venture transactions, including due diligence, financial modeling, investment document preparation and portfolio reporting. 

She launched Book+Street in early 2018 to address a big gap in the startup ecosystem in the Midwest, providing on-demand CFO and controllership services to a growing number of tech and service companies throughout Ohio.

Previously, Michelle served as Chief Financial Officer of TechColumbus (now Rev1 Ventures), where she led the finance, accounting, administration, legal and facilities functions. In addition, she was responsible for all internal, board and external reporting, to funders, stakeholders and tax reporting entities. Michelle also led TechColumbus’ investments group, with an investment portfolio consisting primarily of IT, Advanced Materials and Healthcare technology investments. In her role as President & CEO of TechColumbus Investments, Inc., she managed a team of professionals focused on structuring and supporting convertible debt and equity investments in early-stage technology startups in Central Ohio. These seed, pre-seed and early stage investments averaged in size from $500K to $1.25M. 

Michelle also served as Director of Fletcher Spaght Ventures, an expansion stage family of funds headquartered in Boston and focused on health care and IT, establishing their Midwest office in Columbus, Ohio, sourcing investment opportunities, providing transaction review and portfolio company oversight.

Prior to Fletcher Spaght Ventures, Michelle served as Director of Corporate Financial Services for Battelle, where she managed a portfolio of venture capital investment funds and direct fund investments, including all internal, board and external reporting. In this capacity, she served on a number of boards as member or observer, and as Treasurer or Controller in a number of portfolio companies. She was also responsible for divisional M&A, including due diligence and negotiations of all transactions involving equity under three operating division: National Security, Health & Life Sciences and Energy, and was an active member of Battelle’s National Laboratory Commercialization Council. Michelle also served in international finance for the organization, supporting expansion efforts in Japan and South Korea.

While at Battelle, Michelle also served as Finance Manager, providing business, financial operations, management information and support to the decision-making process, including interpretation, analysis, reporting, business administration, overhead rate development and complex proposal pricing for the Systems Analysis & Engineering group of Battelle’s National Security Division. In this role, she provided support and counsel in financial and business-related functions, including the preparation, monitoring and revision of financial forecasts, budgets and overall financial performance; supported accounting operations in developing and implementing accounting policies and procedures; provided support to management and project leaders in project activities; and participated in strategy development and implementation. Michelle also served as financial lead for a new manufacturing market sector — a novel product line for this services organization — including the design and implementation of a new overhead rate structure, proposal pricing and contract pricing models.

Prior to Battelle, Michelle served as Shareholder Relations Manager for Maxwell Technologies (Nasdaq: MXWL), a leader in power storage technologies. She also served in administrative, accounting and financial reporting roles within the organization.

In addition to these, Michelle assisted in the development of the strategy and launch of Ohio Advanced Energy Economy and Ohio Advanced Energy Economy Institute in 2011 to help advance the opportunity for energy efficiency and renewable energy technology companies in Ohio, serving as Launch CEO through 2012 and COO through 2014.  

Throughout her career, Michelle has designed, implemented and administered multiple equity-based compensation programs, including ISO qualified and non-qualified stock option programs, stock appreciation rights, restricted stock, and phantom stock plans. In 2003, she received the designation Certified Equity Professional (CEP), a recognized certification in the subject of equity-based compensation, from Santa Clara University.

Michelle is a Certified Public Accountant in addition to her Certified Equity Professional designation, earned a BS in Business Administration with an emphasis in Service Sector Management from California State University, San Marcos, and an MBA from The Ohio State University.