Payson Johnston

CEO & Co-Founder @Crowdz

United States🔥 Startup FounderBusiness Owner💼 C-level ExecutiveCEO🧮 EducationLecturer✨ Business Owner

Payson Johnston is currently serving as CEO and Co-Founder of Crowdz. With a robust background in business studies and practical industry experience, he brings a unique blend of theoretical knowledge and real-world insights to his teaching. His areas of expertise include strategic planning, business analysis, and entrepreneurship. Prior to his startup career, he held a variety of leadership roles in corporate environments, providing him with a comprehensive understanding of business operations. Johnston holds an MBA degree and is passionate about mentoring the next generation of business professionals. His goal as a leader and an educator is to inspire his students to think critically, innovate, and become effective business leaders.

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Work Background

CrowdzCEO & Co-Founder

Mar. 2014Silicon Valley, California• Led and managed Crowdz, driving product management, strategic direction, sales, and vision. • Crowdz has financed $95m in SME receivables. • Crowdz is a Fintech that provides invoice-financing opportunities to SMEs—a $9 trillion market that SMEs traditionally have been excluded from. The need for such financing is greater than ever before. Some 93% of all supply-chain participants are SMEs, and half of these suffer cashflow shortages as they wait for 90 to 120 days or more to be paid. Crowdz’s global invoice platform solves this problem by directing competitive, low-cost financing to SMEs while offering high returns to funders seeking better investments. • Crowdz has participated in the following accelerators: 500 Startups Batch 24 2019, Techstars Barclays London 2018, Plug and Play (SV), and Creative Destruction Labs. • Customers and investors include Citibank, Barclays, Meta, EG Funds Management, Techstars Ventures, and Bold Capital Partners, with over $28 million in investment.

TechstarsTechstars Mentor

Jan. 2023I mentor startup founders within the Techstars programs, including: - Techstars AI Chicago powered by JP Morgan - Techstars Industries of the Future Accelerator - Techstars Payments powered by Stellar and MoneyGram

University of San FranciscoAdjunct Professor, Supply Chain & Channels

Jul. 2013 - Apr. 2019San Francisco, California- Executive MBA 6913 - Supply Chain Management (2019) - MBA 6015 - Sustainable Supply Chain Management: Strategy and Operations (2015, 2016) - MGEM 5110 - Global Distribution and Channel Management (2013, 2014, 2015) - BUS 346 - Operations & Supply Chain Management (2014, 2015)

UC Berkeley ExtensionInstructor, Ethics & Risk Management

Jan. 2015 - Jan. 2015Berkeley, California- BUS ADM X434.2-001 - Risk Management in the Value Chain - UNEX1289-001 - Sustainability and Ethics Seminar Taught courses and seminars in the International Diploma Program on the topics of sustainability & ethics and risk management in the value chain.

CiscoSenior Manager, Global Supplier Mgmt

Jun. 2009 - Nov. 2014San Jose, California• Led and managed a high profile team of Fiber Optics & Specialty Technology (Displays, Antennas, and Cameras) commodity managers. Responsible for $1 billion in spend and delivered savings of $80M+ in FY12, $90m+ in FY13, $95M+ in FY14. In addition, managed the negotiation of purchasing and licensing agreements with suppliers to ensure on-going partnering success. • Developed and drove the commodity strategies with global suppliers and Cisco business units for five distinct supply chains. • Cross-Functional Project: Lead a curriculum redesign for commodity managers and program managers (LEAP) within Global Supplier Management and beyond through innovative approaches to learning and development. The program focuses on leadership, negotiation, and influence skills as well as combines traditional and non-traditional learning methods. • Led the Optics recovery teams for the 2011 Japan earthquake and Thailand floods. Both teams consisted of large cross-functional membership. Managed communications in the Thailand recovery at the Senior VP level and was a key leader of the Cisco disaster recovery team. • 6/09-7/12: Also, led the team for sourcing decisions for transceivers and optical transport devices with 10+ Cisco Business Units (in Enterprise, Data Center, Video, and Service Provider market segments).

CiscoSupplier Environmental Lead

Nov. 2006 - May. 2010San Jose, California- Represented Global Supplier Management in Cisco Environmental, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), and Sustainability projects. - Led and program managed Lead(Pb)-free / China ROHS / environmental compliance with Cisco supply chain. - Managed a cross-functional team across all Cisco commodities to drive supply chain communications, program management, and execution of Pb-free and other environmental projects, - Collaborated with Cisco Business Units on supplier readiness for Pb-free to identify/mitigate supply chain risk and budget plans, - Drove the vision/strategy/execution and product development for GSM supply chain environmental systems and created BOMAR a web-based analytical/project management tool for environmental programs. Utilized agile methodologies and SCRUM to luanch this robotst enterprise software. - In addition, launched the first supply chain cloud-based application with a third-party SaaS (Aravo) to manage environmental data collection and project management.

CiscoCommodity Manager - DRAM

Aug. 2004 - Nov. 2006San Jose, California- Developed and drove the long-term strategy for the DRAM memory commodity for use in Cisco’s networking equipment through discussion with industry leading suppliers, semiconductor analysts, and market research. - Ensured Cisco’s DRAM needs were met by collaborating and influencing sourcing commodity managers, component engineering, legal, finance, plants, business units, engineering and suppliers. - Drove competitive price negotiations with global suppliers on $277 million dollars of Cisco’s DRAM spend. - Developed and enhanced supplier relationships with suppliers in the US, Germany, South Korea, Malaysia, Taiwan, and Japan through communications, meetings, and supplier business reviews. - Delivered presentations and Cisco messaging via supplier visits and communications. Facilitated executive discussions and escalations to enhance Cisco’s relationships with suppliers.

CiscoManager, Manufacturing - Supply Chain Ops

Jul. 2003 - Jul. 2004Milpitas, CaliforniaIP Communications (Phones) Supply Chain Operations - Managed IPCBU (IP Phone) operations and supply chain to fulfill IP Phones globally from Asia with fulfillment sites in the US & EU. - Defined strategy and direction for supply chain and team. - Managed and led projects for cost, supply chain, fulfillment, lean manufacturing and process improvement. - Led first Cisco investigation of Lean manufacturing that was later implemented on the IP Phone supply chain.

CiscoManager, Materials & Program Manager

Mar. 2000 - Jun. 2003San Jose, CaliforniaPCBU (Low End Routers) Manufacturing Operations - Managed a team to ensure product was shipped to customers on time out of global manufacturing sites. - Team responsibilities included: manufacturing planning, production, product transfers, & supply chain strategy. - Led cost savings projects and initiatives through the team to deliver forecasted cost savings results. From Nov 2002 - June 2003 I served on a Special Project for the VP as a Program Manager to enable Cisco's turnkey model which included: - Operations & Supply Chain Project on Turnkey Manufacturing - Designed the plans for driving Cisco’s supply chain into a full turnkey model that was managed by the Contract Manufactures.

CiscoProgram Manager - Ecommerce & Web Apps

Dec. 1997 - Mar. 2000Silicon ValleySupply Chain Ecommerce Team – Global Supply Management - Defined the Global Supply Management (GSM) supply chain ecommerce web vision/direction for Manufacturing Connection Online (MCO). A manufacturing web portal foundation for manufacturing employees, engineers, and suppliers to access manufacturing information/applications and is still in use today. - Drove product development with IT and the eFoundations team to take MCO from concept phase to reality. My responsibilities where to help drive a business vision for the MCO project, define the MCO business requirements for the system, ensure the user base was represented, test the system after development, and help oversee rollout. - Implemented EDI standards with Cisco's suppliers. - Communicated/presented on MCO at staff meetings, executive staff, the Executive Briefing Center (EBC) to Cisco customers, at technology vendor visits, and manufacturing supplier meetings.

CiscoBuyer/Planner

Jun. 1996 - Nov. 1997San Jose, California- Subcontract Purchasing & Material Coordination for High End Routers - Designed and worked with IT to create a buyer-in-box: a web-based reporting dashboard that automated the delivery of Oracle reports via the Web.